Two stars. Not only are these people sketchy and tried to charge me $140 for 1 hand towel, 1 wash cloth and 2 pillowcases they say I took (??), their place has some serious issues you should be aware of before you book:
AC/Heat – while it does have AC and heat, you can’t really control it. There is literally a HOLE in the wall that goes all the way through to the neighbor’s apartment for both of your separate apartments to access the one AC/heat control module. So when the neighbor decides they wanna be warmer or colder, then you’re along for the ride. Predictably this system isn’t just annoying and uncomfortable, it means the AC/heat doesn’t even work right because it’s trying to control the climate of two completely different areas separated by a wall with a hole in it. For example, the neighbor loved to turn the heat on every morning regardless of the temperature, but when they turned it on to just 61, our place would get well over 70 degrees and we’d just have to open the door to not sweat because there’s just no way to control the actual temperature based on the temperature set on the module. And of course, you can imagine how private it feels knowing there’s a hole in the wall that goes into your neighbors’ place with a flimsy little door on it…
Kitchen/Refrigerator – this place claims to have a full kitchen, but it actually only has a tiny mini-fridge (which is really hard to control the temperature on anyway and not freeze things in the fridge section, etc). Everything else is mostly good but the stove only has 2 working burners – we didn’t need more, but be aware in case you do. We made do with the mini-fridge, but it became a much bigger problem when we got the Shelter in Place order for COVID-19 and couldn’t really stock up on food like we needed to.
NOISE – you will be woken up by leaf-blowing gardeners at 7:30am at least once a week. One time they were even on our roof blowing leaves off at 7am walking past the skylights. Besides that, you should know that this is smack dab next to one of the busiest intersections in LA (Barham is a constantly busy cut through between Burbank and Hollywood, and the 134 and 101 freeways). This wouldn’t probably be a problem if the owners opened their wallets to install proper double-paned windows like it needs, but it still has very old single-paned windows you can hear everything through. And the garbage trucks will come at 6:30am and drop the dumpster for the restaurant next door right outside your window (the restaurant is very good btw). Even with earplugs, this place is loud night and day.
Dust/Cleanliness - this place is very dusty, so if you have allergies like me, beware. The vents just shower the place in dust when the AC/heat is on. Just pretty dusty and dirty all around.
Generally this place smacks of a place where the owners wanna make a lot of money but not pay anything to actually do necessary improvements. This might not matter to you if you’re staying short-term and just looking for a place close to Universal (which it is), but longer term stays should be aware of the issues. Really nice neighborhoods to walk around, though.