Our stay at 1010 Wilshire had a few ups and downs but overall was good. I would consider staying here again. Our hostess, Lena, was very nice and I appreciated her personal messages. There was a lot to like about this space and a few things I didn’t really understand until checking in.
First all-this unit is rented out by the building management team. It’s not owned or rented by an owner so there’s nothing personal inside. That was fine for our needs but it was like an Ikea showroom inside. Salt and pepper shakers for show but nothing in them etc. It was fine for us but if we had stayed longer, it may have been a slight hindrance. There was no soap or paper towels etc so we bought hand soap and a few other things. No towels for the pool etc.
There weren’t real blinds on any windows which wasn’t a huge issue because we went out and bought eye masks and had to be up by 5 am every morning but even at night, with all the city lights surrounding, it was very, VERY bright inside. By 6 am, full sun. If it had been a vacation for me and not a work trip, I would have been furious about that aspect. I’m still not sure if the “shades” actually prevented the offices next door from seeing in but probably I’m guessing. There was an entire wall of windows and the bed was right up against it so it was BRIGHT.
We had issues at check in because the business center associates leave at 5 I think (maybe 6) and even though the building is 24/7, it’s security working the front desk after hours and we learned on all of our encounters with them, that they’re largely unhelpful and unfriendly. Even after Lena told me I could print something up front and to show the security guard my text with her, he argued with us for 30 min over one page and was a real jerk and told me Lena wasn’t the boss. Although, she was my Airbnb hostess so these little things were annoying in the thick of it.
Lena was great when she was there but she wasn’t there after hours obviously and when we went to check in and they didn’t have our key for us, when I called her through Airbnb, the phone just rang back to the security guard who didn’t know anything to start with. They fixed it by letting us in the room without giving us a key at first but I didn’t like the set up with not having the hostess info from the get -go. That was different from other stays for me and the security guard was very little help.
The room itself we stayed in was big and gracious. It was an “upgrade” from what we booked because of a change in availability. It smelled pretty strong chemically though which bothered us greatly. We never figured out what it was but gave us headaches. Also-we has unannounced cleaners come in randomly during the day which we were never told about which was a surprise to us. That’s not the norm with Airbnb and was okay, but it wasn’t something we expected. The door to our room also didn’t have a way to lock it inside which I really didn’t like. The Lock was broken.
The building itself was nice. I never did figure out why so many lightbulbs were burnt out everywhere but it was a theme. All the elevators, hallways, our room. Maybe it is by design. It wasn’t an issue but something I noticed. The entire building had parts that very strongly smelled of marijuana but since it’s legal, that isn’t a surprise. It was just hard to avoid the stench anywhere for long but it didn’t smell in our room so it was fine. Mostly common areas like elevators and parking.
The parking was so easy and worth its weight in gold for the area. And free. Probably worth staying here for that alone. The roof top pool was also totally awesome-although they don’t provide towels. Loved the free water bottles too at the front. An interesting blend of people living there for sure. Good people watching. Kind of a weird setup but a lot of pros and Id be back given the right circumstances. Overall, not bad. Not a place I’d want to stay with small kids but for us for a quick work trip, it was great.