Crescent Hotel, Beverly Hills

i am sure that wallpaper magazine could make this place look like the ultimate in design and comfort, but in reality it's not. the rooms are tiny, but this can be easily forgiven because we all want to step directly into our suitcases every time we step out of bed. the rooms are freezing cold at night and super hot during the day and the "make believe" thermostat in the room doesn't even pretend to work, but you can just jump under the duvet fully clothed the moment you walk in and try not to get up for anything at all. the bathroom is so small that the door doesn't open all the way and there is no mirror that shows anything below the chest, but that's okay because the uber stylish concrete walls in the shower will remind you that the hotel was designed for magazines, not reality. you will be woken up 4 hours before you'd like on your only vacation this year because the walls are paper thin and you can hear vacuuming going on 10 feet above your sleep-deprived body, but it's all good because they'll soon be knocking on your door before 10:00 AM even though the "sleepy" sign is prominently displayed on the outside of your door. the latte you'll order in the morning will be hot for approximately 20 seconds before cooling off and the waitress will tell you there's no way to reheat it, but that's okay because you'll be sitting at the indoor/outdoor restaurant that's pumping music so loudly that you'll think you're in the city's only before 10:00 AM disco. oh, did i mention the fact that music BLARES in the entrance of the hotel (the so called "nightclub" - who puts a "nightclub" style lounge at the entrance of a 40-room hotel?) until 2:00 AM. the entrance is only about 10 feet away from the first set of rooms. so poorly designed. of course, all of this said, the staff is generally friendly and accommodating, though they don't always have an answer for what seem to be obvious hospitality industry quesions (what time will my laundry come back?). still, that's okay. what i find most truly appalling is the way i was treated by the first representative of the hotel - a young, lazy, apathetic valet on a friday night that could not even find it in himself to walk less than 20 feet to take my car from me to park it. there was no space in front of the hotel to park, so i parked on the corner which is just as close as the front. you could spit on my taillights from the valet stand. he would not take my keys until i got back in my car, drove around the block to park in front of the stand instead of to its side. luckily, a space had opened up (a temporary space, mind you. not a parking space. a valet space. much like the one i had already occupied) or i might still be circling beverly hills for a valet that actually wants my tip. a temporary waiting space, mind you. i find his behavior inappropriate and just a highlight of all the things wrong with the hotel. because of his lack of service, the other things are much more difficult to overlook. i will never stay in this hotel again. it's a shame, because it's in a good area if you want to shop in beverly hills.