Long Live Downtown Los Angeles
Posted: 06 Apr 2021 07:21
Mixed emotions with this one. I was so hooked, got careless and warned by security - by then had spent so much money there they were actually cordial about it.
Won't name the property as unlike the SF one before, they still have properties around the world so keeping confidential.
When I first found the place in 2016, it had a very crazy air about it. Parties could get violent; people had been shot there. Anytime you walked around at night in the corridors - you had no idea who or what you'd run into. Same with calling elevators - the doors would open and what you would see could really make your evening! That was when original management and security just enforced people not hurting the property - or each other, and didn't care about eccentrics wandering the hallways. Aside from the many sex noises, the fun of the place was simply that you had no idea what you would experience that weekend. Also, their 24 hour restaurant was one of the best in the city. Even after I stopped staying there regularly, I'd still go to that canteen; the loss is very great.
The corridors themselves were fun - thick steel doors - almost riot proof as I found out one night (different story). Dingy lighting from ceiling globes in a red-ambient hallway - almost had a haunted house/funhouse feel all the time.
So the property is the victim of the pandemic/lockdown/shitty local government. They closed in 2020 never to reopen. On one hand I would have loved to go back for nostalgia - using much more careful methods then I did for my 2-1/2 year stint. However, to me it died a bit before that. Tragically, the entire original management staff was killed in a freak accident. I guess the parent company out of Seattle had no more staff to spare, so farmed the property out to a local REIT - who were a bunch of stuffed shirts. They never figured out that the chaos of the place was what made it profitable - even considering the regular barf and wall damage they had become so expert in repairing. What appeared were some 'family friendly' executive types who tried to boutique the place out - while as a boutique the place sucked considering the hard, plasticky ultramodern furniture in the rooms - not a place to stay for comfort or business. Their new security guards were trussed up in fine sportcoats with fancy crests, and ipods to monitor guests coming and going. No more obscene holiday parties. The last year I stayed there during the Adult Con, rather than the partygoers from the convention filling up the hotel and screwing their brains out every night, the overworked tech crews supporting the event populated the hotel, making it one of the quietest weekends I had spent there. So it was time to move on.
That said, the memories are still sharp; it was the first place I stayed where I could actually count on hearing loud lovemaking at some point rather than the chance occurrences at other places. Lastly, the early mix of fun, high class quirky individuals that ran the place and befriended me can never be replaced. Here are some memories:
Won't name the property as unlike the SF one before, they still have properties around the world so keeping confidential.
When I first found the place in 2016, it had a very crazy air about it. Parties could get violent; people had been shot there. Anytime you walked around at night in the corridors - you had no idea who or what you'd run into. Same with calling elevators - the doors would open and what you would see could really make your evening! That was when original management and security just enforced people not hurting the property - or each other, and didn't care about eccentrics wandering the hallways. Aside from the many sex noises, the fun of the place was simply that you had no idea what you would experience that weekend. Also, their 24 hour restaurant was one of the best in the city. Even after I stopped staying there regularly, I'd still go to that canteen; the loss is very great.
The corridors themselves were fun - thick steel doors - almost riot proof as I found out one night (different story). Dingy lighting from ceiling globes in a red-ambient hallway - almost had a haunted house/funhouse feel all the time.
So the property is the victim of the pandemic/lockdown/shitty local government. They closed in 2020 never to reopen. On one hand I would have loved to go back for nostalgia - using much more careful methods then I did for my 2-1/2 year stint. However, to me it died a bit before that. Tragically, the entire original management staff was killed in a freak accident. I guess the parent company out of Seattle had no more staff to spare, so farmed the property out to a local REIT - who were a bunch of stuffed shirts. They never figured out that the chaos of the place was what made it profitable - even considering the regular barf and wall damage they had become so expert in repairing. What appeared were some 'family friendly' executive types who tried to boutique the place out - while as a boutique the place sucked considering the hard, plasticky ultramodern furniture in the rooms - not a place to stay for comfort or business. Their new security guards were trussed up in fine sportcoats with fancy crests, and ipods to monitor guests coming and going. No more obscene holiday parties. The last year I stayed there during the Adult Con, rather than the partygoers from the convention filling up the hotel and screwing their brains out every night, the overworked tech crews supporting the event populated the hotel, making it one of the quietest weekends I had spent there. So it was time to move on.
That said, the memories are still sharp; it was the first place I stayed where I could actually count on hearing loud lovemaking at some point rather than the chance occurrences at other places. Lastly, the early mix of fun, high class quirky individuals that ran the place and befriended me can never be replaced. Here are some memories:
Thanks for sharing!!