Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles

I stayed in this hotel for three nights before a cruise to Hawaii in November 2109 and in my view this hotel is unsuitable for tourists. It is located in the Financial District of Down Town LA and there is very little there. I never felt safe outside the hotel and since returning I have found this on the internet: Regarding safety, LA is at both extremes : while most of the touristic neighbourhood’s such as Hollywood, Beverly Hills or Santa Monica are safe, L.A. has some very dangerous areas downtown (Skid Row) and nearby (South Central), as well as some cities famous for gang related violence (Compton – the 4th most dangerous ... At the last count LA had almost 60,000 homeless people and this is evident when explore the city. We saw a sign for the Theatre District so we thought we would take a look at what was on. All of the theatres were closed and had homeless people in the doorways and there were drug addicts lying on the pavements. Fortunately we went there in day light? This hotel is no more than a couple of blocks away from some very rough areas but there are some very nice parts of LA. Santa Monica is well worth a visit and if I go to LA again this is where I’ll be staying. Things were not any better on the inside of the hotel. My room (816) was dreadful, without doubt the worse room I have stayed for some time. It is certainly the only room I have ever stayed in that did not have a bedside table on one of the side of the bed. It did however have a standard lamp that was not working and served only to get in the way when I was trying to get the bath room. I reported this to the front desk 5 times and it was never fixed. The room was located on the inside and the view from the window was of tall buildings on every side, because the lamp did not work the room was very dark. All night every night we were disturbed by the occupants of the room next door and I eventually discovered it was a room for the maintenance staff. They were very loud and could be heard talking and showering all through the night. In addition to this the area on the other side of that room was a maintenance corridor as was the area opposite our room and staff were moving things past our room all the time. On one occasion I had to speak to four members of staff at 3.30am laughing and joking loudly outside my room. This is a big, old hotel that was nowhere near full so I cannot comprehend why I was allocated this room, I can only guess that as UK tourist I was not valued, in fact all the hotel is interested in is filming. I did eventually manage to speak to the manager who looked at me like something he had trodden in. He offered me $20 which I refused. I am not sure if this was a serious offer, he may have been having a laugh at my expense. I believe a full refund and compensation should be offered for this hotel stay. After returning to the UK I have sent an email complaining to the hotel and they can’t even be bothered to reply. I have no idea why the cruise agent chose this hotel for us and I am waiting to find out why. My guess is the rep who we booked with was inexperienced. Read less

The hotel is nice and well situated in LA downtown close to the Grand Central Market. Parking is very expensive, so choose one of the many public parking grounds or garages around, many in a up to 10 minutes walking distance. What made us feel uncomfortable was the unfriendly staff at the front desk and bar. At the front desk there is a lady, we approached her twice on different days, and she didnt show any kind of welcoming attitude. Rather rude and pissed that shehas to deal with you. Same at at the bar. We wanted to order a dessert with a modification, just exchange the ice cream, and the bartender felt really annoyed that he has to deal with such request. Bottomline the hotel rooms are good but for the staff there is a huge room for improvement. Read less

First - the good: They did a nice job honoring a request to keep our travelling companion couple's room close to our, we had adjoining rooms. The room was spacious and clean. Location is very good in the rejuvenated downtown area. Night shift reception was terrific and helped us very well with a couple of small issues. The bad: bathroom really needs a refresh, the entire shower fixture was loose in the wall. Now to the ugly: OK, I admit I have a pet peeve about poor reception staff and the fallout of bad first impressions. So after a long wait in line to check in, the receptionist takes a full 10 minutes of keyboard typing to complete the check in... what was she really doing? a background check on us? They had all of our info from the on-line booking, all she should have had to do was confirm our room availability and hand us a key. Holiday Inn is light-years more efficient at this. Then we had to wait almost 20 minutes for bell staff to show up and find our stored bags,clueless as to how many bags we had since they made no record of that. Yikes! Not what I've come to expect from Biltmore. Read less

I blame myself for staying only one night in this magnificent hotel. I should stay there longer to soak in its absolutely fantastic and unique atmosphere. It is like stepping inside and immediately moving 100 years back in time. This feeling starts with the gorgeous lobby, continues thanks to impeccable personnel and goes through your entire stay. I loved the wellness & spa area with the spectacular mosaic walls, loved this feeling of a haunted place (haunted in a friendly way, if I may) and smoothest check in and check out I have ever experienced. I recommend choosing a Club room, which gives you some extra perks: access to the Club lounge where you can work, have some tea and snacks 24 hours. Read less

I really wish someone would buy this hotel and invest in modernizing and updating the rooms while keeping the amazing staff, location and beautiful common areas. The Biltmore has a great (albeit pricey) bar that has amazing staff: tonight I had a great bartender Xiaomara that inspired me (through amazing friendly service) to share the quality and friendliness of the customer service at this hotel. But, the great customer service is everywhere here. I literally encountered nothing negative with people in employment or otherwise while at this place for two days. Great staff/ great people!! Also, the bar has a great (again, pricey) filet mignon dinner (very good actually) and a cognac bar with lots of interesting cognacs and whiskeys (among other dribk varieties) to choose from. The second evening Xiaomara told me a previous customer had the soup (minestrone) 3 evenings in a row and raved about it, so I decided to give it a shot and it was great! Probably the best deal on the menu at $9 for a big bowl of minestrone that is really good! My only concern about this hotel are the rooms itself because they are pretty basic and you can totally hear the outside traffic and noise because the hotel still has the original windows from 100 years ago I think. With the great people and beautiful commen areas, this place would be perfect if the rooms themselves got updated. They need new windows (dual pane/something to keep the noise out) among other updates and TLC. Either way, thank you Biltmore staff for a great stay: I will be back because of you all! Read less