6/10 Rating
The apartment/room inside was very nice, spacious, modern and well appointment, and it was good to have the gyms and lounge facility. The whole self check in side of things is good if it all works but when it doesn’t it makes things difficult, especially with delayed responses from any Kasa staff, and never able to reach anyone on the phone, only eventually on the chat but that was delayed and very frustrating when access codes weren’t working and I was trying to retrieve my luggage before heading to the airport.
The initial check in process is through an online platform which you will need mobile data for, as to submit ID copied and facial recognitions scanning. Then you get codes to access the main building, and then further information on check in time to get into your room. The luggage storage is quite minimal, they are lockers in the lounge room that likely won’t fit standard large suitcases and on the day I arrived were all quickly filled up. I had contacted in advance about luggage storage, but found a bunch of other people when I arrived and myself quite confused about options when these were full and we could not reach anyone by phone or the chat platforms to answer our queries. I also found people checking out were having trouble accessing the building who had checked out and were coming back to get their luggage as their codes were no longer working.
As a result I made the effort before checking out to contact the customer service the day before checking out to query my access to the building in the evening to pick up my luggage. They gave me a new standard day code to use. But I think there should be more information and comms on this, as I knew to ask only because of that I saw other guests going through.
However when I came back in the late afternoon to collect my luggage the code I was given was not working which was very frustrating. Lucky was able to access the building as people were leaving and main doors were open, and then the empty staff room office was open, after waiting around for 20+ minutes I got desperate and went to look in the staff office for any keys and found a housekeeping code I could use on the whiteboard that worked for me to go and get my bags. This was a very frustrating experience especially as I had gone to the effort to enquire the day before, and worry about this as an ongoing experience for guests.
This is one of those scenarios where if these self service/limited staff services work you’re fine and aren’t storing luggage, you’re likely okay, but then when you actually need a person to talk to or are having issues you’re very stuck. The staff I did witness in person and in the chat were friendly, but the never knowing when I could actually find a person and response time then was very frustrating, and feeling like my issues were brushed off wasn’t a great experience. This was a shame because my stay in the apartment in the main time was good. It was really this check in/out process.
The central Hollywood location is on the main Sunset Blvd strip, good location to go in different directions around LA e.g more east side, downtime, or up to Griffith Observatory, or then more West. However it’s not really an area where you would hang out or spend time in the surroundings, my driver from the airport warned me not be out late in the surrounding area.
I also didn’t notice until the end of my trip this Proposition 65 warning sign hiding down my the front door warning of exposure in the area to chemicals that that cause cancer and birth defects. I tried to ask on this but wasn’t able to get a response on what this specifically relates to.