In our 2016 Awards Show Season LA Travel Guide to Hollywood, we focus on room specials and Oscar viewing parties at both historic and brand new Hollywood hotels. Where do the stars stay, dine and play in Hollywood? We give you this year’s scoop on how to celebrate The Globes, The SAGs and The Oscars right alongside this year’s nominees and winners.
In LA’s current reality, Hollywood proper is both revered and loathed by celebs and locals for its glamour and its grit. While Hollywood Boulevard and Hollywood’s “theatre district” has undergone some gentrification, this rather unkempt slice of LA is still mobbed by tourists and gawkers.
However, Hollywood Boulevard’s rich history seems to reach out at you from each stunning 1900s-era high rise just as more modern skyscrapers beckon as a luxurious haven amongst this rather tired section of tinsel town.
Still, visiting Hollywood Boulevard and the surrounding “south” (towards downtown) and “east” (Vermont Village, Los Feliz, Silverlake) Hollywood areas during awards show season has a certain star-studded appeal, especially when it comes to pinnacle of awards show season: The Academy Awards.
Since 2002, The Oscars have been held in Hollywood’s heart at what is now known as Hollywood & Highland Center’s Dolby Theatre (formerly The Kodak Theatre). Visitors can walk around this inspiring entertainment and shopping complex all year round for a trip down Hollywood’s memory lane as well as an eating and shopping extravaganza.
The Loews Hollywood Hotel is located inside this complex, which makes it a welcome nearby respite for awards show attendees, winners and media. For 2016, Loews Hollywood is offering a $50 food and beverage credit per day plus free wireless when you book a suite.
The very first Academy Awards was held in the Blossom Ballroom at the landmark Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Just a quick walk across the street from the Hollywood & Highland Center, The Hollywood Roosevelt was financed by early film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks along with studio boss Louis B. Mayer.
Known by locals just as “The Roosevelt,” this landmark hotel still holds red carpet premiere parties all year long and has been a backdrop to innumerable films and TV shows. The hotel’s exquisite Spanish Colonial lobby and public areas host a private Oscar viewing party each year upstairs with E! while a public viewing party takes place downstairs in the graceful lobby with hand-painted wooden beams. The ever-fancy Blossom Ballroom hosts a private Grammy party for the music industry each year.
Don’t miss a trip to The Roosevelt’s Tropicana Pool Cafe where Young Hollywood (and Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable to name just a few) hangs for some fun-in-the-sun time and cocktails.
The Hollywood Roosevelt’s Tropicana Pool
W Hotel Hollywood has an enviable location right down the street from The Dolby Theatre almost at the famous Hollywood and Vine intersection. The hotel is known for livestreaming its annual Oscars Live & Loud Viewing Party, which even includes a Tweet Suite with mini massages. This fantastically-decorated hipster hotel attracts celebrities to its jaw-dropping Wow, E-Wow, Cool Corner, Fantastic and Marvelous suites.
The dramatic red carpeted lobby and spiral staircase at W Hollywood Hotel.
With Drai’s nightclub moved to Vegas, the W Hollywood is now known for its rooftop jazz club. However, locals know this grunge-meets-glam side of Hollywood is chock full of trendy club parties every night of the week.
Across from W Hotel is Redbury Hollywood. These Brit-inspired bohemian, yet chic flats attract celebs and the entertainment industry to this chic SBE chain boutique hotel. Some flats at The Redbury are outfitted with kitchens and record players as well as views of the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory.
Mama Shelter opened last year. What is it? This affordable boutique hotel is situated one block south of Hollywood Boulevard on Selma Avenue (near Wilcox), yet still in the middle of all the Hollywood action. This Sofitel-owned property has similar properties in France (Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon) and Istanbul, but this is the first stateside hotel.
Calling itself an “urban kibbutz,” Mama Shelter’s charming lobby, six floors and 70 rooms host families and older guests who love pop art, fanciful décor and are a bit naughty (there’s complimentary “adult entertainment” and even film noir scripts lying about such as Pulp Fiction and LA Confidential).
In the morning, hipsters sip on Intelligentsia Coffee and fresh pastries at the hotel’s darling coffee shop. The bar is a lively play place with a foosball table, board games, checkers tables and flat screen TVs, of course. At night, Chef Giselle Wellman cooks up a well-craft comfort food menu for lunch and dinner.
Ready for its first awards show season, Mama Shelter Hollywood is offering an Oscar package. For $209 a night, guests get a room with city views that face the Hollywood sign, two Oscar-inspired welcome cocktails, Oscar-nominated scripts inside your room and a morning-after breakfast for two. The hotel’s bar is also hosting an Oscar viewing party with themed cocktails such as The Spotlight, Hateful8 and The Boycott.
Once the most famous hotel in all of LA, The Hollywood Hotel was sadly demolished as were the memories of silent era film stars rocking in chairs on the hotel’s even more famed covered veranda. In 1964, this venerable old hotel relocated to East Hollywood’s now hipster Nirvana, Vermont Avenue.
Double queen rooms at The Hollywood Hotel
The 121-room Hollywood Hotel is not only affordable and steps away from all the shopping, eating and people watching of Vermont Village, but also offers free wireless and a complimentary hearty-to-healthy breakfast on its sunny outdoor patio. Celebs who love Vermont Village can be found lounging in the hotel’s new garden pool.
The sunny outdoor courtyard in Vermont Village’s The Hollywood Hotel hosts a comped breakfast daily.
We are anxiously awaiting the opening of Dream Hotel Hollywood. Originally scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015, this latest hotel incarnate by the Dream Hotels brand is now planning a spring launch. Located at the corner of Selma Avenue and North Cahuenga Boulevard, Dream Hotel Hollywood is situated between Hollywood proper and downtown LA.
The “ultra luxury” hotel looks definitely looks “hyper chic” from the outside. Inside, this dream residence will have 179 rooms and suites, a rooftop pool, a restaurant and a lounge for nightlife.
Ready to hit Hollywood during awards show season? Our 2016 Awards Show Season Travel Guide continues with historic hotels, specials and viewing parties in downtown LA, Santa Monica and, finally, West Hollywood.
Rather stay in posh Beverly Hills than Hollywood? Check out our 2016 Awards Show Travel Guide: Beverly Hills for this year’s best hotel deals and Oscar viewing parties along with awards show season history and happenings.
And don’t miss following Aniesia Williams on Twitter and Instagram at @IAMANIESIA for coverage straight from The Grammys and The Academy Awards red carpets.
