Grafton on Sunset Hotel

If you're looking for something right in the middle of all the action of sunset blvd, I highly recommend this hotel. They have a bar, great restaurant, clean trendy decor rooms, and the staff is very professional.

The staff is highly attentive and the decor is enjoyable. I found the rooms small compared to hotels I have paid less money for, though.

The Grafton on Sunset is like ordering low-cal frozen yogurt when what you really want is double-fudge Hagen-Daaz. It tries to be hipper than hip like its uber-cool neighbor, the Mondrian, but it just tries too hard without success.

The rooms are small, and the decor, which was once retro/funky, is now tired-looking.

The hotel cafe has an interesting menu, but misses the mark.

Nevertheless, the staff tries hard. The front desk and guest services are very accommodating. For those of you who don't rent a car in LA (a big mistake as I learned), the hotel has a cute lime green mini (and an equally cute driver) who will take you wherever you need to go within 5 miles.

The biggest draw to the hotel is Balboa - a highly rated restaurant/bar that sits in the lobby of the hotel. If you are a guest of the hotel you are able to skip the velvet rope and feel like a celeb. How L.A.!

It's a nice hotel, but it was difficult to get the staff's attention. On our first night there we were kept awake all night by the very loud music coming from the bar above us. We asked to switch rooms and were accommodated, but the second room was even louder than the first due to the noise coming from The Standard next door. I did not sleep well a single night that I was there.