Review: Kimpton La Peer hotel in West Hollywood, Los Angeles (part of IHG)

This is our review of the Kimpton La Peer hotel in Los Angeles.

Less than six months after my last visit to LA, I found myself there again for the opening of Virgin Atlantic’s new Clubhouse lounge at LAX airport – you can read my review here.

This time, I decided to pick a hotel in West Hollywood. After a quick search on Google, Kimpton La Peer seemed like a good choice.

Kimpton is one of IHG Hotel & Resorts’ ‘luxury and lifestyle’ brands. No two Kimptons are the same and you can generally expect a Kimpton to be a unique, boutique hotel. The only consistent elements are the social drinks hour every day (with free drinks) and the Kimpton secret password (more on that below).

IHG arranged my stay for review purposes. The hotel website is here.

Where is Kimpton La Peer?

Los Angeles is a vast, sprawling city so picking your neighbourhood is a crucial part of your experience. Whilst you’ll end up stuck in traffic either way, it’s worth being relatively close to the places you want to be!

The Kimpton La Peer hotel is located in West Hollywood, or WeHo for short. This is a trendy neighbourhood sandwiched between Beverly Hills and Hollywood with restaurants, bars and nightlife. It is a particular centre of gravity for the LGBT community – walk down the road from the hotel for a few minutes and you’ll quickly come across several gay bars.

It is about a 30 minute drive from Los Angeles International Airport although this can quickly increase when traffic snarls up. There’s no real public transport alternatives apart from the city’s bus network.

Inside the Kimpton La Peer hotel

Kimpton La Peer sits on a fairly nondescript road just off Santa Monica Boulevard. It’s sandwiched between low-rise offices and studios. The front of the hotel, image above, features an eye-catching tile facade reminiscent of those you find in Portugal.

Inside, there’s a small turning circle for taxis and Ubers to drop you off.

There was some renovation work happening in the lobby, but beyond some plastic sheeting this wasn’t noticeable.

Opposite check-in you can help yourself to cold brew coffee and kombucha for free, all day every day. Hot tea and coffee are available in the mornings (important, because the rooms don’t come with coffee machines).

One of the hallmarks of a Kimpton hotel is the ‘secret password’ that you can tell staff at check-in to receive special perks such as free drinks vouchers or other benefits. These don’t run 100% of the time and sadly I was in-between one of these periods.

Rooms at Kimpton La Peer

The hotel is spread across five floors plus a rooftop pickleball court. I was given a 32 square metre Premium room on the fourth floor with two queen beds, although even standard rooms are around 30 square metres.

My room featured a bathroom on the right with similar Portuguese style tiles from the exterior:

Annoyingly, this hotel suffers from no-towel-rail syndrome. It’s spreading! For the pee-shy, the toilet is in a separate cubicle.

The bedroom featured two queen beds with cream leather headboards, although the leather was peeling slightly on one.

A chunky bedside table sat in between whilst geometric lights hung either side. A Loftie alarm clock could be set to wake up you up gently with a light before sounding the alarm, all controlled via an app.

Opposite the bed is a long console table that acts as minibar and desk all in one. Bizarrely, there were no charging sockets integrated …. the nearest one being just under two metres away.

The mini bar was well stocked with a selection of spirits and alcohol (chargeable). As seems to be all too common in US hotels now, there is no kettle or coffee machine – these are provided downstairs in the lobby.

My view was over the hotel pool and a nearby empty lot towards Santa Monica Boulevard:

I had some trouble with my in-room air-conditioning unit. Unfortunately, it did not seem to work; despite being on overnight the room only dropped a degree, to around 23C. The following morning I told the front desk and after sending an engineer (which didn’t help) they offered to move me to an identical room on the second floor. I accepted and this solved my problem.

Pool and gym at Kimpton La Peer

As mentioned above there is a small secluded pool at the back of the hotel. It was a bit too windy during my stay but it’s adjacent to an outdoor bar which I’m sure is a lovely space to hang out during the hot summer evenings.

Here it is in the morning, before the sun had properly risen – the loungers get the sun for most of the day:

The gym is located in a garden room at the rear of the pool:

Normally the hotel lobby acts as a social space for the hotel; as this was being renovated a meeting room had been set up in lieu, with armchairs, sofas and desks. It was a good place to spend a few hours working:

Breakfast and dinner at Kimpton La Peer

Kimpton La Peer features an on-site restaurant on the ground floor operated by Charbel Hybek, a winner of Top Chef, the North American reality cooking show. It calls itself ‘Modern Eastern Mediterranean cuisine’ and stocks a lot of Lebanese wines.

Ladyhawk is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner although breakfast is not included as standard. Breakfast ranges from $14 for a ‘Power Oatmeal’ all the way to $41 for a 6oz picanha steak, although most options including omelette and a breakfast sandwich are in the low $20s. I had the latter which was delicious:

Factor in coffee, juice, taxes and tip and you’re quickly looking at a bill of $50pp.

Ladyhawk is a hotspot for dinner with bookings (almost) essential, although I was able to sit at the bar without one and watch the charcoal grill in action. Here are the chargrilled prawns, octopus and a salad:

The food is excellent if a little slow; I think they may have screwed up my order of lamb after I was left waiting 30+ minutes.

Conclusion

WeHo may have a reputation as a hotspot for dining and drinking but the Kimpton La Peer hotel offers a calm oasis from it all just off Santa Monica Boulevard. Unlike most of LA the surrounding area is a bit more walkable so you can drag yourself back from the bars if need be!

Inside, the Kimpton offers modern California-inspired (ie white washed) rooms, a small outdoor pool and some excellent dining. It’s a taste of the laid back LA lifestyle.

Rates at Kimpton La Peer start from $420 or around 61,000 IHG One Rewards points per night.

You can find out more, and book, on the hotel website here.