The catch at The Hollywood Roosevelt
The Hollywood Roosevelt is a working Hollywood hotel with a famous pool at its centre, and the pool, the bars and the address are what you are paying for. Five things are worth knowing before you book. None of them is hidden, and none outweighs the pool David Hockney painted, with the Walk of Fame at the door.
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A $37 nightly destination fee and $79 valet, the only parking, sit on top of the rate.
The destination fee is $37 a night, tax included, and covers Wi-Fi, two bottled waters a day, morning coffee in the Tropicana Garden, local and domestic calls and discounts on local attractions. Parking is valet only, at $79 a night with tax included; there is no self-park. Los Angeles adds a 14 per cent hotel tax and a 2 per cent tourism assessment to the room rate. On a Tuesday in early December the Tower Room at $235 comes to about $310 with tax and the fee, and about $389 with a car. Off-peak, Santa Monica Pier is 25 minutes away by car and the Griffith Observatory 15.
What to do. Price the stay with the fee in it from the start. On the days you stay around the boulevard, leave the car out of it: Hollywood/Highland station, on the B Line, is four minutes' walk away.
The cabana rooms stand around a pool with a DJ at weekends, and the bars run late.
Music and pool activity can be audible in the cabana rooms, which stand directly around the Tropicana. The pool has DJ sets at weekends and hosts private events, screenings and parties through the year. Inside the building, The Spare Room is open until 2am on Mondays and from Wednesday to Saturday, with DJs and blacklight bowling after midnight on Saturdays; the Cinegrill stages cabaret on Saturday nights; and Teddy's, the hotel's nightclub, opens for private events and some public nights. The hotel will note a request for a quiet room and try to honour it, but does not guarantee a floor or a side.
What to do. Choose the Cabana Garden King, along the garden path and a little further from the DJ than the Poolside and Balcony Kings, and put a quiet-location request on the booking. Light sleepers should pack earplugs whichever room they take.
The Tropicana is shared with day-pass guests, loungers are first come and the pool can close for events.
Hotel guests swim from 8am at no charge, but non-guests can buy a day pass from $56 a person or a reserved lounger from $90, both for ages 21 and over, so the deck is a scene rather than a secret. Loungers are free to hotel guests on a first-come, first-served basis, while private cabanas and reserved loungers can be booked online up to 30 days ahead. The pool may close for private events or film productions, and the parties and screenings held there can change its hours, access or atmosphere. Dogs are not allowed in the pool area.
What to do. Be on the deck at 8am at weekends for a free lounger, or reserve one ahead, and look at the hotel's calendar for events on your dates before you book.
The entry room is 300 sq ft (28 m²), the cabana kings are smaller and a rollaway bed needs a suite.
The Tower Room is 300 sq ft (28 m²) and the cabana kings are 265 to 275 sq ft (25 to 26 m²). Every room has a stocked minibar, but none has a coffee maker or a microwave. The Tower Room and the Garden and Poolside Kings have no private balcony; the Balcony King does. Rollaway beds cost $30 a night and fit only in Tower Suites and one-bedroom suites, so a third guest means a room with two double beds, from $235 as a Tower Room, or a suite, from $353 on a December Tuesday. Connecting rooms are limited and are not guaranteed unless the hotel confirms them.
What to do. For room to unpack, the Premiere Room is 380 sq ft (35 m²) for about $24 more than the Tower Room on that Tuesday. Morning coffee is served in the Tropicana Garden for registered guests, which covers the missing coffee maker.
Awards season raises the rate, and Oscars week closes Hollywood Boulevard beside the hotel.
Rates rise between early December and late January: the Tower Room was $235 and the Cabana Garden King $274 on a Tuesday in early December, against $293 and $334 on a Tuesday in late January 2027. The 99th Oscars are on Sunday 14 March 2027 at the Dolby Theatre, four minutes' walk from the hotel. For the 2026 ceremony every lane of Hollywood Boulevard from Orange Drive to Highland Avenue was closed from 5 to 18 March, other streets and pavements closed from 1 March, and Metro trains skipped the Hollywood/Highland station from the Saturday night to the Monday morning of the ceremony weekend.
What to do. For lower rates, come in November or December. If your dates fall in the first half of March, ask the hotel how arrival and the valet entrance will work before you commit.
Who should skip it
Anyone who wants a silent night, a large room or a pool that is only for guests. Anyone who will mind $116 a night in fees and valet on top of the rate. And anyone whose dates fall in the first half of March, when the Oscars close the boulevard beside the hotel.
Who should book it anyway
Anyone who wants Hollywood at the door: the pool David Hockney painted, the Walk of Fame outside, the TCL Chinese Theatre two minutes away and the hotel where the first Academy Awards were presented. Book a Cabana Garden King for the pool without the front row, come in early December, put a quiet-location request on the booking and take breakfast on the deck. That is what the fees and the noise buy, and for a first Hollywood trip it is worth it.
The catch elsewhere in LA
- The Beverly Hills HotelBeverly Hills
Extras sit on top of a four-figure rate. Beverly Hills hotel tax is 14 per cent and the hotel's other city and state levies bring the total to roughly 15.5 to 16 per cent, and parking is $70 a day, which you will want because almost everything is a drive.
- Shutters on the BeachSanta Monica
A $60 nightly resort fee plus tax is added to every stay, and overnight valet is $90 a night, so a room that starts around $740 comes to about $930 with the 15 per cent hotel tax, the fee and $11.25 in nightly tourism fees, before the car.
- Malibu Beach InnMalibu
Pacific Coast Highway runs directly behind the building, and some guests mention hearing traffic over the surf; the King Pier View Rooms have the highway in view. Ask for a sea-facing room on the third floor, away from the street entrance.
- Terranea ResortPalos Verdes
A $75 resort fee and $75 for overnight valet add up to $150 a night on top of the room rate and the Rancho Palos Verdes hotel tax; the one- to four-bedroom bungalows, casitas and villas carry a $90 resort fee.
- Sunset Tower HotelSunset Strip
The room rate is not the whole price. A nightly amenity fee of $52.43, tax included, is added to every stay, parking is by valet at $75 a night, and 16.695% hotel tax applies to the room.
- Santa Monica Proper HotelSanta Monica
A $55 nightly destination fee plus tax is added to every stay, and valet parking is $90.27 per vehicle with tax, so the room rate is not the nightly cost, least of all for a guest with a car.
- The GarlandStudio City
The 101 freeway runs along the north-east edge of the grounds, and some rooms hear it. The hotel had its balcony doors replaced in 2013 to cut the noise, so keep the door shut at night and ask for a room away from the freeway side.
- Silver Lake Pool & InnSilver Lake
Noise is the recurring complaint: thin walls let through footsteps from the floor above and the corridor, and street-side rooms hear Santa Monica Boulevard traffic into the night, so ask for a quiet room away from the boulevard.
- Hotel FigueroaDowntown LA
The entry rooms are small: the 1 Queen Bed room is about 187 sq ft (17 m²) and the 1 King Bed about 270 sq ft (25 m²), so book the king or a suite if you want space to sit.
Questions people ask
Good questions about The Hollywood Roosevelt
What are the downsides of The Hollywood Roosevelt?
The Hollywood Roosevelt is a working Hollywood hotel with a famous pool at its centre, and the pool, the bars and the address are what you are paying for. Five things are worth knowing before you book. None of them is hidden, and none outweighs the pool David Hockney painted, with the Walk of Fame at the door. A $37 nightly destination fee and $79 valet, the only parking, sit on top of the rate. The cabana rooms stand around a pool with a DJ at weekends, and the bars run late. The Tropicana is shared with day-pass guests, loungers are first come and the pool can close for events. The entry room is 300 sq ft (28 m²), the cabana kings are smaller and a rollaway bed needs a suite. Awards season raises the rate, and Oscars week closes Hollywood Boulevard beside the hotel.
Who should not book The Hollywood Roosevelt?
Anyone who wants a silent night, a large room or a pool that is only for guests. Anyone who will mind $116 a night in fees and valet on top of the rate. And anyone whose dates fall in the first half of March, when the Oscars close the boulevard beside the hotel.
Our verdict
Book The Hollywood Roosevelt to swim over a Hockney, step out onto the Walk of Fame and sleep in the hotel that hosted the first Academy Awards. Take a Cabana Garden King for the pool without the front row, and count the $37 fee and the $79 valet before you commit.
Last checked: October 2026