Silver Lake Pool & Inn

Silver Lake Pool & Inn opened in November 2019 on Santa Monica Boulevard, in a converted 1980s motel that the Venice studio Electric Bowery reworked for Palisociety. It was the neighbourhood's first boutique hotel, and the look is Southern California by way of Palm Springs and Mexico City: terrazzo counters, vintage leather chairs, live plants and handmade tile in sunset colours. The scale is small: 54 rooms and suites, a flagstone pool deck raised a floor above the street, and Marco Polo's patio a flight of stairs below it.

Sizes vary a good deal. The entry Queen and King start at 250 sq ft (23 m²), the Double Queen, built for four, runs from 400 to 480 sq ft (37 to 45 m²), and the Deluxe King View is 375 sq ft (35 m²). At the top, the King Suite is 460 sq ft (43 m²) and the King Studio 710 sq ft (66 m²), with a sofa, a desk and 1.5 baths. Every category has a walk-in rain shower, a Nespresso machine, a stocked minibar of locally sourced snacks and a 55-inch television, and the Deluxe King View is the category sold for its outlook over rooftops, palms and the hills beyond.

What it is chosen for is the neighbourhood outside the door. Sunset Junction, where Silver Lake's cafés, bars and independent shops meet, is four minutes' walk, and the Erewhon organic market next door is two. Marco Polo, the hotel's coastal Italian trattoria, serves breakfast, lunch, happy hour and dinner, with brunch at weekends, on a patio shared with locals. The pool is the other draw: a single small pool on the flagstone deck, screened from the boulevard by tall cactus planters and looking out over palms and rooftops to the hills, with loungers for guests only and weekday deck tables that neighbours can reserve with a food and drink minimum. The Sunday Swim Social runs in summer only, so in winter the deck is a quiet place for a spritz rather than a scene.

The trade is quiet and space. The walls are thin enough that footsteps from the floor above and the corridor carry, and street-side rooms hear Santa Monica Boulevard into the night, so ask for a quiet room away from the street. The entry rooms are compact, there is no gym or spa, and allow for a $30 nightly resort fee and $35 valet, both plus tax. Book it as an Eastside base for a couple or friends who want to eat, drink and walk: with the roads clear, Downtown is a 9-minute drive and Hollywood 11. If you want the sea, a resort pool or a silent night, it is the wrong address.