The catch at Silver Lake Pool & Inn
Silver Lake Pool & Inn is a converted 1980s motel with 54 rooms, a pool deck and a trattoria, and it is chosen for the neighbourhood outside the door. Five things are worth knowing before you book: the noise, the fees, the size of the entry rooms, the pool and the drives. None of them outweighs an Eastside base four minutes' walk from Sunset Junction.
On our shortlists
Noise is the recurring complaint: thin walls inside, Santa Monica Boulevard outside.
Guests keep reporting footsteps from the room above and sound from the corridor, and in rooms on the street side, traffic from Santa Monica Boulevard into the night. The boulevard is a main road and runs along the front of the building. Not every room is affected. No category is sold as the quiet one, and the hotel does not say which rooms face the street or which floors they are on, so a request at booking is the only lever.
What to do. Ask for an upper floor on the north side, away from the boulevard, and for a quiet room. Pack earplugs either way.
A $30 nightly resort fee and tax add about $100 to the rate, and valet is $35 more.
Hotel tax in Los Angeles is 14 per cent, and with tourism assessments the total is 16.2 per cent. Allow for a resort fee of $30 a night on top, which is $34.86 once tax is included. A Tuesday in December at $425 therefore comes to about $529 a night. Overnight valet parking is $35 a vehicle a day plus tax, or $12 plus tax if you are only visiting Marco Polo for a meal. Rooms also cost more after Christmas: the entry room ran $425 to $475 on weekday nights from November to Christmas, and about $600 to $800 from January.
What to do. Check the final total for the fee before you pay. Come between November and Christmas, and avoid New Year's Eve, when the entry room ran $1,320, and Super Bowl week in February, when it ran about $1,000 on a Tuesday.
The entry rooms are small: The Queen and The King start at 250 sq ft.
The Queen is 250 to 310 sq ft (23 to 29 m²) and The King 250 to 350 sq ft (23 to 33 m²), and the hotel does not say which size you will be given within the range. By comparison the Deluxe King View is 375 sq ft (35 m²), the Double Queen 400 to 480 sq ft (37 to 45 m²) and the King Suite 460 sq ft (43 m²). The Queen's description lists a rain shower, a minibar and a Nespresso machine but, unlike the King's, no sitting area. On a Tuesday in December The Queen, the Deluxe King View and the Double Queen all cost $425, so the smallest room saves nothing that night.
What to do. Book the Deluxe King View, or the Double Queen for friends or a family of four, and compare the rates on your own dates.
The pool is small, neighbours use the deck on weekdays, and there is no gym or spa.
There is one pool, called small by guests and signed for 19 people, and its loungers are kept for hotel guests. The deck is not only for guests. Neighbours can reserve its café tables and couches on weekdays with a food and drink minimum of $50 a head, and the Sunday Swim Social admits non-guests aged 21 and over. That social runs in summer only, so in winter the deck is quieter rather than livelier. There is no gym, and no spa, though massages can be arranged.
What to do. Neighbours' tables are weekday only, so in winter a weekend swim is shared with fewer outsiders. Plan any workout outside the hotel.
Hollywood and Downtown are short drives, the beach is not, and the Metro is a 13-minute walk.
With the roads clear, Echo Park Lake is 6 minutes by car, Downtown 9, the TCL Chinese Theatre and Griffith Observatory 11, Dodger Stadium 13, Universal Studios Hollywood 16 and Santa Monica Pier 28; the hotel itself allows about 45 minutes to the sea. LAX is 32 minutes off-peak, and the hotel allows 45. Sunset Junction is four minutes on foot, but the B Line station at Vermont/Santa Monica is 13, with Hollywood/Highland four stops along. Those are all off-peak times.
What to do. Treat the beach as a day out by car or rideshare, and allow well over the off-peak times at rush hour. For Hollywood, the B Line from Vermont/Santa Monica avoids the parking.
Who should skip it
Light sleepers, because the walls carry footsteps and the street side hears the boulevard. Anyone who wants a gym, a spa or a busy pool scene in winter. Anyone who wants the sea close, since Santa Monica Pier is 28 minutes away off-peak.
Who should book it anyway
A couple or friends who want an Eastside base: Sunset Junction's cafés, bars and shops four minutes' walk away, a flagstone pool deck a floor above the street, and Marco Polo's patio a flight of stairs below it. Book the Deluxe King View, ask for a quiet room on the north side, come between November and Christmas, and walk to Café Stella for dinner. The neighbourhood outside the door is what the money buys, and 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 Hollywood RooseveltHollywood
Noise is part of the deal. The hotel runs restaurants, bars, private events and pool programming, music and pool activity can be audible in the cabana rooms around the pool, the Tropicana is shared with day-pass guests aged 21 and over, loungers are first come, first served, and the pool can close for private events or film shoots.
- 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.
- 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 Silver Lake Pool & Inn
What are the downsides of Silver Lake Pool & Inn?
Silver Lake Pool & Inn is a converted 1980s motel with 54 rooms, a pool deck and a trattoria, and it is chosen for the neighbourhood outside the door. Five things are worth knowing before you book: the noise, the fees, the size of the entry rooms, the pool and the drives. None of them outweighs an Eastside base four minutes' walk from Sunset Junction. Noise is the recurring complaint: thin walls inside, Santa Monica Boulevard outside. A $30 nightly resort fee and tax add about $100 to the rate, and valet is $35 more. The entry rooms are small: The Queen and The King start at 250 sq ft. The pool is small, neighbours use the deck on weekdays, and there is no gym or spa. Hollywood and Downtown are short drives, the beach is not, and the Metro is a 13-minute walk.
Who should not book Silver Lake Pool & Inn?
Light sleepers, because the walls carry footsteps and the street side hears the boulevard. Anyone who wants a gym, a spa or a busy pool scene in winter. Anyone who wants the sea close, since Santa Monica Pier is 28 minutes away off-peak.
Our verdict
Book it as an Eastside base: the Deluxe King View, a quiet-room request and Sunset Junction on foot. Come between November and Christmas, when midweek rooms are at their lowest and the pool deck is quiet.
Last checked: October 2026