Sunset Marquis review: a hotel that simply does everything right

We’ve “discussed” the love it or hate it nature of Los Angeles in another recent piece. I’m not saying that West Hollywood – or WeHo to its friends – will convince you either way, but there’s a surprisingly distinct vibe to the area. Some fine history – musical and otherwise – not to mention many great restaurants and bars, from the modern to the fabulously old school.

In my experience, LA only makes sense when you start to see it as a series of separate towns that, together, just happen to form somewhere called Los Angeles. If you need to kickstart that sense, then WeHo may well be the perfect neighbourhood in which to start…

Why stay here?

Some places are inherently cool. Some places are so inherently cool, they make you feel cooler by association. The Sunset Marquis is so inherently, massively, unassumingly cool that it can even have that effect on, say, a chunky, bald, 50-something journalist with a wardrobe that’s almost exclusively denim, fleece, Allbirds and Charles Tyrwhitt shirts. You know, just as an entirely random example. Cough.

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And it’s a feeling that starts from the second you step inside the remarkably unassuming exterior, and grows as you walk past the excellent bar and reception. And then grows some more as you amble past the pool – well, more accurately, one of the pools – and into some 3.5 acres of logic-defying, fragrant grounds that are somehow squeezed in behind a side street just off Sunset Boulevard. Seriously, it’s like the designer of the TARDIS retired and started a landscape gardening business…

And, dotted around these 3.5 acres are, well, simple bedrooms. And some villas. There are suites, of course, and all the above with poolside views. Villas with semi-secret access to a second, quieter pool. There are two bedroom versions of the above, plus Grand Deluxe and Presidential accommodation (with, apparently, private parking, chef’s kitchens and screening rooms) that, frankly, you probably won’t find unless you’re meant to. It’s a remarkable achievement, a splendid place to wander, and an even better place in which to forget trying to hunt down a celebrity in favour of just chilling. Besides, even if you do spot a celebrity – and, given this hotel’s history and reputation, there’s a very good chance you might – you’ll be too inherently cool by then to pay them any attention anyway.

The rooms are utterly stunning too. The bed is a thing of padded beauty – shorter guests may actually require a run up – and my bathroom turns out to be bigger than many moderate hotel rooms I’ve previously found myself in: apparently TARDIS guy also studied plumbing. There’s also a Japanese toilet which, well, this being a family publication, I won’t go into details, but if you know, you know. At the very least, having it light up gently and the lid rising smoothly as you approach it in the middle of the night is a gimmick that never gets old. The lounge is also delightful, housing a TV of quite remarkable proportions and a sofa that is, now I consider it, the approximate length of my entire living room. Perhaps the best trick the Sunset Marquis achieves, however, is that all of this seems entirely reasonable and never gaudy.

Eating and drinking

While perfectly positioned to Uber or drive to WeHo’s array of dining options and bars, the Sunset Marquis’s own restaurant Cavatina is damned near the perfect Californian hang out – a relaxed, stylish blend of the fully covered, the terraced and the pure al fresco.

Open from breakfast to dinner, it ticks all the local produce and high protein/low carb boxes you’d expect from a hotel with this ZIP code and clientele, but also nods towards the sort of excesses you’d, well, expect from a hotel with this ZIP code and clientele. The Sunset Wagyu Cheeseburger is every bit as good as it sounds, and it’s very hard to resist a menu that features a dish billed as “Chilled Colossal Prawns” (and, for the record, they’re all three).

The drinks list is also rather well thought out and surprisingly priced (or at least were until the last chancellor did his thing) with craftily made cocktails coming in under $20, sub-$10 beers and glasses of things such as Trefethen Oak Knoll for $26. For these here parts, and these here surroundings, that’s remarkably good value. Should you need further proof, there’s also a five-course tasting menu for $95, with very decent wine pairings for $40. Yes, I did a double-take too.

What to do

Well, just a few yards away (up a surprisingly steep hill) lies Sunset Boulevard and its cluster of legendary spots. A little further south, you’ll find the Troubadour, where Elton John played that famous US show. In between, a flick through a basic LA guide book and you’ll find many other points of TV, film, comedy and musical interest. You might even see an LA legend or two just wandering down the street or ducking in somewhere for coffee (should you be interested, it was Dyan Cannon, on my last visit).

Of course, you don’t even have to leave the hotel to immerse yourself in entertainment history as the Sunset Marquis has probably seen everyone wander through the bar, hang out by the pool or, in the case of certain rock types, throw their TVs and bedroom furniture into it. Many of these names are documented via the photographs that adorn many of the walls or in the Morrison Hotel Gallery, located in the lobby, where you can – suitcases permitting – buy prints of musical icons, past and present.

Some tales are well documented – the hotel has covered many in their own book, If These Walls Could Rock, which celebrates 50 years of the Sunset Marquis – while others shall remain secrets between the Sunset’s team (and legendary, and legendarily discrete, GM Rob Gruendyke) and the performers themselves. Trust me, I tried and was deflected endlessly and charmingly.

These days, even more names have probably passed through the hotel en route to its underground, low-key, beautifully battered, but absolute-state-of-the-art recording studio NightBird. “Hotel recording studio” sounds like a gimmick, but the names and the sheer quantity of Grammy-award winning records written, produced and/or recorded here have made it genuinely one of LA’s finest. Mind you, its proximity to this accommodation, those pools and that burger would be reason enough.

How to get there

As with so much of LA, the Metro is coming. Still. Eventually… Bits of WeHo are well covered, but this stretch still requires a – checks Google – two hour/six mile walk. That’s not much fun in temperate climates, and will require at least two showers and complete changes of clothes in LA.

But come on… you’re at the Sunset Marquis. You don’t want to slum it on public transport, and besides, Ubers are orbiting pretty much every minute. Although, frankly, if you feel the need to leave the hotel too often, you’re doing something wrong.

This is a hotel that simply does everything right. As someone who avoids places populated by the thin and beautiful people – I always suspect they’ll ask me to leave so they can squeeze in another four thin and beautiful people – I’ve rarely felt as cool, or at home, as I did in 48 hours at the Sunset Marquis. If this place is not already on your bucket list, add it now.

Sunset Marquis, 1200 Alta Loma Road, West Hollywood, California. Suite prices from £310, villa prices from £536, excluding taxes and fees; sunsetmarquis.com and visitwesthollywood.com