Last week our business journalism class took a trip to downtown LA to study reporting in the business of entertainment. During that time we stayed at the Kawada hotel, a small hotel down the street from the LA Times and in the heart of Downtown Phoenix. Look at the picture above; doesn’t it look cute and cozy? Well it is from the outside… Our group went inside and the staff that helped us check was mediocre when it came to customer service. Maybe they were having a bad day…who knows! The only person that I remember being super friendly that entire week was the door greeter. I don’t remember his name but he always greeted us with a eccentric smile! The view from our floor (not the hotel room which had a window that didn’t open and blinds that wouldn’t close) was spectacular. You could look one way and the city was in your face! You look the other way and you could see the Disney Concert Hall! We checked out the view before went into our room, which is maybe why I had such high expectations for our room. Looking out on the vintage fire escape I felt like a true city girl. You’ve seen movies where people live in New York City of LA and they can  hang out by the little staircase and gaze at their beautiful city or water the plants they have on their little patio garden. Well I felt like I was one of those people at last! :)

Although this picture angle makes me look like a midget, I am an aspiring city girl ;)

I would hate to fall down this vintage staircase. But it looks cute :)

The view on my left!

The view on my right!

Back to reality. So we went inside our room. First thing I notice is the mustiness and humidity in the room. You all are probably thinking, wow this girl is a princess.

I can assure you I am not but humidity in a hotel room can equate to several problems: pipe leak, damp sheets or even mold.

Also the room is tiny.

The bathroom size could cause claustrophobia. This a picture of a bathroom that was better than ours (this camera angle makes it look larger too). Anyways, well do you see how this shower has a glass door? Our shower had a makeshift curtain in place…water from the shower would spill out. Overall the bathroom didn’t feel clean.

The best part of this mess was that I saw little bugs crawling out of the shower drain… what a special delight!

Let’s move on from the bathroom. Because this was a business trip, I brought business clothes and they eventually had to be iron. There was no iron or iron board in the room. You have to request them. There was no hair dryer or microwave. The plus side was that there was a fridge!

And if you are going on a business trip and need wifi you better find a nearby cafe because wifi is complimentary at the Kawada and is $9 a day. I was reading a review from a traveler from the U.K. and he said that the fact that they charge for wifi is preposterous because wifi is free at even some hostels! haha :)

My Mother has always advised me to take something to sleep on in hotels and this time it proved to be useful because I didn’t get a clean feeling from the bed sheets and pillow.

And yes they had an ice machine but it was broken.

Hey, at least the view was great! :)

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