Custom Hotel, a Joie de Vivre Boutique Hotel

This is not a luxury hotel but it was great for the cost. The paint was peeling on the doors and the tiles in the bathroom were a little worse for wear but the room was clean, the bed was comfy, the staff was super nice, and the restaurant food was delish.

On a brief overnight layover, the Custom was comfortable and easily accessible from LAX with it's curtesy shuttle. The room was spacious and well laid-out--in the style of Ian Schrager's Public in Chicago. Staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful.

This hotel is advertised as a "boutique" hotel. Not quite. It is a refurbished older hotel. But most of the renovation seems to have been a quick (and cheap) coat of paint, that is already peeling in places. It is in a good location, near LAX but not too close, and in a nice neighborhood. But it really needed a more thorough renovation. And the amenities (gym, business center) are minimal and not well maintained.

Minutes away from LAX, the Custom Hotel offers great value. Left too early in the morning so I missed the breakfast that starts at 0700.

I booked this room through a special value, and I believe I got a good deal. Clean rooms, great staff. Was able to take a cab to local areas like Santa Monica and LAX with ease.

Stayed here on my last visit to LA. The hotel staff are very friendly and helpful. The hotel has a contemporary feel to it. Some of the amenities i.e. bathtub and sink are a little old or have cracked surfaces. But nothing too alarming and not a safety issue. Great, tasty breakfast buffet. Close to LAX and pacific hwy. I would definititely stay here again.

We had very high expectations of this hotel as staying at other Joie de Vivre brand hotels numerous times, so, possibly our expectations were too high. We arrived late at night and had an easy enough check in. Upon arriving to the room, fine/good/clean. There were a lot of information about the trendy lights in the room (there's a 6" stick of lights that change color via remote), and cheeky-wanna-be information. For sure, they were/are trying too hard. The writings weren't even funny....But, we did notice there is a photo booth in the lobby and a "Transonic lounge, staff favorite" on the 3rd floor, along w/ "not your average vending" on the 4th floor. Ok, great--we'll check it out in the AM. The photo booth (aka: mac computer that takes pictures): broken/out of commission. The transonic lounge, locked, but from what we could see: a room w/ a bunch of brightly colored bean bag chairs, and the vending--just plain old vending machines. Nothing exciting or out of the norm at all. Overall, hotel is clean and was quiet enough. Tries wayyyyyyy too hard to be cool & trendy and comes up very short. Just a hotel. The End.

Hotel was perfect for what I needed; ie: location, price. Room a little run down, no blow dryer, kleenex box only had one sheet left upon check in.

experience was satisfactory except no coffee maker in room.

Unbelievable how for a 4 day stay that there was no air conditioning at all with room temperatures well above 80 degrees. We asked for fans for the room and were provided with a single small fan that provided little if any relief. Only a small single window could open so circulating and eliminating the stale air was impossible. The desk staff daily promised it would be fixed by that evening but it never happened. We learned other patrons were given gratis breakfasts and parking for the inconvenience, but not us. We had stayed at this property before and really thought it was good value. However this unpleasant experience soured us for good and a great value in the past, became valueless. One star because of location and cleanliness. That might even be kind on our part!