Day #1 December 2nd, 2014 – Arrived at the hotel. The lobby interior did not look so bad. It actually had a nice historic charm about it. But then we got to our room, we had two keycards, only one of them worked. There was a big wet patch on the carpet near the fridge, the room smelt like mold. We told room service about it and their solution was to put down two towels on the floor.
It is also worth noting that there was some patching around the door lock like someone had previously kicked the door in or something. Not a good first impression that is for sure. Fortunately, during our stay nobody kicked in our door (always a bonus).
I don’t know why the floor was wet, but I had a couple of theories. A) The floor was wet because the fridge was sitting on the carpet and fridges produce condensation. B) There was a leak beneath the floor and C) Our room is actually floating on-top of a swimming pool.
Speaking of which, the fridge made an unusual sound, kind of like it was dying. We put some basic groceries we bought from the City Target down the road only to discover the fridge was turned all of the way up and our food had frozen. Because there is nothing better than pouring frozen milk into hot tea, am I right? Or better hot, frozen milk in a delicious bowl of cereal.
Besides the room having two separate beds, the room was decent for what you got. The bathroom small, the TV most likely purchased in 1989 and the carpet no doubt not been replaced since this place opened up in the twenties or thirties. I also suspected someone may have been murdered in this room before, but it is only speculation.
Upside: There was a vending machine on our floor. It had orange crush and Pepsi, for $2. Nothing quells the rage of a wet smelly floor infiltrating your nasal passages like like a $2 bottle of Orange Crush.
Downside: The floor near the bathroom was wet, even with towels room service put down, they just absorbed the water. So it felt like walking on a moldy wet sponge.
Upside: This was the only wet patch in the room, so you could just walk around it. You also got used to the musky smell of the wet carpet quite quickly (is that good or bad? I don’t know).
Downside: The elevators actually sounded like they were broken and or breaking. The thought of plummeting from the 8th floor in an old elevator scares me. The city safety permit in the elevator had expired in November 2014, no new one was put up. So either it has not been inspected again, they paid off the inspector or they got it inspected and have not put it up for display yet.
Upside: Did not die in a free-fall elevator incident.
At 7:20pm on December 3rd, 2014 I saw a man behind the reception counter by the name of John being rude to a customer who obviously could not speak English very well. I then went up to the counter and asked for change for a $20 note I got from the ATM (a $3.75 fee by the way). He replied, “I don’t keep change here, go to the 7–11 if you want change” in a rude and emotionless tone. I replied, “Ok…” and then walked off. Fair enough if you don’t have change, but there is no need to be rude to a paying customer.
By the way, when people tell you not to go outside at night, listen to them. The area is teeming with criminals. The staff at the hotel warned us not to go out when it gets dark, they especially seemed concerned that we arrived via taxi to the hotel at 10pm at night. Even the taxi driver we had on the way to the hotel was telling not to go out at night near our hotel, “Very dangerous you could get shot or stabbed at night” were his exact words.
One thing I found funny was the taxi driver pointing out various streets and areas we passed on our way to the hotel. His sentence usually ending in, “Don’t go there, you will get robbed or hurt” – okay, I believe you.
We stayed inside at night time mostly. There is a 7–11 a couple of minutes from the hotel (same street and same side). I went there about 7pm and survived, there were a few questionable people in there, but nobody caused any trouble.
On the second last day, we organised transport from the hotel to the Greyhound Bus Terminal downtown Los Angeles. The hotel recommended this because the guy behind the counter and I quote, “You don’t want to use taxis in LA, they are all Mexicans and Pakistanis who will rip you off and try and take all of your money” – fair enough, and it was only $12.
On the day of our departure at 5am our transport arrived on time. He helped us with our bags and we got into the black minivan. I don’t want to seem mean, but this guy was strange.
He was obviously Hawaiian, didn’t really speak English that well and kept saying strange things to Marie about babies like; Beautiful mummy, you will make beautiful mummy. Being her nice self, Marie said thank you and he just kept repeating the same stuff all while his loud Hawaiian music played. Then it got really weird before we arrived at our destination, he started making baby coo’s and crying, “Mumma, wahh, momma”
We got the hell out of that minivan and rushed into the bus terminal. I am sure he meant well, but it creeped the hell out of us (Marie especially). That was the end of our hotel stay at Mayfair Historic Hotel.
