I chose to stay at the Thompson Beverly Hills for 6 nights during my second trip to Los Angeles and was really pleased with the location - Beverly Hills is quieter than Hollywood and the Sunset Strip and feels safe - perfect for a relaxing stay.

The hotel is situated pretty much opposite Canon Drive which has a lot of restaurants. There are also a few more casual lunch places on Beverly Drive, very nearby, and then there's the infamous Rodeo Drive, just two streets away. On the main road, Wilshire Blvd, you have got a Macy's and the Beverly Wilshire hotel with Wolfgang Puck's restaurant.

As I was there alone I mainly ate at the hotel's restaurant, Caulfield's, which was never busy but good food and service in the evening. Breakfast, which I had included in the price of my stay, was very disappointing. When you arrive you are given a voucher each day for a 'complimentary breakfast' which turned out to be an orange juice, a coffee and a croissant. You can only substitute the croissant for something else when it suits them - on my first day the croissant delivery had not arrived so I was given the choice of an English muffin or a bagel. On the second day, when I asked for a bagel I was told I could not have one. On the third day, I was told I could only have a bagel or English muffin, but when the croissant delivery arrived after I had ordered the choice was taken away again. Don't know about you but for the sake of my health I can't eat a croissant every morning for six days, so by day four I gave up and went somewhere else. Even more infuriating is that when you do have your 'complimentary' breakfast you still pay service charge.

The other negatives on this hotel were not consistent negatives. All in all, I found the service was very good but there were two exceptions: 1) room service is very slow, although I was given my meal complimentary as way of apology after I rang to find out how much longer the delay would be. 2) the person who checked me out of the hotel was excessively rude when I questioned why I had a $25 minibar bill on one day (turns out they charged my whole week's water to one day) and even more unhelpful when I explained that I had paid my room charges upfront when I had booked. In fact, she consistently chose to take calls when I was in the middle of explaining myself. And I am not a rude/annoying person.

Overall, my stay was really positive. I loved the rooftop area with sunbeds, private cabanas (which you can rent) and an outdoor pool. The views up here are amazing and I was able to swim at sunset as well as all times of the day. The service is very good by the pool too and there is also a gym tucked under a staircase.

The room itself was very nice - the style is in keeping with the other Thompson hotels and on a par with W Hotels, I would say. There was a fridge mini bar, free magazines in the room hardwood floors, a power shower. Everything was very clean and seemed new and there were fresh towels every day.

I would totally recommend staying here. Apparently the rooftop gets a bit hectic in the summer but during this time of year I sometimes had it to myself. The door staff will order you taxis whenever you need one and the concierge will book day trips for you and recommend restaurants. There were also some friendly waiters in the restaurant, which is always good when you are by yourself.

My only other bugbear is that you have to pay for wireless in your room - $15 a day. It's free to connect in the lobby and on the rooftop.

When I booked the room, I was a little skeptical. I enjoyed reading some of the reviews on here which talked about the $30 a night parking fee. I was also nervous since a few of the recent reviews talked about how rude the front desk people were. However, when I got there, nothing was further from the truth. The front desk was extremely friendly and nice. The only problem that I had was that my tv wasn't working right but I called the front desk and they sent someone up to my room immediately to fix the problem. I thought the room service people were nice and I enjoyed the front desk people. They seemed geniune to me. Maybe I caught them at a good time, I don't know. I was a little weirded out by the modern look (even though I'm 27, I must be getting old), but I rather enjoyed my stay. I'd go back there.

The hotel location was excellent ( walking distance to Rodeo Drive ), the room was good (nothing too fancy but good enough for a night in Beverly Hills ). After a very long flight (16hours ) we were welcome by a very friendly staff who took care of our luggage (definately the friendliest staff of the hotel ). Once we checked-in ( we had booked through booking.com ) the check in staff was the rudest of all hotels I have stayed anywhere in the world. We were told that the price on the booking.com website was wrong but that they " had no choice "but to take us .She made us feel so unwelcomed . Thats not the kind of things, you want to hear after such a long journey.
Upon check-out, I had requested for a taxi but again the same lady at the reception, made sure other hotels guests would have their taxi prior to us( we had to wait for a very long time even though we had requested for it way before the other customers ).
Overhall, the service given was not what you expect from this range of hotel in this prime area. The management should definately check their staff. Gladly the next hotel in West Hollywood was way better.

I stayed here a year ago for business and thought well enough of the stay to come back... a mistake.
-- Room service is incredibly slow
-- Ordering in the restaurant is also incredibly slow
-- The rooftop bar service is either slow, completely un-attentive or non-existent (seriously, a crowd enjoying the pool deck on the weekend and not a single guy to come around in case anyone wanted a drink? Lost opportunity on their part!)
-- The water pressure in the shower kind of stinks.
-- The power went out one evening and they didn't make any apologies by way of letter to the guests (my colleague was even stuck in the elevator during this!)

OK, I think that covers my gripes so far. It's just disappointing that in the heart of Beverly Hills, they're lacking in basic customer service. It would take so little for me to have had a significantly more enjoyable stay.