I had read most of the earlier reviews about Elaine's Bed and Breakfast before I booked, and was therefore very curious to actually see it and form my own opinion.

I went with my two boys, aged 8 and 12 to stay for 3 nights, and from the second of our arrival, we felt right at home! For my sons, it was like being at Grandpa's and Grandma's... Moreover, the great location in a lovely residential street close to restaurants, shops and the center of Hollywood (10 blocks away) is a huge plus, too.

Avik our host was so welcoming, fun and witty right from the start: the first thing he did was to pour two glasses of wine to toast my birthday - I didn't even remember telling them anything about it! How anybody could have written he could be "early stage dementia" is absolutely beyond me - he is one of the most witty people I've met, who speaks 8 languages fluently (I speak 6 - and we conversed in most of them - it was so much fun!). I could go on forever about how he went on making us feel at home - my kids wanted to tell him all the jokes they knew (a great compliment) and loved it when he showed them how to operate the bagle cutter :-)

The pink room was comfortable and cozy: very spacious, very clean, with flat screen TV and fridge, an en-suite generous-sized bath room with tub - and a HUGE terrace overlooking the beautiful garden! It must be lovely to sit there when the weather gets warmer. I popped out to buy hot dogs in the nearby store and could leave the kids there without having to worry at all.

The breakfasts were very copious, and Avik pulled out anything the boys wanted to eat or drink from the fridge that was not yet on the table. The best was though when he pulled out his photo albums of 60 years of work as a photographer in Hollywood at the Golden Globe Awards! We had such fun and interesting talks - thanks Avik!

The dogs were old and friendly, and of course a house with dogs has some hair lying around, but I cannot agree when people say it is dirty - and it certainly did not smell bad at all!

All in all, my boys and I love our memories of staying in this beautiful house with such interesting people. However, some people just feel more comfortable in uniform, anonymous, speckless, boring hotel rooms. If you go to a bed and breakfast, it is to experience the local flavour and socialise with yours hosts, at least that is my philosophy.

We would without a doubt return right here if we stayed in Hollywood again!

First the positive - great location, reasonable price. The not-so-positive - this really is not a B&B as we have experienced. The house is in need of a deep cleaning - there was an odor of air freshener that was not pleasant and seemed intended to mask the dogs that live there. We have no problem with dogs, but they do require extra housekeeping. The proprietors were not professional, which is fine, but they didn't have welcoming personalities and we felt uncomfortable from the start. The fact that the place had a dusty/ slightly unclean feel and the kitchen seemed messy made us skip the breakfast. So, can't judge on that - we just weren't comfortable. Would not stay there again - seemed much more like renting a bedroom in someone's house.

We stayed here as part of our on the last leg of our wedding/honeymoon. (Las Vegas, San Fran, LA).

We arrived late on a Saturday evening after a drive down from the coast. Was told not to park on the drive and had to use the street. Which was fine, but forgot to mention parking restrictions more on that later.

We found the place at first very strange, and not really that welcoming. Had a very strange chats with Elaine (who was also from the UK) and was going off on London and other places etc.

The house had a very strange odour around it as they have 2 dogs who are free to go around the house. The was dog smell and a heavy layer of dust in certain areas.

The room was ok, we did feel a little akward sleeping there, the bathroom was clean but not a great shower.

The breakfast was very poor a few stale bagels and fruit, with OJ and coffee. Which you needed to help yourself and again this felt akward as you need to go around her kitchen looking for things, when it should really be all placed out for you.

We also had a lovely surprise one morning in the event of 2 parking tickets on our car, the first night we parked outside but we went out early that day and did not arrive back until very late. Elaine did say you would have to park on the other side as the clean the street first thing, no problem. But as we are from the Uk (Elaine is also from the UK) there are different rules about parking the different way on the street. Now this was our first time driving in the US and our first time in a B&B.

We had a parking fine for parking facing the wrong way and by a red line. Now we did not see the redline as it was very dark, and did not know the rule about the facing otherway.

So it was our mistake, the next door neighbour came out and was chatting about it and said we mention to all our guests from outside the US about the rules on our street as they may not be aware. Lesson learnt. But what made me furious was Elaine said we had guests last week that got a ticket for the same thing. Now should you not metion this to us when you explained about the street cleaning.

Elain's husband is rather odd and kept asking personal and rude questions which we felt a bit uncomfortable with. We also had to wait to pay her as the day we were leaving there was no-one to be seen.

Lovely location, but unclean and musky smelling home with a rather odd couple.

If you want to stay in Hollywood for one night it may be for you, anything else i'll look elsewhere.

My partner and i stayed only on night (thankgod) at the end of our trip.
When we arrived we were greeted by a strange woman (Elaine) who ushered us inside through the overwhelming smell off dog poo ( they own 3 large inside dogs) up to our room.
She seemed unwilling to be friendly with us so i promptly gave her the money and hardly saw her there after.
Later - down stairs in the kitchen we were given the keys and Elaine ordered Arvik to show us how to use the lock. Arvik, an old man wearing nothing but underpants and rainbow braces (a funny but strange eccentric, possibly early stage dementia) we still dont know what relationship he is to her but she was very unkind to him and made no effort in front of us.
Arvik amused me greatly, as i work as an aged care nurse im used to this kind of eccentricity, but i imagine he could shock people a little. After speaking to him for a while he became more of a wacky host than anything else, he tried to teach me yiddish and told my partner he could give him kissing lessons.
Quite funny.
The small details:
The rooms were very dusty (caked dust) but the bathroom was spotless.
The bed was really comfy.
The breakfast was pretty damn good, pastries, coffee, juice and granola, with a beautiful table set that no one touched.
Unfortunately all the guests i met seemed to feel rather uncomfortable out in the open, got their breakfast and scampered back to their rooms.
A strange place. I wouldnt reccomend an extended stay but its cheaper than a hotel and a good location. It depends whether you can get past the fact that Elaine seems like a less than pleasant individual to be around.