My husband & I recently enjoyed a 2-night stay at the Movie Colony Hotel for our anniversary. We checked in and were warmly greeted by the concierge (Jean Michel) who gave us the run-down of the hotel and location, taking us on a tour of the small hotel. His enthusiasm was contagious; he's clearly a true believer. The hotel was an early project of Albert Frey's, so the real-deal in the mid-century Palm Springs architecture. As I understand, they've recently redone the small (about 30 rooms) boutique hotel. The room we had was moderately sized, but nicely configured and very comfortable. The room (#16) had a small patio that I would have liked to enjoy, but in winter was not particularly useful. It had several citrus fruit trees that offered a lot of shade during the day. We were admittedly chasing the sun, so opted to spend our mornings in front of the swimming pool. During summer, I'm sure we would have spent a lot of time on the patio.

The highlight of our stay there was the time reading and snacking by the pool in the mornings. There were only a few other guests at any given time. The music they piped into the space was excellent (play lists with current indie rock to timeless Americana to Palm Springs-ish crooners). Besides the pool, there's also a jacuzzi on offer, as well as bicycles for the guests to borrow - which my husband availed himself of for an evening ride. The continental breakfast was a tasty help-yourself affair, with Bonne Maman honey and jams with the breads (sad bagels, I'm afraid), yogurt & granola, and, of course, tea, coffee and juices. The happy hour was similar, with a couple hours to enjoy wine and snacks and a particularly nice outdoor fireplace.

A few very small caveats: As advertised, they do offer DVD players, but if you think you might want to curl up in the big, cozy bed and watch a movie, I strongly recommend bringing your own movies.The hotel's selection is tiny (fewer than 10 films, as I recall) and painfully mediocre at best. They also have a small selection of games, but again pretty mediocre. We regretted forgetting our travel Scrabble game. I only add these minor complaints because it's a hotel that I think many people would enjoy, and knowing these small things (if you are at all like us) might make your stay even better.

Have you ever bought something off the internet but when it arrived it had only a passing resemblence to the photographs. I was sucked in by the glossy photos on their website. The hotel is very tired and in need of a complete re-vamp. Nice people, clean functional rooms but last decorated in 1922 ... or so it seems. Pleanty of choice in this price bracket so shop around, don't let my mistake be yours as well. Palm Springs is a great place to visit.

Great location, Cheeky's for breakfast is less than a block away, although the hotels continental breakfast is good. Parking is free and hassel free. Never entered or exited through the hotels front door - no need to. Only questions we had was how to start the gas fire place and location fo the switch to turn on the jets fro the hot tub.

We visited the Movie Colony Hotel Nov.16-17,2011, and found it to be a very charming place. Our room(18) had it's own patio,though the patio was private it was too confined with the only thing to look at being a bouganvilla and an 8' wall.
The room has a cement floor with a throw rug at it's entrance. Nice lighting feature allows you to have dim or bright light.
TV was small but also included was DVD player so you could bring your own DVDs or CDs. The TV programming offerred a very good selection. A fridge is included but no microwave. It had an iron with ironing board which we actually had to use. Bathroom had a single sink and bath/shower combo and included soap, shampoo, conditioner and lotion.
We especially appreciated the use of bicycles that are available to guests(we signed a release) and enjoyed our tour of
the "Movie Colony" area. A map indicating former movie stars that own or owned property in the area would be nice to have. The location at N Indian Canyon is probably not close enough for most folks to walk to the main part of Palm Canyon
stores and shopping but is definitely close enough to bike. We also liked the friendliness of the staff, especially, Juana, and enjoyed the use of the "kitchen" area set up for the use of guests including a wine and greet hour from 5:30 to 6:30PM. There is a small courtyard with a beautiful gas firepit designed by their maintenance man that warmed us on a cool desert night.