The Spirit Of The Sunset Strip Lives On At Hotel Ziggy
Access your inner rock star at this West Hollywood hotel
(The pool at Hotel Ziggy)
Location: West Hollywood, CA
Perfect For: Rockstars and those looking to play the part in West Hollywood
It’s no coincidence that Hotel Ziggy is located on the Sunset Strip. Upon walking into the hotel’s lobby, it’s clear the property is connected to and inspired by the decades of music history that have taken place on the stretch of West Hollywood. The lobby walls are plastered with rock and rock ephemera, from industry lawsuit documents to decades-old concert posters and more. Including, of course, a head shot of the hotel’s namesake, The Thin White Duke himself, David Bowie.
“The ‘60s and ‘70s in West Hollywood was the place to be in Los Angeles,” Hotel Ziggy manager Chance Reno tells A HOTEL PODCAST. “From Led Zeppelin to The Doors to Janis Joplin to anybody you can think of in rock and roll. They were coming through here and coming to these hotels. And to these areas, these music venues. It started with the Whisky a Go Go, really, and The Roxy and The Viper Room, but you know the Whiskey, the history of the Whiskey with The Doors and Jim Morrison being in a house band and after them leaving it was Janis Joplin and you know in the ‘80s we kind of lost a little bit of that and then in the ‘90s some of the clubs started going under. So what we've wanted to do is reinvigorate that music scene that once was Sunset Strip in West Hollywood and kind of re-imagine what it used to be back in the ‘60s and ‘70s.”
For Reno, even though the hotel is inspired by the rebellious heyday of rock’s yesteryear, there’s also an emphasis on providing a professional hospitality experience for every guest. It’s a philosophy due in no small part to Reno’s Four Seasons training, explaining his previous experience with the chain “set the standard for what it means to be in hospitality when I took that everywhere with me from each hotel that I went to.
Whether it's a five diamond hotel, like the Four Seasons was, or four diamond or four stars, we always took the same approach in my managerial style, that we treat everybody like it's a five diamond hotel. We remember everybody's name, ask everybody how their day's going. Just the simple things that you would think would be normal in hospitality that sometimes get lost. It's something that we try to take everywhere that I go. It seems to work and it really does. And even in a hotel like this, that's not a five star hotel, I bring all these amenities that the Four Seasons would. You would still get the same kind of service from me and my staff that you were at some of these other luxury style properties.”
“I wanted to set the standard for my team by dying my hair blue and letting everybody else know that, ‘Hey, look, I'm doing this. I want you to feel comfortable. Be who you are.’” - Chance Reno
Though the staff emphasizes professional hospitality, Hotel Ziggy is a refreshingly laid back and whimsical lodging experience. One such example can be found in the property’s Podcast Room, which features a wall installation of different colored cassette tapes that reveal an optical illusion showing Frank Zappa’s face when you view the reflection in the room’s adjacent TV screen. The Easter egg is a nod to the hotel’s original name choice, Hotel Zappa. Another amenity offers guests an array of instruments to practice with onsite.
(A stay in the Studio Loft includes an in-room acoustic guitar)
“The Shred Shed is available to any one of our guests that check into the hotel,” Reno reveals. “We have acoustic guitars, electric guitars, even bass guitars, if that's what you're into, as well. We can provide an amp, so if you want to totally practice your music, we can give you an amp. Most people will go with the acoustic guitar, and you'll kind of see them sitting out on the patio, just casually playing or hanging around the lobby, casually playing on the guitar, just keeping to themselves. And it's just such a cool experience. For someone who's a music lover myself, I've never seen that in any other hotel that you go to where they’re actually encouraging you to make noise and have fun and be loud a little bit. That’s just what we do here. We kind of set ourselves apart with the Shred Shed.”
(The Studio Loft)
The musical flourishes don’t stop there. Guest room shower walls feature printed lyrics ranging from The Rolling Stones to Eminem to David Lee Roth and more.
And for the full VIP experience, check into The Studio Loft, which features a turntable and a collection of vinyl, books like 50 Years of Rolling Stone and Tina Turner: That's My Life, an acoustic guitar, and more, all while overlooking the Sunset Strip.
Or, reserve one of the Swim-Up cabana rooms, which offer immediate access to the hotel’s vibes-heavy pool, where live performances and parties happen year round. Ziggy has the only saltwater pool in West Hollywood, an element that Reno explains is “better for your skin.”
(The Hotel Ziggy performance space, just off the main lobby)
Live music also happens inside the hotel in the performance space at the far end of the extended lobby. Performers have ranged from local talent to international acts to established names like Anderson .Paak and Scott Page of Pink Floyd. Hotel Ziggy also showcases up-and-coming live acts as part of the weekly We Found New Music series, which, as Reno states, gives emerging artists the chance “to play on Sunset Strip.
And that's some of the things that we've gotten the opportunity to do with some of our partners like We Found New Music. Having the opportunity to have people come and it's from all over the world, all over the U.S. and they're coming and they understand the history of what Sunset Strip used to be. And the excitement that you see on these individuals in their young 20s, just like, ‘Wow, we're in Los Angeles. We're on Sunset Strip. We get to play in LA and where all the history was made (and) rock and roll kind of started out here.’ And it's…a really awesome experience for some of these people.”
“During the pool parties that we have on weekends, we can actually transform these guest rooms into cabanas. So that if you want to do bottle service while the DJ's spinning records and you're hanging out with your friends, we provide bottle service.” - Chance Reno
Hear Reno share more about the rockstar experience at Hotel Ziggy on A HOTEL PODCAST, including detailing his managerial style, delving more into the live performances at the hotel, sharing about the hotel’s pool parties, and more.
Find more via Hotel Ziggy. And subscribe for more from A Hotel Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Hosted by Jaime Black.
Overnight accommodation provided by Hotel Ziggy and Springboard Hospitality.