The Chamberlain Hotel West Hollywood

Originally published in GPS.OutTraveler.com

During a recent trip to West Hollywood — WeHo to friends — I made a few discoveries.

First, the city is only 1.9 square miles. Also, it’s probably the gayest city on the planet, considering it was founded over 25 years ago by a group of gay men who essentially wanted to carve out a fabulous part of unincorpated Los Angeles turf and create valuable property. Which they certainly did.

I also discovered the Chamberlain West Hollywood, a luxury boutique hotel property in the heart of the city. It used to be known as Summerfield Suites, but along with the name change came a costly and meticulous renovation. It’s popular with gay travelers and, like many of the 14 hotels in WeHo, it has a large clientele from the entertainment industry.

Here are a few things that I love about this hotel property

• It’s located in a quiet, leafy residential area in the middle of WeHo.
• The rooms are huge, and not just because I’m from New York! They consist of a living area separate from the bedroom area and a balcony. There’s a fireplace in the room for those cool LA evenings. Note: Bizarrely, the on-off switch is located in the thermostat.
• There’s a beautiful pool on the roof that can be a a fun scene. This past weekend the pool attracted a pod of gorgeous young lesbians who enjoyed cocktails and food and the occasional dip in the pool.
• It’s steps from the gayest Starbucks on Earth (at Santa Monica Blvd and Westmount Drive), which itself just benefited from a huge makeover, making it also the prettiest Starbucks on Earth and a Trader Joe’s where you can stock up on water and thousands of other necessities.
• There’s an iPod and iPhone docking station so you don’t get that annoying message about incompatible devices, and it charges your iPhone. Note though that AT&T has notoriously poor coverage in LA.

Is it gay friendly you ask? The Chamberlain puts its money where its mouth is, donating to various causes, including the Santa Cruz Diversity Center, Young Musicians Foundation, Life Rolls on Foundation, and Providence St. Joseph’s Foundation to name a few. The hotel is also planning on supporting Pride next year, but details are still to be determined.