Located directly behind The Peninsula and one block from the far superior Mosaic Hotel, this hotel offers small rooms in a Franco-Mandarin style registering somewhere between shockingly hip and delightfully old-fashioned. Small rooms and limited public areas draw the most complaints, but service is better-than-average for a hotel of this size.
The evocative, white 1939 building with distinctive East End gables rises just three floors above this quiet street. The owner's plans to expand room count, add parking, a pool and a restaurant have been put on hold permanently.
For now a bright red-lacquered door opens onto the tiny lobby, where eyes take a moment to adjust to playful decor with an Asian spark: black walls, smoky etched glass, zebra-print floor coverings and comfortable armchairs upholstered in red velvet or black-and-white floral prints.
Guests sit down to register at a baroque-inspired reception desk, and the chinoiserie-influenced Bar Noir opposite dispenses drinks and afternoon tapas as guests relax in black-and-white slipper chairs. Continental breakfast is complimentary and coffee and cocktails are available from the bar.
This hotel's problematic lack of common space has a remedy: Guests can head over to sibling Avalon Hotel, a five-minutes' drive from here, and take advantage of the full-service restaurant and bar (guests have signing privileges), and use of the pool. Valets park the cars.
Rooms are on all floors. The ground floor units are the least desirable, as these suffer from noise resonating off the lobby walls and down the narrow hallway into the guest rooms. A tiny elevator rises to the preferred units upstairs, where corridors are lined with black wallpaper 
and dimly lit by only black-hooded sconces and red exit signs.
The cramped accommodations sport tones of red, yellow or gray according to what floor they are on. The red rooms raise pulse rates with big, bold prints, while those in gray or yellow have a less stimulating effect. Each room is unique in its eclectic mix of built-in, antique and second-hand furniture, but all units adhere to the Asian theme introduced in the lobby. Wallpapers show bold prints, TVs perch in corners, statuary lamps top nightstands, and minibars hold signature snacks. Magazines and small CD players entertain, the tiny closets come in vivid hues and Frette linens dress the beds.
Baths are small, too, but all have mosaic-tile floors, showers, philosophy toiletries in dispensers, and plenty of thick, rolled-up towels. The Frette cotton robes are kimono-style. There are 
two categories here, each with fitting titles: Parisians are the tiniest units at the bottom of the tariff card, and the only slightly less cramped quarters are called Mandarins. Provided that guests come prepared for small quarters, these are quite a treat.
Room service is not offered. Pets are not permitted.
The management and friendly staff are justifiably house-proud, and the rates are some of the lowest to be found in this notoriously high-rent district. Though lacking the more extensive facilities of its neighbors, this young drama queen scores big with those in the entertainment and design industries. The little Luxe Hotel on Rodeo is a better choice for those who wish to trade space for service.
