InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown

A Downtown Los Angeles Tower That Makes the Skyline the Amenity

Los Angeles has long distributed its premium hotel stock across geography rather than concentrating it in any single district. Beverly Hills holds the legacy addresses, West Hollywood the boutique scene, and Downtown has historically operated as the functional choice for convention traffic rather than the destination stay. That calculus has shifted. The opening of the 73-floor InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown in 2017 represented a structural bet on DTLA as a viable luxury market, and the building made an immediate argument in its own favor: at 1,100 feet, it became the tallest building on the West Coast and the largest InterContinental property in the Americas. Those are records that carry context, not just scale for its own sake. They signal a level of investment that reshapes what Downtown can offer the leisure traveler who might otherwise default to Hotel Bel-Air or The Beverly Hills Hotel.

What the Tower Looks Like From the Inside

The design program takes Los Angeles itself as its reference point, specifically the city's relationship with cars and movement. The three-story chandelier in the check-in lobby is constructed from car brake lights, a piece that rewards attention on arrival and does genuine conceptual work rather than decorative duty. Rooms across all 889 keys feature wall-to-wall windows, so the skyline becomes a constant backdrop rather than a feature reserved for premium categories. The billboard-inspired décor in the rooms extends the L.A. visual language from lobby to bedroom without overworking the theme.

On the way up, guests check in at the 70th-floor Sky Lobby rather than at street level, which means the first impression of the building's height arrives before you've settled in. The hotel's art program includes a floor-to-ceiling installation by Korean artist Do Ho Suh at street level, composed of thousands of small figurines, making even the approach to the elevator a considered moment. The bathrooms on the 71st floor, which borrow from different design traditions, have developed their own reputation among guests and have become a minor point of pilgrimage within the building.

How Daytime and Evening Use the Same Views Differently

The gap between what this hotel offers at noon versus midnight is more pronounced than at most Downtown properties, and it's worth framing the stay around that divide. During the day, the views read clearly across a panorama that stretches from Catalina Island on clear days to the Hollywood sign to the north. The light is sharp, the distances legible, and the geography of a famously spread-out city becomes comprehensible in a way that no map app quite replicates. For guests attending events at Staples Center, the Grammy Museum, or L.A. Live, all roughly a ten-minute walk from the building, the daytime hotel functions well as a logistical base with a dramatically better ambient quality than the area's older business properties.

Evening shifts the register entirely. Spire 73, the open-air rooftop bar operating from the 73rd floor, carries the distinction of being the highest open-air bar in the Western Hemisphere, a claim that holds its own against comparable properties in other cities. The bar runs regular whiskey tastings alongside its broader cocktail program, making it a more substantive drinks destination than the typical hotel rooftop, which tends to function primarily as a backdrop. On Friday and Saturday nights, Spire 73 operates until 2 a.m., and the hotel's design is deliberate about insulating guest floors from the sound, placing the lounge multiple levels above the accommodations. This matters more than it might seem: it allows the property to operate a genuinely active late-night venue without compromising the sleep of guests who aren't participating.

Downtown LA's indoor-outdoor event spaces take advantage of something that hotel operators in other major cities cannot easily replicate: the city's temperate year-round climate. The hotel's event venues work this to their advantage, offering outdoor access that makes the booking case for corporate and social events in ways that comparable towers in Chicago or New York simply cannot match. For travelers interested in the broader context of what LA hotels offer across different neighborhoods, our full Los Angeles restaurants and hotels guide maps the options against the city's distinct districts.

The Room Tier Decision

Because every room in the building has floor-to-ceiling windows, the base case here is already strong. The decision to upgrade turns on two considerations. The Presidential Suite at 2,500 square feet includes a dining room, kitchen, piano, and a soaking tub with skyline views, and sits at the far end of the range for guests for whom the tower itself is the occasion. For most visitors, the more operative upgrade decision is Club InterContinental access, which brings complimentary food service and dedicated workspace in rooms with full-height city views. The hotel's inspectors specifically call out that upgrade as worth the additional cost, and the combination of the lounge benefits with the building's intrinsic drama gives the Club tier a clear value case over the standard room.

All rooms across the property include both a separate shower and a bathtub stocked with Le Labo products, so the base amenity package is consistent. A small number of select rooms include tubs positioned for city views, which adds a specific experiential layer for guests who want the panorama from a bathing position rather than just from the bed.

Fitness and the Athletic Crowd

Attitude Fitness, the hotel's 24-hour gym, operates on a different frequency than most hotel fitness centers. The black and red interior with floor-to-ceiling city views has made it a draw beyond the hotel's own guest list, and professional athletes and celebrities have been documented using the facility. That kind of crossover validation is a reasonable proxy for the gym's actual quality, and it places the InterContinental in a different tier from business hotels where the fitness center is an obligation rather than an amenity.

Where It Sits in the Los Angeles Hotel Market

Downtown LA's premium hotel options occupy a distinct bracket from their Beverly Hills and West Side counterparts. Properties like Downtown LA Proper Hotel compete in the same zip code at smaller scale and with a stronger design-boutique identity. The InterContinental's 889 rooms and full-service infrastructure put it in the large-format luxury tier, closer in competitive positioning to properties like Raffles Boston or the The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City than to boutique addresses such as Chateau Marmont or L'Ermitage Beverly Hills. Travelers who prioritize intimacy or neighborhood character at scale should also look at The Maybourne Beverly Hills or The Peninsula Beverly Hills. For those drawn to the verticality and urban density of this tower, comparisons to Aman New York in terms of high-rise experience are reasonable, even if the aesthetic languages differ considerably. Travelers who prefer the nature-adjacent end of the American luxury spectrum might contrast this stay with something like Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur or Amangiri in Canyon Point to understand what they're choosing.

Planning Your Stay

The hotel sits at 900 Wilshire Boulevard in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, within a ten-minute walk of Staples Center, the Grammy Museum, and L.A. Live. The Google rating sits at 4.5 across 6,477 reviews, which represents a meaningful sample for a property at this price point. Spire 73 on Friday and Saturday nights warrants its own planning note: the bar draws a separate crowd from hotel guests and can become competitive for space, particularly for sunset access, so arriving earlier in the evening provides a more relaxed experience of the views before the lounge shifts into higher-energy mode.