Sex, Drugs, and $25 Salads

One Week at the Chateau Marmont

By: Ryan O'Connell

Narrated by: Pat Young

When Ryan O'Connell went to stay for a week at the glamorous Chateau Marmont hotel last summer, he didn't quite know what to expect. Would he become instant BFF's with Lindsay Lohan and do lines of coke off of John Belushi's ghost? Would he have vacuous sex in the hotel elevator with Benicio Del Toro, just like Scarlett Johansson once did during an Oscars after-party? Or would he just be really, really bored like Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning were in the movie, Somewhere?

The answer, it turned out, was none of the above. After spending seven days running around the hotel looking for drugs, sex, and expensive salads, Ryan realized just how bizarre the Chateau Marmont actually was. And after capturing what he saw there, he can pretty much guarantee that he'll never be allowed back in again. Chic.

©2013 Ryan O'Connell (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Not what you expect

It was a quick listen and I enjoyed the narrator but the story was overall boring. Not what you would expect from the title or the description.

Bitter narration

Hard to get past the angry narrator right from the start. But once he got rejected by Raphael the masseuse, I knew this was not the book for me.

it's eh.

limitedly interesting. I was slightly entertained for 90 min...better than watching the news of Covid.

Meh?!?

The performance was good considering the topic, length and content. I love Hollywood history books but this isn't quite the standard tome about such a hedonism , businesses or soapy text. I honestly felt this should have been an article in the New Yorker, Wall Street journal, or People magazine. A time passer or sleep inducing diatribe of blase portions.

Btchy Complaint Rag

I've stayed at this classic hotel and had no problems, sat in the courtyard, but I was respectful. The author wonders why he was treated poorly and not seated in the Courtyard. I would never have expected unknown hotel staff to get me drugs or send up a prostitute in the form of a masseuse. The author's crass behavior to the staff is a bit embarrassing to listen to, but if you want to hear an account from the hotel guest from Hell, this is your story. This is a lame attempt to lambast a classic hotel that prides itself on discretion. The author is exactly the kind of creep he calls all the other guests. If this is meant as a joke on the hotel - which saw right through him, then the joke is on him. The book should be called "Diary of an Entitled Traveling Nobody Wannabe. I admit the writing style is good and the flow is interesting, and the reader is fine. Just know that he gets no sex nor drugs and but I guess he had a salad. Granted, many rooms in the hotel are a bit run down. That is part of the strange charm. The place is history.