Terrific value LA hotel has an app for everything, including the door

The hotel

Sonder The Winfield, Los Angeles

Check-in

A room’s lounge area at The Winfield in downtown Los Angeles.

Founded in 2014, Sonder offers a range of accommodation in more than 35 cities in North America, Europe and the Middle East. Its main point of difference is that almost everything – from checking-in to unlocking your door – is done through the Sonder app. The idea is that these tech-based efficiencies allow it to provide stylish accommodation for a more affordable price. The Winfield certainly ticks the stylish box, located in a heritage-listed 13-storey former department store in downtown LA’s jewellery district. Not everyone, however, will be comfortable with the online check-in process, which requires personal ID to be uploaded for verification before access codes are provided for the building and your room.

The look

Guests can opt for a palatial penthouse at The Winfield.

Built in 1929, the former flagship store of men’s retailer Foreman & Clark offers a grand gothic setting for The Winfield’s 125 rooms and suites. A discreet entrance with a 24/7 staffed concierge desk (it turns out you can also check in onsite and get a physical key card) leads to an ornate marble lobby with lovely art deco flourishes. There’s also an elegantly furnished communal lounge and a small kitchen on the fifth floor that opens to an expansive outdoor terrace. Other facilities include lockers for luggage storage and a well-equipped gym.

The room

Some of the rooms at The Winfield have a loft-ish New York City feel.

There’s a wide range of room types, from spacious 37-square-metre studios to a palatial, 261-square-metre two-storey penthouse that can sleep eight. With its high ceilings, concrete floors and exposed brick walls, my one-bedroom suite has a New York loft vibe. Large windows offer sweeping views over LA’s historic downtown cityscape (which is particularly beguiling at night) and additional facilities include two bathrooms, a washing machine and dryer plus a fully equipped kitchen with a hob, microwave, dishwasher and fridge. In short, it feels like a sophisticated urban bolthole rather than a run-of-the-mill cramped city-centre hotel room.

Food + drink

You can make most of your meals in the one-bedroom suite and kitchen.

There’s no restaurant onsite, so you have two options for sustenance: go full bore MasterChef in the kitchen (there’s a Whole Foods supermarket nearby), or explore downtown LA’s burgeoning culinary scene. I opt for the latter, enjoying a fabulous Salvadoran pupusa for lunch in the buzzy Grand Central Market food hall and a feast of upscale Southern classics (think Louisiana crawfish and braised short rib) for dinner in Joyce Soul and Sea. You’ll find a great burger among the lavish surrounds of speakeasy bar The Wolves, but it’s the cocktails that really shine – inventive concoctions made with unusual ingredients such as asparagus, salmon skin and Greek yoghurt (trust me, it works).

Out + about

Roof terrace at The Winfield.

There are plenty of attractions within walking distance, including contemporary art museum The Broad (don’t miss Yayoi Kusama’s immersive infinity mirror room), the outlandish Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall and the adorable Angels Flight Railway, a 90-metre-long funicular built in 1901 that claims to be the world’s shortest railway (a bargain at only $US1). After dark, downtown feels less welcoming, with the advice being to use cabs rather than walking.

The verdict

Providing you’re not looking for five-star hand-holding, The Winfield offers spacious, practical and stylish accommodation at a refreshingly affordable price.

The essentials

Rooms from $US182 ($290) a night. Six accessible rooms. 406 West 7th Street, Los Angeles. See sonder.com

Our score out of five

★★★★

Highlight

Discovering I can launder a week’s worth of clothes using my in-suite washing machine, rather than lugging them to a nearby laundrette.

Lowlight

A glitchy online ID verification experience that necessitates several emails to Sonder’s support team.

The writer was a guest of Sonder, Delta Air Lines and Los Angeles Tourism.