Debunking High Parking Prices on the Sunset Strip

This guy is so sad. He paid $20 for parking and now can't afford to hit any music venues. | Photo by ClownBog via Flickr

The Sunset Strip in West Hollywood is notoriously known for its high parking prices. As the Sunset Strip Music Festival approaches, we decided to see to test Sunset Strip business owner's claims of the myth of high priced parking. On a short drive down the famous boulevard, especially on a weekend night, you'll see signs for parking: $15, $20 and various flag wavers who won't announce the high parking price until you're already pulled into their driver way.

"If you ever see $20, it sticks in your head forever. It's pretty unacceptable," said Roxy Theatre owner, Nic Adler. "No one is going to get back into the car and park again, it becomes a one destination trip to West Hollywood, then you go home or somewhere else in the city."

But it doesn't have to be that way, as Adler points out. The classic Western edge of the Sunset Strip, where the Roxy, Viper Room, Whiskey A Go Go, Key Club and Rainbow Room all reside, parking rates are much lower than the side of the strip where the House of Blues' area on a weekend night. That is, if you go to the right place.

An LAist survey of six parking lots found that prices vary with a $15 difference, even with lots owned by the same owners and ones that neighbor each other. The best weekend price is $5 at 9000 Sunset Blvd, directly across the street the Roxy Theatre. The highest prices are $20 behind the Citibank Building at 9059 Sunset Blvd. and valet parking at the Key Club.

Two parking lots at 9026 and 9040 Sunset Blvd. that are owned by the same company and only physically split by a building differed in price by $3 with prices at $7 and $10, respectively.

At the Roxy Theatre, parking is $7. "We're not the cheapest, but it is valet," Adler noted while encouraging people to take advantage of the cheap $5 parking across the street.