About
Built by someone whose job was being on your side of hard calls
Westside Senior Guide exists because of a pattern that's hard to unsee: a family in crisis searches "assisted living near me," lands on a national platform, and becomes a lead. Their phone rings for weeks. The "recommendations" turn out to be whoever pays. Nobody ever mentions the state's inspection records, or the small board-and-care home four blocks from their daughter that would have been perfect.
Who's behind this
I'm Johnny. I spent more than a decade leading customer support and success teams for enterprise software companies, which is a corporate way of saying: my entire career has been taking calls from people having a very bad day, with real stakes on the line, and getting them to the other side. The work taught me two durable lessons. People in stressful situations can tell, instantly, whether you're trying to help them or close them. And the fix for distrust is never a smoother pitch; it's showing your work.
Westside Senior Guide is that second lesson, applied to senior living on the Westside, where I live. It's a small operation by design: one neighborhood-sized territory, a curated set of local placement advisors I've personally vetted, and a public commitment to the state's inspection records as the standard every community gets measured against.
How the service is structured
I run the guide: the research, the cost data, the checklists, and the vetting standards. When you reach out, I connect you with an independent local placement advisor who works with families full-time: the calls, the tours, the negotiations, the move-in. Independent matters here. The advisors we work with are their own businesses: no senior living company employs them, none owns a stake in them, and they place families across the whole market, from large communities to six-bed board-and-care homes. That division of labor is on purpose. You get a dedicated professional whose whole job is your family's search, held to standards that are published where everyone can see them. And as the site explains in plain English, communities pay the advisor when a move happens, the advisor shares part of that fee with us, and you pay nothing.
The standards
- Records over awards. Every community is checked against its California inspection record before it reaches a family. Disqualifying records disqualify, whatever the fee.
- Disclosure first. How everyone gets paid is explained before any referral, on the site and on the phone. You should never have to wonder.
- Fit over fee. A $4,000 board-and-care that fits beats an $8,000 community that doesn't. The recommendation goes to the fit.
- Honesty about scope. No skilled nursing referrals, no medical advice, and a straight answer when we're not the right resource, including pointers to who is.
- One advisor, never a list. Your information goes to the single advisor helping you. It is never sold or shared further. The privacy policy says this with legal teeth.
Why the plain name
Because it says exactly what it is: one territory, guided. Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista, the Palisades, down through Culver City and the Marina. If your search is outside the Westside, we'll say so up front and try to point you somewhere good.