LAX Marriott

Good but inconsistent

I stayed at the LAX Marriott for 3 nights in March 2004. Overall, it was a pretty good experience, but there were some service problems.

Airport Shuttle
I knew they had a free shuttle service. I looked at the wall of signs for shuttles, and saw that there was a number to call, so I picked up the courtesy phone and called the number. After listening to several messages, it finally said to just go outside and the shuttle comes every 15 minutes. I am not sure why the sign did not say this, as I wasted a couple minutes on the phone. I went outside to the waiting area and only waited about 5 minutes for the shuttle to arrive. It was a short ride to the hotel.

Check-In
A line was starting to form for check-in, so I expected to wait a few minutes. I was surprised when the Concierge came over, asked me if I was checking in, and she pulled me over to the Concierge desk and checked me in there. I had a voucher for a $100 discount on my total bill, she took it, but made a photocopy for me in case there was a problem at checkout.

The Room
I had a long walk to my room. I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be an extra large room, with a large verandah that had 2 chairs and a table, and let me watch planes coming and going. The room was fairly standard Marriott, with a King-sized bed, TV armoire, desk, desk chair, and a soft chair with ottoman. Phone by the bed and on the desk, with a high-speed internet connection on the desk also. One surprise, usually, high-speed internet access is $9.95 a day, but here, that included free local and long-distance phone calls (US only).

The bathroom was pretty small, in fact, I wished the bathroom had been enlarged at the expense of the room, but it wasn’t. Standard Marriott amenities included soap, shampoo, conditioner, hair dryer, and an iron and ironing board. Towels were pretty good, standard for a Marriott.

The bed was nice. It had a thick bedspread. Underneath that, there was a down comforter, and sheets beneath that. There were 5 standard sized down pillows (and there were a couple of foam pillows in the closet in case someone preferred them). One complaint, I know that down comforters are not usually washable, so, it would have been nice if they had encased it in a duvet cover or at least put sheets on both sides of it for better hygiene.

The maid did a nice job on the room, including arranging all my haphazardly placed toiletries on a washcloth on the counter.

I was surprised there was no mini-bar in the room (especially since the Marriott website said the rooms had one), but the gift shop downstairs had sodas, bottled water, beer, wine, and even liquor available for sale at prices a bit better then they would have been in a mini-bar ($3 for a can of beer, $2 for a large bottled water). LA Times was outside the door in the morning, and they had stacks of USA Today or Wall Street Journal by the bell stand if you wanted a different paper.

Room was surprisingly quiet considering its close proximity to the airport. HVAC was kind of loud, and I had some trouble getting the temperature where I wanted it, but I eventually got it right.

Restaurants/Bars

Restaurants seem to have been somewhat reconfigured since the other 2 earlier reviews on here. There are four food-service options.

Latitude 33
This is the main restaurant. I had the breakfast buffet here, $14.50 plus tax. It was pretty good. Fresh fruits, and a wider variety than standard (mango), good made-to-order omelets, etc. The service was really surprisingly excellent, frequent juice and water refills (without asking), the waitress ran over to offer me salsa, hot sauce, ketchup when I sat down with an omelet.

This restaurant was also open for lunch and dinner, which I did not have. Seemed to have an asian theme to most of the entrees. They also had happy hour with $3.50 drinks and appetizers.

JW’s Steakhouse
This place is only open for dinner, and is a bit more upscale than Latitude. I wish the service had been as good as Latitude. I had a New York Strip and Au Gratin potatoes. The service was poor, I constantly was out of water, etc. The food was ok, my steak was a bit overcooked. My biggest complaint (maybe I am being picky) but for over $30 for an ala-carte steak, I would expect Prime beef, and they served Choice. Sides were about $5.50. Also, the wine list is incredibly overpriced. A bottle that would be $8-9 in a store was $30-35. I expect 2 to 2.5x wine prices, but not 3x plus. Premium brand liquor was around $6 for a drink.

Champions Sports Bar
Probably the best deal on food prices here. I had nachos one day, a huge portion for $8, and I had chicken fingers, which had been freshly prepared (not frozen) with a lot of fries for I think $8.50. Beers were $5.75 for import draft, 20 oz glass. Service was ok, not great.

Starbucks
Starbucks is in the lobby. They also had juices, some pastries in the morning, and sandwiches and salads at lunch. Prices for coffee were about $1 more than at a regular Starbucks. There was almost always a line here, but it went quickly.

Meeting Facilities
We were having a meeting in conjunction with a large conference at the hotel. We had some problems because the conference people had not made proper arrangements for us, but the hotel staff quickly brought in power strips and a phone line for us. One major problem, they told us that the Internet connection we thought we had arranged would cost $250 setup fee then $150 a day. As we could tell there was wireless in the meeting room we inquired about that. They said that was the same, $250 setup fee and $150 a day. When we asked what the setup fee was for, they said, “to setup an account for you and provide a password”. We declined. Later in the day, we found out all we had to do was go to the front desk and pay $10 and we were given a password. Since there were only 8 of us, this came out to $160 for the 2 day meeting, not the $650 we were quoted. Now, I was also kind of mad that I had to pay $9.95 in my room for internet access then pay $10 for internet access in the meeting room, I have been at other hotels, Wyndham for sure, where you paid once and got it everywhere. But, then when I checked out, I found that they had credited me back for the double internet charges, so I actually only paid $9.95 a day.

Also, I know the hotel was full with the conference, but if you have any choice don’t let them give you the “Capriccio” meeeting room. This room is I think a former restaurant, with no door separating it from the lobby, just a hallway. People were constantly wandering back there from the lobby to see what was back there. Even worse, it was between the kitchen for Champions and the Kitchen for Latitude and JW’s. So, staff was constantly walking through our meeting room, pushing carts through, or wandering through talking to other staff members. Since we were doing a teleconference, this was very disruptive for people on the phone trying to listen in.

Other Amenities (that I did not use)
There was a large pool in the courtyard, with lots of lounge chairs, nice landscaping, etc. There was a fitness center somewhere. The hotel had a Kinko’s, a Hertz rental car agency, and a self-serve laundry. I did not have a car, so I cannot comment on parking.

Overall
I would probably stay here again, based on price (I paid a high $169, but I didn’t know the area that well, and my meeting was here). I found out that I could have stayed at the Embassy Suites right across the street for $20 less, so I would have done that instead, since they have a nice free breakfast and a larger room. I have definitely been in worse airport hotels, including the LAX Hilton a block away.


Recommended: Yes