This is the second time I have booked with Hotwire, and it will be the last. This hotel is not near the downtown, but it is near the hospital, St. Mary's, which was an issue for emergency vehicle noise. The noisy air conditioner took care of drounding out the outside noise. More important, it is not in a safe location (all the businesses had bars on the windows, and a high police presence). You did not feel safe walking to the downtown area from the hotel. I definitely would NOT allow my daughter out alone near the hotel. The hotel had no security in the parking garage which was open to the public. This allows ANYONE access to the floors with the rooms (bypassing the lobby). There were no visable cameras. As a note, even the Vons, 3 blocks away, has security. The hotel attemps to limit their liability by posting a sign (not responsible for , , ,). I would not stay there again just because of this fact (I am a female and booked this with my teenage daughter). The area is starting to come back, but this hotel is in the area that is not recovered yet. The recovered area is near the beach and in the hub of the business downtown area. Go for a hotel closer to the beach and not past 5th Street. The hotel itself is typical Holiday Inn. I generally do not like Holiday Inns, but this one's rooms were nice, but you could tell the hotel was old, old. Wimpy pool and spa (we decided not to spend time in the cracker box pool area). The staff was friendly, but a bit clueless. Many things broke, and we had to move four times in our six day stay (once because no one could find a plunger and our toilet was clogged --it was12:30 at night). The rooms do have a refrig and micro. The pay-movie option was broken when we were there (the manager could not tell us when it would be fixed). The hotel felt like it was just a veneer for a 3 star. Overall, choose another hotel due to safety especially if you have children or traveling alone.

Stayed at the Holiday Inn while attending a conference as all other hotels were booked, now I know why. The hotel has obviously gotten a facelift in recent years but it hasn't helped much. It started with the supposed "airport shuttle", it's advertised but apparently doesn't exisist. No big deal cab ride was only $20 from LB airport.

Checked in, staff couldn't find our business reservation but located it after some searching (still took personal cards, just in case..hmmm). First room smelled funny and was right on the street which was really loud during the day. Switched to a room in back that was better (my friend's room had a broken toilet so she had to move too). The bed was comfortable but the sheets were starched or something..scratchy. Pillows were also not so good which resulted in stiff necks. Staff also forgot to restock my friends towels one night which was weird.

This hotel is definitely in the "bad" side of town so no walking at night but daytime was sort of OK. The best part of all this was the free shuttle downtown which saved us as this is definitiely not in the downtown district as advertised.

In the end I would plan ahead more and spring for the stay at the Hyatt or similar hotel downtown on the water, it's worth it. Now I know why I usually don't stay at the three star hotels, usually I'm not too picky but all these weird events combined did NOT result in a very good experience. Turned me in to a "Debbie Downer" of a traveler....YUCK!

Just a background about why we stayed here, we were heading on a cruise out of San Pedro. We booked the hotel with points, big mistake.
From the moment we arrived the staff were incompetent. When we first got our rooms, they had made a mistake after a long flight want to relax in our room, only to find out there are people already staying in their. When we return back there are no apologies offered by the front desk. We asked if we could have an ajoining room with the other people in our party. They infromed us that the doors would not open, again a lie b/c we were both able to open our doors.
The next day the people in our party complained that they did in fact get bitten by bugs with marks to prove it. After infroming the front desk, with no real care about the matter. We asked if we could cash traveller's cheque, something a hotel normally does. This was needed to pay for our breakfast at the hotel. The oreintal lady at the front desk tells us she can't cash cheque, until the manager shows. She says ask the restaurant, which we did and in turn we were told to contact the front desk. So we just decided to grab fast food instead.
Another thing we noted was there was a bar that was under us , and we were not able to go to bed until the karokee stoped at 2 in the morning .
Another thing that was quiete shocking is there were no English newspapers avialable, but 3 different asian newspapers were available, wierd.
Finally, we were taking advantage of the shuttle to the pier. We had been phoned by the front desk to show up 15 minutes earlier than our reservation. We end up waiting in the hotel lobby for 40 minutes waiting for a van, again no apologies just more lies. We asked about every ten minutes when it should arrive, lady kept informing us another 15 minutes. So in the end this hotel experience was a horrible one, but didn;t ruin our trip.
I know some people on here may think i am being to picky, but I work as tour guide in Pacific Northwest and have stayed in my fair share of hotels, some nice and some not so nice. But this is one of the few trips where the hotel staff lied.
Buyer Beware

I have being a guest at this Hotel for a long time and never had a problem.
Last time I stayed in this Hotel was the worst stay I ever had. Front desk clerks looked like they were falling asleep and I guess they could care less about anything. All new faces from the last time I was there. The bad part was when I had internet connection problems. I got this lady claiming to be a manager of some kind, trying to help, but she was useless because her english was horrible. She had asian background I guess, but what I don't understand is how does a well known Hotel chain company like Holiday Inn hires managers that barely speak any english?
I wish good luck for whoever stays there now, and make sure you are bilingual!!!