I stayed at the LAX Hilton twice within a few days, but had different experiences each time so wrote two reviews.

First Stay:

I flew into LAX on a Thursday morning and arrived at the Hilton at around 10:00 in the morning. I thought $17 for self-parking was a little expensive (I thought it was more like $12 when I made the reservation), although this does allow in & out privileges. They allowed me to check in at mid-morning with no problem, gave me a room on the 13th floor in the south wing of the building facing west (above the pool). During the day I was a little concerned about aircraft noise, but it was not a problem at night. I could hear the departures, but it was not overly loud and did not keep me awake. The room was pretty standard for a full service Hilton. The exercise facilities were free and very nice. The facility is open 24 hours, and had a large selection of new equipment. As at many full-service hotels, there was a charge for internet access. The business center was undergoing renovation, so was closed while I was there.

Because I'm an HHonors Diamond VIP member, I was given access to the executive lounge. During the afternoon they had coffee, soft drinks, and a few muffins available. It was nice to have someplace to sit quietly and get something to drink. In the evening they had a couple of hot dishes, cheese & crackers, etc. available. Alcoholic drinks were also available, but were not free as they are in some hotels. Later in the evening cookies were available. At breakfast, there were no pre-made hot items, but there was a good selection of fruit, muffins, danish, cereal, toast, bagels, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, etc.

Checkout was quick and easy. Overall this was a good stay.


Second Stay:

I returned with my wife a couple of nights later. Since we were flying out early the next morning, we planned to drop off the rental car later that evening and take the hotel shuttle back to the airport in the morning. I didn't want to pay $17 to park for a couple of hours (or even $6 to park for the 1 hour minimum), so I attempted to pull into the hotel entryway to unload the bags and check in, then park on the street until dropping the car off. Most of the entryway is blocked off with orange cones so you can't pull over. I pulled over where there was room (and where they told me to pull over), but in the 2 minutes it took to get most of our bags into the front door, they were already complaining about my car being there. I parked the car out on 98th Street (there are a few 2-hour spaces on the street behind the hotel) and carried the rest of our belongings from the car back around to the lobby. It is absurd that you can't park for 10 stinking minutes to check into the hotel without paying a $6 parking fee. Either let people park in the entryway for a few minutes to check in, or allow guests to park in the garage for 30 minutes for free to check in. If you have a car with you and don't need to park it there, I'd recommend choosing another hotel.

This time we were given a room on the 11th floor, still above the pool, but in the west wing facing south. The carpet and wallpaper in the hallway looked really grimy. I seemed as though if I took a wet towel and rubbed it across the wall it would come out black (I didn't actually try it, but that's what it looked like). I felt like I was in a budget motel that hadn't been renovated in 30 years. In the room, the beds were the new Hilton beds (which are comfortable), but the other furniture was badly worn, and packing tape was holding up the wallpaper. One of the water glasses had never been replaced, and there were no bottles of water in the room (all HHonors members are supposed to get water, to say nothing of their top-tier members). Although this room was only around the corner from the previous one, aircraft noise was much worse. The loud booming of departing aircraft woke me up about 5 times during the night. Apparently the south-facing rooms catch a lot more noise than the west-facing rooms.

Because this was a weekend, the executive lounge was closed. Instead they gave us vouchers for a free appetizer in the evening and continental breakfast in the morning from the hotel restaurant. The appetizer choices were chicken wings or a quesadilla. I had the quesadilla, which was quite good. We left before breakfast the next morning.

The shuttle van back to the airport worked well. It runs every 15-20 minutes 24 hours per day. It stopped at one other hotel to pick up passengers, but only stops at terminals where someone needs to get off. Even though we stopped at most terminals, the trip was still pretty quick (less than 15 minutes).

I was much less impressed with this second stay.