THE WESTIN, LOS ANGELES AIRPORT Review

5400 W. Century Boulevard,
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.
Telephone 1 310 216 5858
Facsimile 1 310 417 4545
Web site: www.starwood.com

This was the second time I had reviewed this hotel. I understand it recently underwent a $15 million refurbishment, and it showed. The hotel has a luxury feel about it. The ground floor reception, lobby, restaurant, gift shop, bar, lifts, and pathway to the conference rooms and ballroom, were all open-plan. The area has huge ceilings, which go all the way up to the second floor, as there is a mezzanine above which services a number of conference rooms, and is connected by elevators. On checking in I was directed to Room 1153 on the 11th floor. There are six elevators servicing the 12 floors, and there was no difficulty accessing elevators, despite the hotel being exceptionally busy. I arrived on the 11th floor, and after exiting the lift, just around the corner, past the ice machine room (it also has a coin-operatred vending machine for sodas), was Room 1153. It was very spacious, one and a half, to one and three quarters the size of a normal hotel room. It had a Westin heavenly king bed, 5 pillows, 1 tube pillow, was luxuriously wallpapered, with deep brown ribbed carpet, had two large bedisde tables in dark polished oak, large lamps on top, a phone and digital clock on one, a long oak cabinet/work bench, with several drawers, a mini bar, wide screen TV, another lampshade, coffee maker, another phone, high speed internet access point ($9.95 a day - 12 noon to 12 noon. There was a compednium, shelves wwith magazines, two large lounge chairs, one with a foot stool, six small prints over the bedhead, a walk-in wardrobe, which contained a large safe, iron, ironing board, and luggage rack. There was also another, much larger luggage rack in the room near the bed. I then went into the bathroom, and realised the room was fitted for disabled occupancy, hence the spaciousness of the room overall, and the easy access of the wardrobe area. The bathroom was very spacious, there was a full bath with shower, with disabled railings all round, a large vanity, with ample bench space, and good lighting. The shower was fitted tightly to spray down in one direction, but this wasn't a problem. It was a full body shower, although it took a little while to get going. The room was fine for a disabled person, although the vanity could have been lower and closer to where the person was accessing it. The basin is closer to the wall. For an able bodied person it was fine, and with the extra space it actually was probably better than a conventional room. I later went down to the restaurant. It was quite busy, as was the bar a little further away, which was stand-alone, and was in fact completely packed. There may have been a function in the hotel, for which people were warming up.The restaurant was very well appointed, quite a large size. I was quickly directed to a table and issued with a menu and wine list. After a couple of minutes I was also advised there was a buffet available at $15 a head. I checked that out (even though I had already decided on a New York Cut Steak), and it was fine. It consisted of a couple of fish and chicken dishes, vegetables, salads, and mashed potato. There were also chocolate chip cookies, cheese and biscuits and fruit. I ended up opting for the buffet and was quite satisfied with it.

There are a number of fast food restaurants in the neighbourhood, including McDonalds, Dennys, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

The hotel was fine for a stopover inbetween flights. The aircraft noise is quite noticeable in the room, however the heavenly bed compensated for that and a sound sleep was had. The hotel operated a shuttle service to and from the airport, and this was quite handy after checking out. I just boarded the shuttle, and arrived at the airport just a few minutes later.