Priceline Hotel: 2* Los Angeles (Culver City) Extended StayAmerica LAX

[Colfax]

$55/2* rejected in Hollywood and Beverly Hills-West Hollywood. $42/2* rejected in Culver City.

Extended Stay America LAX

6531 S. Sepulveda Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90045

Despite "LAX" in the hotel name it's in Priceline's Culver City zone, not LAX zone, near 405 and Howard Hughes.

Best price online was $119.99. It's difficult for me to believe anyone pays $119.99 to stay here when the Radisson and Four Points across the street provide so much more (daily housekeeping, 24 hour front desk, free highspeed internet, restaurant, bar, airport shuttle) and cost LESS than the Extended Stay. The only thing ExtStay has over the Radisson and Four Points is free parking. (The Courtyard across the street was sold out, so I couldn't check it's price.)

This is the third Extended Stay America I've won in LA area on Priceline in the last month and they've all been unsatisfactory, due to noise and security issues.

My first New Years resolution for 2008 is to stop bidding 2* in zones where I might win an Extended Stay America. I don't like them.

But Dinah's Restaurant next door to the ESA is great! Fried chicken and barbecue, generous portions at a fair price, excellent service. Dinah's is everything ESA is not.

Bid through SavingsBarn.com.

[zbenye]

Chances are you could have gotten the Residence Inn in Manhattan Beach for about the same price. Yes, definitely do not bid 2* in any LA zone.

Are you going to be in that area next weekend (12/28-1/1)?

[thereuare]

Sorry to hear your stay was disappointing... hopefully Dinah's lessened the disappointment.

Thanks for adding this property to the Priceline Hotel List and for using the SavingsBarn.com PRICELINE links to begin your bidding.

Hope your future stays are better.

[Colfax]

A little more about ESA LAX...

The desk agent works in a caged area behind bulletproof glass. You pass your ID and get your key and paperwork through a retractable metal drawer, like at a ghetto liquor store. I'm not talking about the middle of the night. This was at 2pm. It makes for a very bad first impression of the hotel, like it must be a dangerous place. I've stayed at a couple dozen ESAs and never seen another where you paid through a slot in the wall.

Maybe all ESA's will be going the bulletproof glass route soon. A few weeks ago I won the ESA in Chino, CA on Priceline and found that hotel's front door locked and the metal security grate pulled down at the front desk at 7pm. They're supposed to be open until 11pm. The Chino desk agent was behind the metal gate and I asked her why the door was locked so early. She told me "Something bad happened here a couple nights ago. I'm still scared so I keep the door locked".

On a positive note the ESA LAX is undergoing renovations. The lobby is done and most of the rooms. The new carpet in the living area and wood floor in the kitchenette area are an improvement. There are snazzy new chairs in the rooms, colorful bedspreads and drapes, and new carpet in the hallway. I saw ESA's new look for the first time at ESA John Wayne Airport a couple weeks ago and I liked it.

The freshened decor doesn't make up for lousy soundproofing though. I coud hear every word through the walls at John Wayne and it was the same thing at LAX. I've encountered this noise problem at enough ESAs now in enough different cities that I'd say it's a systemic problem throughout the chain, not something particular to a few isolated properties. (I seldom have the noise issue at Homestead Suites, which ESA bought but didn't build, or at the Candlewood Suites that ESA bought and converted to ESA brand a few years ago. It's only at the ESAs built by ESA, which is most of them.)

Anyhow back to LAX....at midnight a party started in the room next to mine. It sounded like 7 or 8 people, singing, laughing, shouting. When it didn't subside after 15 minutes I went downstairs to request another room. The desk closes at 11pm but someone's on premises all night, doing the hotel laundry. To reach them you go outside and dial "600" on a wall mounted phone. A uniformed security guard was in the lobby and asked if he could help. I explained the situation and he said he'd find the night attendant.

The night attendant asked why I didn't request a new room before 11pm, while the desk was open. I said because the party didn't start until midnite. She said she wasn't able to program new keys or move me, and just as I was about to start screaming and yelling the elevator door opened and a man I hadn't seen before came out and asked what the problem was. I asked who he was and he said he was the assistant manager. I don't know why he was there at that hour but he made me me another key and moved me.

I tried hooking up my laptop in my new room and it wouldn't work. The phone service in my new room was turned off. I went downstairs again and the night attendant told me she wasn't allowed to turn on phones during the night. I could have phone service in my room at 7am. And no the assistant manager who had moved me wasn't available.

My old room faced south. My new room faced north. At 1am I went outside to move my car to where I could see it from my room. Walking back into the hotel I discovered the hotel's back door didn't lock. Anyone could walk into the hotel off the streets without a key! Yes, the same hotel where the clerks sit behind bulletproof glass in daylight and abandon the lobby and desk at 11pm. Reassuring to know if there was a problem in the night I'd be able to call for help at 7am, when I'd get phone service.

And Priceline says this hotel is a 2*, on a par with a Fairfield Inn or Holiday Inn Express?? No way! If Priceline thinks ESA LAX is a 2* hotel then what do they consider a 1*?

:) :) :o

[Colfax]

Chances are you could have gotten the Residence Inn in Manhattan Beach for about the same price. Yes, definitely do not bid 2* in any LA zone.

Are you going to be in that area next weekend (12/28-1/1)?

I was bidding 2* because I've had a bad run of unwanted upgrades from 2.5* to 3*. But yes, I should try the ResInn Manhattan Beach some time. I see you're at ResInn 12/28-1/1 and if I'm still in the area I'll be in touch, fellow Priceline Warrior. :)

[Colfax]

A couple footnotes:

1) I wrote that the Culver City Courtyard (officially "Courtyard Los Angeles Westside") was sold out. It showed "Unavailable" on Marriott's website and I took that to mean sold out.

Driving past I saw it's unavailable because it hasn't opened yet. A sign outside says the Courtyard will open in early 2008. It's a large hotel, about 12 stories. With all that new inventory I expect 2008 will bring good Priceline deals on 2.5* and 3* in Culver City.

2) I didn't like the ExtStay but without it I never would have discovered Dinah's. I've been back to Dinah's twice more in a week. Here, from the restaurant's website, is a photo of Dinah's with ExtStay lurking in the background.

Dinah's and ExtStay