Hotel Review: Four Points by Sheraton Los Angeles International Airport

I was looking for a decent priced hotel near LAX for my current project at the new Qantas Hangar. I found the Four Points by Sheraton on the Starwood website and they had a decent rate for this location with an AAA Hot Deal. The AAA Hot Deal included breakfast vouchers for two and free self-parking at the lot. Parking is not cheap around LAX, even the hotels charge outrageous prices to guests who don’t fly away.

As mentioned the hotel is very close to the airport and planes are coming in on either side of the hotel. I didn’t have any noise issues from the airplanes and it was pretty quiet. My room window faced towards the airport and the rental car lot right across the street.

Check-in was quick and easy and I got a room on the 7th floor in the West Tower.

 

Larger Guest Room 1 King

The room size was perfect for my needs – not too big or too small. The room was pretty clean besides the little box with the hotel information at the desk. The information brochures were soaked in water or coffee, which the previous guest has spilled inside. Housekeeping never cleaned it up and I found out as I tried to read them. Also, the bathroom vent could use some good cleaning too. Other than that everything was pretty clean and in good condition. The Wi-Fi was down onetime for a couple of minutes, when I needed it, but otherwise fast and reliable Wi-Fi.

 

Junior Suite 1 King

On another visit to California, I needed a hotel near the airport before renting a car the next morning to head out to a project site. My flight was getting in late and I wanted to stay at a hotel close to the airport as well as close to the Avis rental car site. The Four Points is perfect for that and also had one of the most competitive prices of all the hotels I checked. During check-in, I got upgraded to a Junior Suite.

The suite was very spacious compared to the other rooms. But besides extra space, it didn’t offer more amenities. The bathroom was the same size as the regular rooms. Instead of one big desk, I got two smaller ones and an additional sofa compared to the standard rooms. That was it. Everything felt old and outdated, just like the rest of the hotel. The view was probably worse, as I faced the east and had only a few of the parking lots and other hotels nearby.

Dining

The service was not really the best at all. Even that breakfast starts at 6 am one day there was no coffee ready by then. Another day they ran out of bowls for cereals and I told the staff member. I waited around 15 minutes and nobody brought out any bowls, so I told him again and it took another couple of minutes to get the bowls. One time they also ran out of spoons. The waiters sometimes walk by you and don’t refill your juice. Lucky that they have the juices outside too for self-service.

The breakfast voucher is only valid for the buffet. If you want you could order from their menu as well but I am pretty sure for everyone the buffet is the better value. Right across from the host, where you sign in to get seated, is a chef to make you fresh omelets. That was pretty cool to have him actually watch preparing your omelet. The breakfast buffet itself was a good continental breakfast with all the things you want for breakfast. I am just not sure why they have sometimes cream cheese and sometimes not. I think this is another service issue and they just forget to put it out there. For breakfast you want to get there as early as you can to not have to wait for a seat and that you have enough food available. Sometimes restocking is a bit slow.

I was eating dinner also at the Comfort Lounge, which is the same lounge where you get your breakfast at. The dinner menu is pretty small and the food is nothing special but the prices are a bit high for what you get. I recommend you to go for the dinner buffet. It’s $20 and a soft drink and the whole buffet is included. Much better value as the menu offers. It depends if you like what’s for the buffet that night. They had two servers on duty but only one was taking care of the guests.

The hotel has also a bar & grill called “Brewster” which serves 110 beers and has 16 TVs to watch the current sports events.

Public Areas

The concierge is located right at the entrance of the hotel and they are very helpful if you look for more information about what to do or if you want to book a tour. They have shuttle buses running to the airport about every 20 minutes.

Down the hallway are a small gift shop and the fitness center. The fitness center is pretty big and has enough equipment for a good workout.

I liked the outdoor swimming pool and pool area in general. It’s located right outside and across from the check-in counter and the lobby. In the lobby, you can find a PC if you need to print your boarding pass. Further down the hallway and past the front desk you will find all the conference rooms. The very end of the hallway leads to another exit towards the parking lot.

The parking lot is fenced in and you can’t get in without a ticket. In my rate parking was included and my ticket was valid for the length of my stay. But parking spots can become rare. One night they had a wedding reception and I got the last parking spot available inside. I don’t know what you have to do if the lot is full. You probably can pay for valet parking which is right outside the front door.

But the best or most frightening thing is that this hotel has its own abandoned ghost floor. It’s floor number 8. The elevators won’t go there and one day they did elevator maintenance and they made the guests use the stairs or the elevator at the other end of the hotel. So I choose the stairs. It can’t hurt to have a small workout walking up to the 7th floor ;-). I actually missed my floor and went all the way up to the 8th floor. You don’t see a lot just a couple of locked doors in their suites they don’t use anymore. But you really can see that there is nobody going up there. The paint is all old and the floors are not clean. Even the stairwell is dirty on the top floor and looks like it’s ready to fall apart. I was shocked when I saw that. Usually, stairwells are never a pretty part of a hotel but this one looked scary.