Don't stay downtown if you're here on a weekend since it basically shuts down friday night through sunday, and if you don't have a car you're trapped in this urban island of skyscrapers with poor public transportation. If you have to be in this area, however, the Marriott is nice. Comfortable beds, nice bathrooms, good pool. Expensive drinks and food as expected - skip the bar and find the local brewpub 2 blocks away. Parking is $20 per day (and so is the breakfast buffet - skip this too).

I sure wish I did NOT book a hotel from Priceline (especially using their name-your-own-price option), the few dollars we saved were just not worth it… 9 nights of nightmare, April 1 - 10! (Nope, Priceline won't entertain any complaints or hotel replacement.)

1. The first thing that greeted us when we entered the room was a big cigarette burn hole on the curtain. After informing Priceline and the hotel about that glaring hole, they did not replaced the curtain - not even till the day we left – 9 nights later. And this is a smoke-free hotel! That's just the beginning of more lousy things to come from this 4-star hotel!

2. The mini-bar (fridge) looks as ugly as the cabinet that housed it - and it does not work. I was informed by their staff that ALL the mini-fridges in ALL their rooms do NOT work! (Mind you, this is supposed to be a 4-star, world-famous hotel chain with a rack rate of US$169 and up + tax per night !)

3. Everything in the room looks dated because they are very old. The furniture and doors are full of scratches! And if you are expecting Westin-type of beds, you would be extremely disappointed. To be fair, the beds are fine - if it is a Motel 6. Their pillows must be the smallest pillows available in the hotel industry!

4. The TV is at least 15 years old! I know this for a fact as I bought my first flat-screen Sony Wega TV when it was introduced around the mid-90s - yes, the TV in my room is of a much older generation with curved screen! (But at their lobby, they have 2 new-looking, huge plasma TVs. Talk about misleading ads.)

5. No free wireless Net access. Not even in the lobby.

6. Worst of all? The DO not always tell you when your packages arrive! You'll have to check with them daily. They actually told me that I have NO packages when I had 2. Yes, it happened to me – twice in my short stay!

7. To be fair, the ventilation fan in the bathroom works really well, ditto that for their rain shower.

8. The following won't apply to you if you don't mind drinking tap water or paying US$4 per 500 ml bottle of water and if you don't mind taking a cab to almost everywhere as the closest subway station is about 5 to 6 blocks away. Nearest grocery store: 20 minutes walk or US$7 + tip cab fare away. Coming back will be uphill all the way. (The buses that stop near the hotel and run frequently stop running at 6.30 p.m.) The Westin, just opposite this hotel offers their guest free shuttle to many places.

To add insult to injury, there are many other better hotels you can stay for less! And those hotels don't fool you by calling themselves a 4-star establishment.

My guy was in LA for a conference and I happily tagged along since it had been a while since I visited L.A., and never really got to spend much time downtown. Turns out, I spent little time exploring downtown or L.A. for that matter. I got to see bits of the "other side" taking the subway/ metro from LAX -- super efficient, very easy (though sadly public transportation seems relegated to only those who can't afford a car) -- through some tough neighborhoods. In my 3/4 mile radius on foot, downtown L.A. seemed shiny, corporate, and sunny, but also abandoned after 6ish.

The Marriott is well situated for biz visitors. The desk staff quick and efficient. The rooms spacious and acceptable, no particularly alluring details, but everything you'd expect in a decent hotel. What you really pay for I suppose at $300/night is location, location. However, since the conference was ALL IN THE HOTEL, why not pick one at the airport for half the rate? Maybe I'm too practical... Anyhoo, clean, neat. Stuff that stood out?

- Room service was amazing -- LOVED their fresh fruit and smoothies, omlettes and hash browns especially. Excellent beef quesadilla, and grilled salmon. Stellar. Maybe that's a function of THIS Marriott.

- Roy's restaurant and Takami nearby were both quite sub-par. Roy's wowed us in every other location -- Tampa, San Francisco, Honolulu, Las Vegas, except this one. Takami with it's views are great for happy hour, but little else. Pass on all three of their kitchens, see point #1, order room service instead.

- A local friend took me to Korea town which has excellent, excellent Korean fare, and past a number of Mexican joints which we regrettably could not go to. This was within a 10 - 15 minute drive.

- Short taxi ride to the Mayan nightclub which if you dance salsa, is an absolute MUST. They have parking at the Mayan, and car rentals were running $15 per day (never seen a more ridiculous deal), but we opted out.

- Within a 5-7 minute walk to FedEx Kinkos if you wanted to sit on a computer for longer than 10 minutes (hotel has a biz center at $0.49/ minute), and approx 10 minute walk to a decent Mexican restaurant.

All in all, a purely functional hotel. Can't rave about it, but a good stay nonetheless.

Our room had a king size bed. Very comfortable room... very clean room. The bathroom was really nice. Stayed here on business with my husband. Was in walking distance to good restaurants. We also walked to the subway to go out to Hollywood. We had a great view of the outdoor pool. Pool was shallow.