Hilton Garden Inn LAX / El Segundo
The Hilton Garden Inn LAX / El Segundo is located in El Segundo, just minutes by hotel shuttle from LAX airport. A LA trolley stop to downtown Los Angeles is right at the hotel, but to reach all other points of interests in the Greater Los Angeles area you will either need a taxi or a rental car.
The two storey hotel building is a typical Hilton Garden Inn, built in L shape with parking space around the hotel and an open pool with Jacuzzi in the Garden. It is located in a business area with the headquarter of Mattel just round the corner. Next to the hotel is the Courtyard by Marriott El Segundo.
The hotel has an open lobby, meaning you have some lounge chairs around an open fireplace on the right side while the restaurant is on the left side. Opposite the entrance is the check-in area with the adjacent ‘24 hour Pavilion Pantry convenience mart’, some sort of mini-shop, where you can buy water, sweets, travel accessories, microwave food and other things.
Meeting rooms are available on the ground floor. The entrance doors to the four meeting rooms for up to 65 persons are from the same corridor, where guest rooms are located at the other side. This could probably cause some noise, especially as the meeting rooms are also used during the weekend.
A small business centre is right behind the check in area.
The gym is located on the ground floor. It is small and the equipment older, but in good conditions and thus no problems for a workout. Unfortunately due to the small seize it becomes crowded with only four guests. The gym has a door to the garden and so you could reach the pool without going all the way back to the lobby, where the other entrance to the garden is located.
The heated pool with a separate heated Jacuzzi is surrounded by a fence and you need your Keycard to enter this area (like the gym, by the way). Lounge chairs and seats are placed around the pool and towels are provided, but no locker room near the pool or at the gym.
The restaurant is open from 06.00 to 22.00 and has also some tables on a small terrace. In the restaurant you get breakfast in the morning and pizza, salads and steaks for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is the usual American styled buffet.
visited on USA + AUS
stays 18 Aug 2006 - 25 Aug 2006
Arrival Date: 18 August 2006
Departure Date: 19 August 2006
Room type booked: Standard Room
Rate Plan: Net direct rates
Room Number: 216
Room Rate: 89.00 USD (excl. taxes)
Status of Guest Program: Gold
After I my luggage had arrived at the luggage belt at LAX, I called the hotel for the airport shuttle, using my mobile phone, because I could not find the courtesy phones in the crowded arrival hall. After the hotel verified I was staying there they told me to go the pick up point which is between the terminal 6 and 7 in LAX. The shuttle arrived after app. 15 minutes wait and we were on our way to the hotel.
I arrived at the hotel around 18.30 in the evening and was friendly greeted by staff working at the front desk. I got a voucher for the breakfast and for two bottles of water and in addition a cookie. The opening hours and location of the gym and pool were explained as well as the location of business centre and the time breakfast was served in the restaurant.
I took one of the two elevators behind front desk to the first floor.
The most rooms are facing the parking lots around the hotel, a few room look on the pool area or on the roof of the lobby like my room.
The rooms are styled classical with the entrance to the bathroom from the hallway of the room. Here you find also a wardrobe with ironing board and iron.
The bathroom had a bath with a shower head with massage function. Shower head and curtain were in good condition. The bathroom was of average seize and in good condition. A hairdryer was wall monted, but of low quality – one of the points I really dislike. Even in American upscale hotels are the hairdryers of very low quality.
Towels were provided for three persons.
The room itself has a cupboard right at the entrance to the room with microwave oven, coffee machine and refrigerator. Beside was the board with television and in front of the window the working desk with cordless phone and LAN connection.
Opposite the desk were a lounge chair and the bed with two bedside tables, each with a lamp, the second phone on one and the Hilton signature alarm clock on the other bedside table. The bed was a little bit too soft for my feeling, but I prefer a really hard mattress, therefore it is probably okay for the most other guests.
The air condition unit was built below the window and therefore one got easily a cold by the cold air from the a/c. But one could easily open the window and turn the air condition off while sitting at the desk. The W-LAN signal was quite strong in my room and I could easily connect to the Internet with my laptop. Both, high-speed wired and wireless internet services were free of charge.
The furniture was in good condition and some minor scratches at the desk and stain in the carpet, but nothing really big. You probably will oversee them if you did not search for them.
Breakfast in the morning was the American styled buffet consisting of bagels, muffins, toast, cereals, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs and other cooked to order dishes like omelette, pancakes and sausages.
Staff was friendly, they helped to DHL a parcel for a colleague of me in the US and even arranged pick up. Everything worked quite well.
Check out was fast and convenient. I had requested a folio of the whole amount I spend during my stay including the prepaid room rate, which was prepared for pickup at check out. The shuttle to the airport brought me back to the airport.
I would consider this stay as really good value for money. The location is probably not the best, if you want to stay more central to the most major points. But for an overnight transfer in LAX or the first or last night before or after a flight out of LAX this is a really good location with easy access to the airport on the one hand and the most highways on the other side. So you could easily reach the southern part of California as well as the northern area of LA. The gym is quite small, but the pool is nice
and though not a place to spend the whole day in this area, a nice place to relax a few minutes after an exhausting day.
Arrival Date: 25 August 2006
Departure Date: 26 August 2006
Room type booked: Standard
Rate Plan: Net direct rates
Room Number: 129
Room Rate: 84.00 USD
Status of Guest Program: Gold
I called the hotel for the shuttle and this time it must have been already at the airport, because it arrived after app. five minutes. After the short drive we arrived at the hotel.
Again I was friendly greeted in the hotel and since my last stay was only a week back I was greeted with “welcome back”. Due to my early arrival from Sydney it was a bit after 11.00 in the morning as I check in. Front desk was able to get me a room. This time, it was a room on the ground floor facing the rear parking lot.
The room had the same interior than on my previous stay.
This time the shower head had a malfunction as one could not turn the massage shower off. But that was the only thing not working properly. Towels were provided for two persons, except I got three bath towels.
Again the desk was in front of the window with the air condition unit below the window. This time I had no cordless phone but a usual phone. Seize of the room was what I could tell the same than room # 216. It was a bit darker, being on the back and therefore without sun in the evening and a tall building in front. The wireless signal was weaker in this room.
I spent an hour in and around the pool in the evening after a quick visit to downtown LA. I wanted to visit the gym, but this was full with other guest doing their workout. Since I was not in the mood of waiting until someone finally finished exercising I decided to do a few laps in the pool and relax in the Jacuzzi.
I checked out quite early the next morning some minutes prior to 6.00 in the morning. Check-Out was fast and my wish for a printed receipt also this was a prepaid stay was fulfilled.
I had the same positive impression as on my previous stay. Also my room was not as nice as on my previous stay, still a nice hotel. The gym was full, but that could be expected due to seize of the hotel and this of the gym. Since the pool area was empty I have had an alternative – and I did not regret the relaxing in the Jacuzzi instead running on the treadmill. Since I spend the day not in my room and this was a ground floor room, I missed the room safe a bit.
