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This post is one chapter on our trip to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Melbourne with The Great Ocean Road, exploring The Yarra Valley and the beaches of The Gold Coast via Qantas First Class. This trip was booked using Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Marriott LAX Hotel, Los Angeles, California, United States

I got a little tired of the uninspired the Westin LAX from my pass through on my last Lufthansa First Class adventure in December 2018, so I thought we I would stay somewhere different. The Westin LAX was starting to look pretty run down on my last visit. The well placed Marriott was convenient and close to the Hertz rental car facility. Add in a fairly cheap AAA Hot Rate at $144 USD and it was a cheaper option than staying up in Hollywood, or Santa Monica. Given we were only in town for 28 hours, we didn’t bother with the hassle to stay downtown or down in Long Beach.

We picked up our bags and hopped the Hertz bus over to the Hertz Gold Five Star Aisles where a beautiful 2019 BMW 530i was waiting for us. It was mostly clean and immaculate with only 727 miles on the odometer.

We didn’t get buy on board for dinner tonight so we headed over to the nearby LAX In and Out at 600 Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles for Saturday night date night. A couple of in and out burgers with spectacular plane spotting opportunities. I’m a lucky man that MrsWT73 enjoys this as a Saturday night dinner once in a while.

Arriving to the Marriott LAX:

After the late dinner at In and Out, we drove the half mile over to the LAX Marriott. We self parked the car in the stuffed and almost full parking lot. After strolling the bags up to the room, we were almost taken out by an avalanche of Westjet flight crew who were getting dropped off. Thankfully, with about 20 people waiting to check in at the reception, there was a well marked platinum / titanium / ambassador line. Thanks to online check in efforts, we were on our way quite quickly. Some photos from the next morning…

The Room: An M Club Lounge Access, Guest Room – 1 King

We were given a soft upgrade to the top floor of the building in the same category of room booked. We led ourselves up to room #1833.

The property has undergone a major refurbishment and was must cleaner than my Westin experience. The room was in clean shape, having been fully refurbished. Despite the refurbishment, this is an older property which means smaller than average hotel rooms consistent with the seventies era that this building was constructed in.

The room was reasonably well insulated, although the noise of airplanes could still be heard through the windows throughout the night. The curtains offered a reasonably strong blackout to an otherwise uninspiring view.

A Hotel Lounge: The “M” Lounge

We finished off the evening in the “M” Lounge, provided complimentary with our Marriott Platinum level benefits. The lounge is open 24 hours a day. Food and beverage service is limited to certain hours. MrsWT73 had a glass of wine while I had a Tequila Twist drink prepared by a bartender with silver tequila. The M Lounge was a high traffic area with somewhat sticky floors that made our runners squish as we moved around the lounge. At least it featured unobstructed views of the two LAX runways.

The next morning, I got up for a lounge breakfast while MrsWT73 slept in. She had arrived from Germany back to the Pacific Time Zone only 72 hours before this particular trip and was still adjusting to the jetlag. The lounge was against packed for breakfast hour. There were the usual scrambled eggs, german sausages, broken espresso machine, starbucks coffee with cream that wasn’t usually refilled. All in all, about what you’d expect from a busy Club Lounge that is struggling to keep up. The wifi here was particularly slow on our visit, so I wouldn’t plan on getting too much work done if this is in your plans.

Around the Property: A Hotel Pool!

After breakfast, I did a quick walk around the property. There is a small pool here which would be great for entertainment for the kids (if you had any). There are nicer pools out there, but who’s counting if you happen to be staying at an airport property like this?

I checked out the lobby area. There was also a reasonable bar that was deserted in the morning when we checked out.

The Marriott LAX Bottom Line:

Overall, it was a reasonable stay here. It was a little bit nicer than the Westin LAX, but not so much that I’d chose to stay here one over another. I’d likely be back but I’d also be open to staying elsewhere.

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