Check-in and parking are accessed from Westlake, the street where the hotel is addressed. My check-in experience was smooth and efficient. Door access to the room uses a proximity reader rather than having to rely upon a magnetic strip being swiped in a traditional card reader. Just hold the plain white card near the black circle above the door handle, and voila!

This is a former Ramada Limited, so the WiFi SSID is "ramada" even though the instructions say to select "Holiday Inn Express on Wi-Fi". Though I wasn't given the internet access code at check-in, a quick call to the front desk is all that was required. As for speed, I was able to squeeze 2.1 Mbps down and 0.37 Mbps up using speedtest.net. Not exactly stellar rates, but it seemed marginally useful. Your authentication with the hotel's proxy seems to be reset at random times. You'll be working along, and everything just stops. Upon opening a new web page, you're redirected to the hotel's proxy authentication. It really became quite irritating. Ultimately, I had to switch to my Verizon cellular modem because even with authentication, the hotel's network kept losing connectivity with the internet. This is a major failure on the part of a "hospitality" company.

The desk area is adequately sized with a nice lamp and two electrical outlets. Be prepared to use something as a mouse pad, because optical mice do not like the faux granite finish on the desktop.

An exceptionally noisy exhaust fan is on the same switch with the bathroom light -- a major sore point with me, which you'll know if you've read any of my other reviews. Hospitality folks, please, it's not rocket science: Separate switches for the bathroom light and fan.

Judging from the bullet-proof glass I found across the counter at a nearby Jack-in-the-Box, this isn't the greatest part of town. My experience walking to and from the Westlake / MacArthur Park subway station confirmed this suspicion. Making my way through the trash, filth, disrepair, homeless, and hucksters, I felt lucky to make the short walk four days in a row without being mugged. Do not go out at night unless you are driving your locked car to a better part of Los Angeles (if such a place exists).

Wednesday, I returned to my room at 4:10 PM to find that it had yet to be cleaned. Perhaps this is normal, but the hotel isn't exactly overrun with guests. I would have thought the occupied rooms could have been cleaned well before that time.

Dominos Pizza delivers to this hotel. So does Tg Original Express if you like Thai or Chinese. I would not recommend going out at night on foot. I would scarcely recommend going out during the day on foot! Your personal safety will definitely be in peril. This is a nice, freshly-renovated HIE property, but the surrounding neighborhood is utterly awful. I'm sad to say that means I will be staying elsewhere if I return to Los Angeles. And that's a shame because all of the people who work at this property are terrifically warm, friendly, and helpful. The people should get five stars, the property four, and the area less than ZERO. So it averages out to three which is my rating.

Was a little wary on booking at this hotel but overall it was better than I expected! This newly refreshed Holiday Inn Express & Suites is a BIG improvement over the Ramada Limited it used to be. Heard from management that this was a multi-million renovation and you can tell!

Easy to find with a GPS - area is a typical Los Angeles area, you have you good and bads. Did not have a problem with safety at this property like a couple people have mentioned in previous reviews. Front Desk was a little confused on how to do a couple things at check in but that is understandable as they just opened and going from Ramada to a IHG hotel is a complete change. Asked for directions and recommendations and they were spot on ready to help. A plus is parking is free here!

Rooms were very nice - I'm even thinking about getting the wallpaper in my own house. Very modern and very new. Had a room right by the elevator but never heard it and never heard any doors slamming. However, I will make a note to management that the the hotel could use some attention to details. The windows at the end of the hallway had paint from the exterior splattered on them, baseboards and walls have knicks from what looks like the furniture, carpets on the outside of the elevator are worn and getting a little dirty, and in the bathroom of the room I was in the faucet holes were too big for the actual fixture. Nothing big but overtime could cause some ware. Cool feature is that this hotel has new keylocks where you slide the key over the reader on the doorknob - thought it was pretty neat.

Breakfast, unlike other Holiday Inn Express properties, did not have the pancake machine. Wanted to try that out - but I am sure they will soon get one. Standard breakfast as expected. Tip for the breakfast lady is that to get a new tray for the bacon - the dish the bacon is put in does not do anything about the puddle of grease it soaks in.

Definitely recommend giving this hotel a shot. About a 20 minute drive to The Grove and there was a beautiful park - rare to find in LA - about 10 minutes away.

We booked an overnighter here and the hotel is in the middle of a very seedy part of town. It was under construction and when we got there all they had was a smoking room. It appears that their websit defaults to smoking room as preference. They were unable or unwilling to give us a non smoking room when we got there. They would also not refund our money or give us a credit toward another stay. We will not stay at a Ramada again

For downtown Los Angeles, this was an okay hotel in accordance with the cost. The check-in service was great. When we acquired about local sites, the representative was able to give us menus and printed a map from the computer that gave us directions to a specific address--she really went out of the way. At the check-in, there were free granola bars, hard candies, coffee, and apples. Parking was free and I felt safe where we parked. As to cleanliness, there was nothing noted out of the ordinary; seemed clean. Room/bathroom had typical amenities. With the AAA discount, price was good, especially to be only about 7 minutes away from Staples Center, Nokia, etc. Sleep quality was satisfactory. The rating of the location depends on the type of person you are. I respect all cultures and am not afraid to mingle with people so I felt comfortable walking to the nearby Yoshinoya and Jack in the Box. With that being said, you will see graffiti and there are street vendors selling items on the street near (but not in front of) the hotel. There is a continental breakfast that I can't complain about due to the cost of the hotel. The breakfast consisted of cereal (4 to choose from), fruit cocktail, waffles, toast, boiled eggs, juice, coffee, apples, cup of noodles....I believe that's all. So.....nice hotel for quality and value. You get what you pay for.