Inexpensive Hotel near San Pedro Cruise Terminal

[Bruin Steve]

Curt,

Time and time again I try to warn our visitors to NOT look for a "bargain" in LA...To stick with the places recommended by the locals, not the one-time visitor who may have gotten lucky or may have low standards...that "bargains" in LA usually mean a run-down hotel or an undesirable or questionable neighborhood...

 

But, time and time again, someone thinks they have "beaten the system" because they found a cheap deal and they are going to save a few dollars...After all, they are still in San Pedro...or Long Beach...or Hollywood...Must be the same neighborhood as the recommended hotel, right?

 

Well friends, six blocks away from the Crown Plaza San Pedro or six blocks away from the Westin in Long Beach or six blocks away from the Renaissance Hollywood could just put you into a seedy, run-down motel in an undesirable area of town...Yes, things DO change that much...and there are very nice hotels where the building has been constructed by higher standards with sound-proofing and isulation and where the parking is enclosed and guarded and where the hotels has security and they cater to a higher class clientele and provide the types of services a cruiser should want...and, six blocks away, there may be that cheap motel sitting on a freeway offramp with 24-hour traffic and insufficient soundproofing and insulation with no security that "rents by the hour" and caters to a much different clientele...

 

You are going on a NICE vacation...a cruise...You do it because you want to relax and be pampered...You are spending lots of money and likely will do this only once or twice a year at best...Why on earth, in the name of saving a few dollars, do you want to start it out with a stay in a seedy hotel in a less than nice part of town?

 

Look, San Pedro, overall, isn't Beverly Hills or Malibu...It is a "working class, blue collar" town with some recent gentrification...a percentage of the town is now inhabited by a more professional class of folks who have been priced out of the nearby Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills and have settled in and improved parts of San Pedro...but, it still has its less desirable areas...So, you really need to be choosey...

 

There are two and only two really nice hotels and they are in the two best commercial locations in town...They are operated by people who understand what it means to run a "nice" hotel...with standards expected by business professionals who come to do business with companies in the San Pedro area and by cruisers and other tourists who expect a certain level of sophistication and service...The other hotels in town are motels...cheap motels...places where someone has built the minimum of specifications of what could be used as a motel...a room for the night for someone with no criteria other than a bed and a toilet at the cheapest price possible...on the cheapest piece of real estate they could find.

 

Trust me folks, I know a bit about this...Over thirty years ago now, I started out my career in the hotel business...working as a lawyer for Motel 6, Inc.

[Wineaux]

My folks have stayed at the Vagabond Inn when they come out and visit and have been satisfied. It all depends on what you are looking for. The Vagabond will get you a bed for the night and that's about it. The Crowne Plaza and DTI are much better options if you can get them but if you are coming in late at night and leaving early in the morning the Vagabond is OK. Staying at the Vagabond won't be the end of the world. We have people that come into our shoppe that are staying at the Holiday Inn or the Vagabond and wish they would have stayed downtown because you have more options but NOT because the hotels are run down or dangerous.

[Nancyquilts]

Before we discovered Priceline, we stayed at Sunrise (used to be Best Western). If you can get either of the top hotels for less than $100, and we've stayed at both on bids, I would do that. Sunrise is perfectly adequate, and has a pretty good breakfast and good shuttle service (IMHO), and larger rooms than the others, but I love getting CP for $65.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Tripadvisor can be helpful, but you do have to take some of the reviews with a grain of salt...especially if you find some really bad ones along with some very good ones for the same hotel that are posted within the same time period. Sometimes I wonder if some 'friends' of hotel managers post overly enthusiastic reviews for their hotel or poor reviews for the competition.

 

On the other hand, if there's consistency to the reviews, then you may want to pay attention.

 

I do remember being unsure about booking one particular Seattle hotel post-cruise. Many complaints about noise because of the proximity to a highway. And also the difficulty about walking anywhere because of that highway.

 

We had a room facing that highway, and never heard any noise (I'm a very light sleeper and didn't have a problem). We also found it easy to walk down to the corner and cross at the intersection there to get over to the Needle. There were a few problems (the water in the pool was too cold, it was difficult parking our rental car -- we had requested a full size but all they had on hand were SUV's, which was difficult to deal with). But we liked that hotel better than the pre-cruise one.

 

Definitely follow the advice about trying to go cheap here in LA. You may get a dump or an undesirable area (or both). You can go just a few blocks from a decent area and find yourself wishing you had a bodyguard.