Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown Hotel Rating: 3.0 Pearls

Downtown, Los Angeles, California

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The Sheraton is attached to a busy mall.

The 485-room Sheraton Downtown is built into a busy downtown L.A. mall, Macy's Plaza. Yet even though the hotel has an entrance in the mall (as well as one on the street), the lobby is quiet, never congested, even with a convention in the ballroom. The 325-square-foot standard room is spacious, clean and quiet. My corner room had huge windows that gave me a view of downtown and dressed the room in warm Southern California light. The bathrooms are roomy too. The only disappointment was the old tube TV, though the hotel says that all of the rooms have since been updated with 37-inch and 42-inch flat-screens.

Being part of a mall can come in handy. The food court's noodle shop, sushi restaurant, and Carl's Jr are convenient alternatives to the hotel's run-of-the-mill dining options (the Brasserie, a decent breakfast buffet, The Grill, and the lobby bar.) And with a Rite Aid outside the door and a mall full of stores, a guest in search of a forgotten necessity doesn't have to rely on a gift shop full of L.A. tchotchkes.

Where the hotel stumbles is in delivering attentive service. Room service hours are limited (6 to 11 a.m., 5 p.m. to midnight), though it's quick, and the food is surprisingly fresh. But special requests are less well executed. When I called guest services to ask for silverware, it took them 20 minutes to send up a maintenance man, who brought me four dinner forks. At a business-oriented midpriced hotel chain, personalized service isn't what you'd expect. But guest services is difficult to reach (I found the desk in the lobby often unmanned, and calls, when answered, were sometimes routed to the wrong department). Plus, some of the staff don't seem to know the area well (a staffer couldn't give me directions to the nearby Museum of Contemporary Design, even with a map in front of him).

The key reason to go to the Sheraton is the convenient downtown location. It's a viable option for families or business travelers looking to stay in the heart of the financial district. But the Standard Downtown Los Angeles right next door is just as inexpensive and has a much livelier scene.

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Located a block off Figueroa Street, downtown L.A.'s main street, the Sheraton has an ideal location for travelers doing business at the Los Angeles Convention Center or in the city's densely packed financial district.

• Nearest Metro stop is two-minute walk; bus stops nearby.
• University of Southern California campus is 10-minute drive.
• Staples Center, home of the L.A. Lakers, and the L.A. Convention Center are 15-minute walk, or three-minute drive
• Los Angeles Public Library is a five-minute walk.
• Museum of Contemporary Art is 15-minute walk.
• Walt Disney Concert Hall, an architecturally notable building by Frank Gehry that's home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, is a 15-minute walk.
• Nearest beach in Santa Monica is 30- to 45-minute drive.
• The high-end shopping and swanky mansions of Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills are a 20- to 25-minute drive.
• Universal Studios theme park is 20-minute drive.
• Hollywood Boulevard and Grauman's Chinese Theatre are a 15-minute drive.
• 45-minute drive to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)