Holiday Inn Los Angeles Gateway - Torrance by IHG — Hotel in Los Angeles

As you approach this particular Holiday Inn, you can see the building itself looming high in the distance, and there IS a sign alongside the road to guide you further, but the entryway to this hotel is among the most frustrating I've experienced. For starters, it's very easy to miss the turn into the parking lot, and the lot seems to be shared with some other entity, requiring a combination of parking ticket validation and your room key card when entering and exiting throughout your stay. Parking itself seemed plentiful, but there's only one guest entrance to the hotel, meaning you'll likely end up parking really far away from said entrance when the lot has more vehicles in it.

Check-in went smoothly. I like to do a grocery run at the start of any given hotel stay, and I really wish there was a secondary entrance potentially closer to my room so I didn't have to carry everything so far, but it is what it is. My room was at the very end of the floor I was on, and it just felt like a chore anytime I had to go from the lobby to the room or vice versa. The elevators require a room key if you want to access anything other than the ground floor.

My room made a good first impression in terms of cleanliness, but a short time in the room allowed me to spot a number of inconveniences that I really hope the "ongoing renovations" this hotel is supposedly under will address, as I do think the hotel is at least a clean place to stay.

Aside from the bathroom, there was only one light switch in my room, and it only controlled the light nearest the door. My search for other switches came up empty, so I had to go around the room, turning on individual lamps in order to get the lighting level to where I wanted it. Surely this could be handled better, but I'll not bother with suggesting how, as I'd like to think I wasn't in one of the renovated rooms and that this sort of thing is accounted for in their plans.

The bathroom's layout is fine, but this particular Holiday Inn doesn't seem to offer in-shower dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, instead offering you travel-size packages for each on the vanity. This is wasteful from a packaging perspective and also required me to add some stuff to my shopping list.

The shower experience can be a bit odd, as there was some confusion as to how the shower even worked due to the fact that it needed some lubrication and ended up seemingly ceasing to work while I was using it. I did call the front desk about this, and they sent someone from maintenance to address it. (Oddly, the phone next to my bed didn't work, but the phone on the nearby desk did.) That said, during my stay, depending on when I showered, the water pressure and temperature was lacking.

This next part may be a matter of taste, but I'm confused as to why the shower stall requires you to step up into it, and I have horrible eyesight, so I often forgot about having to step down while exiting the shower, which could've let to injury but thankfully didn't.

The makeup mirror attached to the wall was broken on one side, as well.

The bed in the room was comfortable, and it's flanked by two end tables, one of which had an alarm clock that happened to be properly set.

There's a mini fridge tucked away in the cabinet beneath one of the room's two TVs. Frustratingly, the size and layout of the fridge made very little of it properly usable. You'll get soda cans in here just fine, but good luck finding much in the way of bottles that'll stand up straight.

Around the room, there're quite a few outlets available, but only because some of them are built into furnishings like lamps and whatnot, though many of these were loose to the point that gravity was the only thing holding things in place. These need to be checked periodically and replaced as necessary. Also, there needs to be more attention paid to ensure a sufficient number of outlets in the right areas of the room, as it doesn't matter how many outlets there are in the room overall if there's only ever one outlet close enough to me at any given point. Specifically, there should be AT LEAST two outlets near the coffee table (ideally built in) and two outlets to either side of the chair and sofa.

As I mentioned before, there were two TVs in my room. At home, I really don't watch much regular television, but I've come to expect a bare minimum from the hotel TV experience, and the TV experience here was just lousy in that there were fewer than 50 channels available, with many of them being blank or taking too long to connect, making it very tedious to flip through the channels. To make matters worse, there was no channel guide, and it seems that the TV service at this hotel is stuck in some sort of preview that I have to assume the hotel is too cheap to upgrade from.

Now, while I sound like I'm really down on this hotel, I have to admit that I slept really well here for the most part, and I even think this hotel is what some people look for in a hotel. Ironically, I think some of that appeal might actually be lost once this hotel is properly renovated, as I think some people really do look for a "dated" experience that doesn't distract from the trip itself. That said, you can still make small changes that're out of the way to ensure that people who expect a more modern experience don't feel left out.

By the way, during my stay, there was what I assume to be a false fire alarm that sounded after 10 PM. As I was woken from sleep, I wasn't completely coherent as to what was even going on, as the fire alarm doesn't sound like a fire alarm, per se. If feasible, I'd suggest updating the sound that plays to include a recording with instructions as to what to do, maybe even a message after the fact to indicate that the alarm...

When I was searching for hotels in Los Angeles, I was very careful with attempting to choose a hotel that was clean and safe. As I was traveling with my pet dog and want to ensure my safety. However, Holiday Inn in Torrance was only able to achieve 25% my safety concerns.

After a whole day of driving from Northern California, I had arrived at Holiday Inn around 7:00 pm. The lobby appears to be clean and welcoming. I was greeted by two friendly employees who assist me with my check in progress. However, once I had arrived on the 3rd floor and exited out of the elevator, I was horrified with how different it was compared to the pictures posted on their website. The floors were all carpeted, the walls and ceilings were all old and fragile-like, and the doors were all old and some looked like it was broken into before…

As soon as I arrived at my assigned room and turned on the lights, I was utterly disappointed with how filthy the place was. There was an unpleasant odor in the room and unrecognizable stains on the carpets. The bed looked moderately clean.

I immediately went back down to the lobby and complained how unsatisfied I was about the appearance. One of the employee (I believe her name was Isle) was so patient and understanding. She was willing to take me to another room to take a look. After touring the other room and agreed to switch to the room. Isle was kind enough to take my time to move my things before returning the keys to her.

The next morning I had yet made another complaint because I had taken a shower in the morning and the water was ice cold. Mind you, the weather was only 47-50 degrees during this time of year. When I had made the complaint to the morning shift employee, Art. He was the opposite. Art kept dismissing my concerns and expressed unprofessional manner to address the issue. I had to walk over to the counter several times before receiving a call from him to let me know the technician is already on the floor and walking to the front of my room. Once arrived, the technician concluded that it’s because the boiler wasn’t turned on, so that’s why the water was so cold when I took the shower this morning.

In the end of my stay, when I was checking out and walked out to the parking lot to put my luggage in my car, there was an unhoused person walking around in the parking lot and he and I made eye contact. He wanted to walk closer to where I was standing but luckily more people walked out. So the unhoused didn’t approach me. Overall, my stay was unsatisfied and I felt moderately safe. I hope with their new renovation they will take consideration of my experience for future guests that plans...

When I was searching for hotels in Los Angeles, I was very careful with attempting to choose a hotel that was clean and safe. As I was traveling with my pet dog and want to ensure my safety. However, Holiday Inn in Torrance was only able to achieve 25% my safety concerns.

After a whole day of driving from Northern California, I had arrived at Holiday Inn around 7:00 pm. The lobby appears to be clean and welcoming. I was greeted by two friendly employees who assist me with my check in progress. However, once I had arrived on the 3rd floor and exited out of the elevator, I was horrified with how different it was compared to the pictures posted on their website. The floors were all carpeted, the walls and ceilings were all old and fragile-like, and the doors were all old and some looked like it was broken into before…

As soon as I arrived at my assigned room and turned on the lights, I was utterly disappointed with how filthy the place was. There was an unpleasant odor in the room and unrecognizable stains on the carpets. The bed looked moderately clean. I immediately went back down to the lobby and complained how unsatisfied I was about the appearance. One of the employee (I believe her name was Isle) was so patient and understanding. She was willing to take me to another room to take a look. After touring the other room and agreed to switch to the room. Isle was kind enough to take my time to move my things before returning the keys to her.

The next morning I had yet made another complaint because I had taken a shower in the morning and the water was ice cold. Mind you, the weather was only 47-50 degrees during this time of year. When I had made the complaint to the morning shift employee, Art. He was the opposite. Art kept dismissing my concerns and expressed unprofessional manner to address the issue. I had to walk over to the counter several times before receiving a call from him to let me know the technician is already on the floor and walking to the front of my room. Once arrived, the technician concluded that it’s because the boiler wasn’t turned on, so that’s why the water was so cold when I took the shower this morning.

In the end of my stay, when I was checking out and walked out to the parking lot to put my luggage in my car, there was an unhoused person walking around in the parking lot and he and I made eye contact. He wanted to walk closer to where I was standing but luckily more people walked out. So the unhoused didn’t approach me. Overall, my stay was unsatisfied and I felt moderately safe. I hope with their new renovation they will take consideration of my experience for future guests that plans...