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Cecil Hotel
Category: Event Planning & Services Hotels Hotels & Travel Hotels Hotels [Edit]
640 S Main StLos Angeles, CA 90014
Neighborhood: Downtown
(213) 624-4545
- Price Range:
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$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Wi-Fi:
- No
23 reviews for Cecil Hotel
23 reviews in English
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Review from Smart P.
San Diego, CA
12/14/2011
It's not THAT bad, I mean, it sort of does remind you of an extended-term flophouse but, it is now a legitimate hotel operation and feels safe. There are some questionable folks around this part of town, but you should just expect it when you're surrounded by buildings of a certain height, I say. There is a 24 hour security guard in the lobby before the entrance to the hotel elevators and I think that's gone a long way to making this place more secure.
I paid 45 dollars for a two-person room w/shared bath and when we got to the room there was a toilet in it. I was happily surprised as I assume we were "upgraded" (it was a Monday night and the only night we were staying there.) The windows are very thin and you may want to request a room on the Southeast side as there will be less traffic noise, opposite side would be the worst, but probably best views.
The accommodations are bare bones but decent enough, allowing you to be close to transit options (pershing square) and walking or taxi distance to great downtown establishments. -
Review from J H.
Chula Vista, CA
12/6/2011 5 photos
First of all you get what you pay for!
This place is in what appears to be in a questionable part of town but its safe. IMPORTANT! Unless you get the "family suite" (aprox. $100) you have to share a toilet and a shower (they are separate) with the whole floor! Bring flip flops as the shower floor is all marble but you never know right.
I stayed here with my wife and two kids. All we did was sleep and that is all. I picked it for the price and close proximity to West Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, the garment, diamond district. Also from the hotel you are two block (eastward to a Banksy original). Also you are 3 minutes away [walking one block north and 30 feet west] to one of the best (24 hour) cafe in all downtown Los Angeles. [L.A. Cafe] The parking is five feet away from the hotel entrance. Now its $8.00 for the night but no in and out.
All in all you get what you pay for; no its not the Ritz but if you are on a budget and need a place to crash and stay close to all of the touristy sites; stay here. Safe and secure! Would I go back; mmmm if the economy stays like it is. Yes.
Try to be as honest as possible. Any questions hit me up. -
Review from Alfa S.
San Diego, CA
Updated - 4/28/2011 3 photos
The nightly rate increase of $55 to $65 caused the loss of a star.
There are other hotels in the downtown area with better standards than the Cecil and have similar nightly rates.
The $10 rate increase now makes this hotel an iffy stay.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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4/15/2010
I stayed here with my sister for three nights in late March 2010. We weren't really in the hotel… Read more »
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Review from Blck R.
Fremont, CA
6/30/2011
The definition of a community bathroom and shower, is just what it implies. Anyone in the community can use the bathroom or shower. Prostitutes, crackhead...homeless...come on in. A friend and I stayed here last weekend and we were fooled. We walked into the lobby and it was gorgeous. A beautiful lobby. So we checked in and went up to our room, come to find out, the room had no shower or a bathroom. I should have noticed it, because we walked right by it in the hallway.
Long story short, we ended up paying $20 extra to have a bathroom and shower in our room and needless to say, this place left a bad impression. I'm going to stick to what I know, hotels with showers and bathrooms in them already.
Like I said before, immaculate lobby. This hotel is like a woman that wears spanx, false advertisement. -
Review from Tony L.
San Francisco, CA
6/3/2011
Stayed here for two nights due to proximity to the Disney Concert Hall which I wanted to see plus it was very close to the fitness model I was photographing in the area. Read thoroughly the reviews here and agree with the majority about the service, the rooms and the area. I was told that the area wasn't that "good" but SF's Tenderloin is worst and has lots of tourists walking through each day and staying in the area without massive muggings or deaths. The elevator is small and slow. NO private shower or toilet; all shared no matter what the site says. Aside from a main separate shower/toilet on each floor, there was toilets at the stairs too. Fire sprinkler system in MY room seemed very old, rusted so please DO NOT SMOKE in these rooms as I seriously don't think the sprinklers
will function correctly if there's a fire.
No hotel parking available but facing hotel, there is the UNIFIED PARKING SERVICE to the right (nice spanish-speaking people) plus a garage (more expensive multi-level) to the left. On my second night the UPS lot filled up and they said NO spaces available, but they still accommodated my car (only $10 to stay the night and OUT by 9,30am). Both lot and garage fill up quickly due to the nearby nightlife and driving guests of several downtown hotels, so be prepared if no empty spots are available.
Small wifi-equipped cafe downstairs next to hotel lobby gives you net access. Lobby is gorgeous but rooms and each floor seem to be prison cells. Rooms have a very small sink - thank goodness!!! At night the sirens of fire trucks and police seem louder and next to your bed, I think due to the echoing off the glass/concrete skyscrapers.... if you're not used to hearing these, then you'll probably wake up each time a siren roars off!Listed in: I need it, I gotta GO (no…, NOT!!!!!
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Review from Rick M.
Los Angeles, CA
5/15/2011
There was a tranny in the lobby and a cigarette burn in the sheets.
The only reason this hotel get's 1 star is because Yelp won't let me give it less. -
Review from Shannon V.
Vancouver, WA
1/4/2011
This place was unbelievably scary. The bait and switch of it all is an ongoing joke now, but only because if we couldn't laugh about it we'd just cry.
After driving all night from Monterey Bay (on a road trip from Portland to La Jolla, CA) myself and my two friends arrived in LA at about one am. We had decided on doing the drive on a whim and hadn't had the foresight to book accommodations in advance.
So, were driving around using his Yelp app and Google to try and find a decent hotel. We keep passing really nice hotels that we know we have no hope of staying at due to the rates and we're getting more frustrated and tired at every passing minute. Finally, we see Hotel Cecil, a beacon in the night, it was as if the clouds opened up just to spotlight our good fortune. Even from the street you could see the shine of the marble floors in the grand lobby, the chandeliers, and most importantly someone to check us in. So we flip a bitch and go in to get a room. Our first red flags were the homeless people being kicked out, but it's LA right? So whatever.
Well, go up to our room and upon the elevator doors opening it was a totally different world. You can immediately see the shared bathrooms (gross) and everything is Sterile smelling like a horror movie kill room. As we make our trip down the hall things get scarier, the paints peeling and there are people SCREAMING at one another. It was then that I concluded that one of us might get shot while we slept. The room was, at the juncture, exactly what we expected. Dirty, tiny, thin walls, about a foot around the bed. Our room DID have a bathroom which was a nice surprise but honestly it didn't make a bit of difference, because we were living a goddamn nightmare.
This is one time to not "up the fuck", Don't stay at Hotel Cecil. Just don't. Find a nice youth hostel, or in the right weather... an alley. You'll be better off and would have saved your dignity and $35.00.Listed in: Tears and Fears
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Review from David A.
2/16/2011 1 Check-in Here
GREAT VALUE! That's what gets the 5 stars. Where else can you stay for $50 or less in the CBD? We had just blown a wad of cash overseas and wanted to stay in LA and be able to walk places.
They have free wireless in the lobby area and quite a few restaurants within walking distance.
Drawbacks:
Very Small rooms
Only the lobby looks nice. The rooms, hallways and elevators look Pre War.
Some of the areas surrounding the hotel are sketch, while other areas get more upscale.
They have hotel rooms right next store within the same building that look much higher end and the prices seemed to be not that much more. We'll try those next time. It certainly appears to have more creature comforts, but we were out and about most of the time. -
Review from Kitty C.
Philadelphia, PA
11/21/2010
I am under the impression this hotel is a work in progress. I did not experience any of the problems others have had. It's fairly secure, clean and the staff are nice and attentive.
Yeah, it's a budget hotel in a semi-sketchy part of town, don't expect the Hilton. If you want 5-star accommodation, book accordingly. Don't come here then bitch about how they didn't have spa service or a bellhop.
I got a really good deal via a 3rd party booking site (about 35.00 a night) and stayed here for 9 days. It was a very plain and simple room, but I was aiming for cheap. I would recommend spending the extra money for a private bathroom, as 3am, sleepy trips to go pee down the hall suck.
My main qualms were that the room did not have A/C (though I was forewarned), a refrigerator or microwave (would have saved $$ on food if it did), or a table (you never know when the urge to write or otherwise need a table will hit). Oh, and I wish carpet shampooing was a regular occurence, as the carpet was sticky and that's always yucky.
Considering the above, I was quite satisfied with my stay, and I got the best possible deal I think. -
Review from Freddy H.
Imperial, CA
12/15/2010
Do not allow the facade to entice you ladies and gentlemen. The hotel is a shanty town. We only paid 40 dollars, however i promise that the investing of another 40 to not stay here is well worth it.
The bed, which states queen online, is in fact a full size. I stayed on the 14th floor, aka the 13th floor. The room was till the end and the door was hard to open and close. The bathroom is awful, just awful. It has a standard sink with pipes on top producing water for the basics i don't typically recommend not having a shower. Thats right, read correctly before you commit to buy. It doesn't have showers, at least not in the rooms. The showers are in the hallway and they are horrible. We didn't even shower there.
The good: Checkout time.
Sorry Cecil, baby you need a facelift, a nose job and a beam job :) -
Review from Ted D.
1/24/2010
Pros: cheapest place in the area
Cons: no ice machine, no mini fridge, no hot water in the shower, no A/C(didn't need it for this time of year, but as mentioned in the other reviews your screwed if you stay here in the summer), they do have a shuttle but it's the same price as a cab. And the icing on the cake was the poop smear in the middle of the hallway we saw as we were checking out. Somehow the maid who knocked on our door 3 times asking when we were leaving missed it. Also a worthy mention is the public bathrooms have no toilet paper in them. Not that they needed to be refilled, they don't even have spot to hang it!! Good thing we opted for the room with the private bathroom which does have TP. This may explain the poop smear!! Just goes to show you get what you pay for!! -
Review from Linda R.
Los Angeles, CA
6/3/2007
MEGA UPDATE: The new management adopted a simply BRILLIANT way to combat the old perceptions of what the rooms used to be like in the Cecil; they dedicated several floors and a totally seperate entrance to the upscale hostel trade. Then, get this, they contructed two storefront rooms at street level to resemble their new upscale digs and then paid actors to live in them for a month as a publicity stunt. The actors are long gone now, but you can still see exactly what you're getting when you pull up to "Stay" the young, hip annex to the Hotel Cecil. Brightly decorated, very tidy small rooms with flat screen tvs.
I would also like to give honorable mention to the new management for not booting out their long-time residents, many of whom are vets on disability.
If I get any visitors this Christmas, I will not hesitate to put them up here.
***END MEGA UPDATE***
(original pre-new management review)
Ha! I live in a loft a few doors away from the Cecil. They evidentally have an internet presence, because I have seen many a bewildered tourist skedaddle away from there in their taxi. The Cecil is a transient hotel. Most of the people there are on some form of subsidized housing chit. Lots of fucked in the head Vietnam vets, etc. Don't be fooled by their spiffy lobby; the rooms are shitty.
Sidenote; my big brother was a journalist for years and years, and he laughed `til he choked when he saw how close our building was to the Cecil. Apparently, the Cecil can boast an extremely high concentration of child molesters among its guests. City lockdown is just down the road, and its relatively child-free downtown setting makes it an ideal place for said perps to stay.
As a historical note, Richard Ramirez used to flop at the Cecil periodically, and drink at Craby Joe's and eat at Margarita's down the corner. Maybe I should start a serial killer walking tour?
Amendment: The Cecil was recently purchased by a group that has been claiming to revamp it as quality budget accomodations for the very nearby Staples Center and other nearby venues. I have not had any first-hand reports since my FIL stayed there a year and a half ago, so we shall see. -
Review from Vicky H.
1/28/2010
If i could give this place a zero, I would in a HEART BEAT!
I hate this place! A group of friends and I decided to go to an event in LA and found this hotel. It was the cheapest hotel in the area so we decided to book it on http://hotels.com. BIG MISTAKE! The pictures on that website made the hotel look so nice and we could hardly believe we got it at that price... it was so deceiving! I ordered a 1 room 2 bed suite. When we got up it was only one bed. The bathroom was outside the hotel too! It was disgusting and dirty up there.I went down to complain and all they said was everything else in this hotel was booked. We didnt want to stay here so we went to another hotel only a few blocks away & THAT HOTEL WAS AMAZING!!!! It is called MIYAKO HOTEL!GO HERE OMG ITS SO COOL! WORTH EVERY DIME!
SCREW CECIL HOTEL! DONT EVER GO HERE! -
Review from Barry C.
San Francisco, CA
Updated - 1/16/2011
A GREAT value. very convenient location and a really helpful staff; as the rooms are only about $50 I really don't mind going a few steps down the hall to the showers & toilets and they have a nice shop in the lobby for food & snacks as well as vending machines if you must have a Coke at 4 in the morning .My only complaint is....the toilet paper.. 3rd rate
you'd do well to tote along a roll of your own Charmin Ultra .. having said that. I look forward to my next stay at the Cecil.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/1/2010
I have stayed at this hotel many times and the prices were fair; However on my last 3 night stay… Read more »
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Review from Bob J.
Santa Monica, CA
8/17/2008
The rooms smell, the rooms are filthy. (I dropped a pillow on the floor and when i picked it up it was covered with human hair of all shapes and sizes.) There i no a/c. To try to get air into the cat-piss smelling room, you have to open the window which is so old, paper thin glass that doesn't insulate any sound. You hear the bums fighting on the street, busses driving by, etc, etc. I was awoken several times throughout the night.
The most spartan hotel I've been to. I now have a sense of what an hourly motel and/or a crack den feel like. It also has a jail cell-like feeling.
Update (2/2/09): I'm sorry, I should've posted this awhile ago...Shortly after posting, the manager, Reg, read this Yelp review and contacted me via email. He offered me a complete refund and apologized for my bad experience. He told me they were trying to turn things around and was shocked by my negative experience. I appreciated his reaching out, concern and the refund. He was very passionate about the property and I wish him the best of luck with the hotel. -
Review from Thalia H.
San Jose, CA
12/22/2010
This "hotel" is a joke. I wouldn't even consider it as a motel nor an inn. First of all, there is no designated parking so you'll have to pay for private parking. The rooms were dingy and small, dirty and dusty. The very worst part was that both the toilet and shower are OUTSIDE of your room. And they call this a hotel? At least motels offer a full bathroom in your room! The service also reflects the quality of this place. I was neglected when I came up to the front desk and told the front desk lady that I had reserved a room. She didn't look at me nor respond for 1-2 minutes. Horrible neighborhood as well, complete with rats on the streets. Better off saving $60 and sleeping in your car!
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Review from Jackie D.
1/30/2010 1 Check-in Here
Are you serious!?!?!?! I've stayed at better hostels in Malaysia...seriously. Not that Southeast Asia is bad at all, considering I was born in the PI...Now let's talk about this hotel, well is this really a hotel..um...no! Their was a piece of feces in the hall, was it human, sorry I didn't grab it and examine, but it was shit, this I know! Hotel was basic, fine, I'm a world traveler in my opinion, but shit..really! There was no hot water either, I've done this before, but LA at 60 bucks a pop, very different than my $60 hostel in Van Gogh district in Amsterdam. The one in Holland had no feces, but included croissant & coffee. This place makes Travelodge look like the Ritz!
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Review from Lofter D.
Los Angeles, CA
5/7/2008
Run from this place! Piles of human feces by your bed. Front desk people refusing refunds. Moldy air, and people literally doing drugs in the elevator. Don't say you weren't warned.
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Review from Laura H.
Santa Cruz, CA
7/17/2010
You get what you pay for. That's all you have to know. I love how cheap rooms are at this hotel, I payed $55 for a Friday night and it really WASN'T as bad as some of the reviews make it sound. I had a private bathroom in my room and there was no A/C buut there is a ceiling fan that did the job, the room didn't feel stuffy. The sheets were clean but I don't think the carpet was, my feet were super dirty after having walked around the room. It's a cool place, I'd definitely stay there again if I had to, can't complain anything except the statues as you walk in....I HATE STATUES!!
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Review from Garrett F.
Raleigh, NC
7/13/2010
Stayed there one night. The place does not have its own parking, so be sure to account for that in your price. The room was fine and I felt safe once inside the hotel. However, outside was a different story. The place would be best suited for those who didn't bring a car with them, or needed a longer term place to stay.
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Review from Luis R.
Los Angeles, CA
7/20/2009
i paid around $49 bux for a queen bed , rest room & living room area. it was a steal! only negative is that there was no A/C and it was reallly hot!!!! we got a decent room in the 15th floor! i do admit it was a bit sketchy outside, but nothing we couldn't handle. I never felt that i was in any danger. The staff didn't seem to mind that i was with a group of people & that i was walking around the lobby with a 30 pack .we had a heck of a party, will make sure to check this place again..maybe not in the summer though, cuz it is very hot!!!!!!!!!!
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Review from Andriy O.
Hawaiian Gardens, CA
4/19/2011
is much crack addicted staying here. i hear a crunch, when looking down ward, i see is pipe of a drug smoker who left it behind to step upon. needle junk user and barking homeless shelter, not for the tourist.
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Review from Hannah B.
Bluffton, SC
3/6/2008
It is what it is. The staff is nice and the rooms are clean and cheap. No one bothered us and we got to see LA for a week for less than the cost of one night's hotel room in other places.
