Travelodge LAX South -- El Segundo, CA

Note to self: never, ever let Concur suggest a hotel for you again.  Ever.  This isn't a motel, it's a business school study in ROI.

Class, suppose for a moment that I own a motel.  I can spend forty dollars to replace the stained carpet, or I can spend thirty dollars making the tile in the bathroom actually have grout holding it together.  Given that my average room rate is the going rate in the area minus fifteen percent, which option do I choose, to optimize my future profit?

Answer: websites only care about your published price relative to the nearby options.  Game it.  Make up the difference by charging for parking.  And stop paying for the Internet uplink.  Free wifi just means you can connect to it .. we never said it was connected to anything.  Midterm complete.

Hotel Bijou -- San Francisco, CA

Note to self: sure, why not?  It's in the tenderloin, but at an alright corner, a block from Powell Street Station.  And it's really adorable how much attention they put into the movie theme.

Sure, there was that morning where there were hypodermic plungers right there in the passenger loading zone .. but they didn't have the needles in them.

I think what tips me in its favor is the way that someone spent a TON of attention making the place have a theme.  It's really sweet, and makes a difference somehow.  Every room has a movie name.  And they have that crazy little movie theatre off the lobby.  No, really.  How cool is that?

No laundry .. but the First Coin laundry up the street was fine.  Especially if someone's bringing you an Americano.