Hotels Los Angeles County

A demonstration by about 500 people outside Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel on Thursday was well organized and peaceful, police and protest leaders agreed, even though about 60 demonstrators were arrested. Led by the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, which is trying to organize the hotel's workers, the demonstration snarled traffic along Ocean Avenue. The protesters were arrested for unlawful assembly and failing to disperse.

USC said Thursday it has agreed to buy the Radisson Hotel across from the campus just south of downtown for $26 million from Pacific West Co. The university will continue to operate the 240-room high-rise as a full-service hotel, USC officials said. The Figueroa Street hotel has accommodated visitors to the university since it was built in 1974.

The hotel workers union launched a week of marches and demonstrations to highlight organizing campaigns aimed at luxury hotels in Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles. Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel was the first target in the nationally funded campaign. A noon rally is planned for downtown Los Angeles today, with a larger march to follow Wednesday evening. Other planned actions include "human billboards" and a picket line at Loews.

Los Angeles County saw strong hotel occupancy and sizable growth in average hotel prices in April driven largely by an increase in conventioneers and other business travelers to the area, tourism officials said.

Five years after national labor leaders seized control of a foundering Westside hotel workers union, the revamped local has announced an ambitious, well-financed campaign to organize luxury beachfront resorts, starting with the prominent Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.

Strong local convention business and the nation's continuing obsession with travel helped push occupancy to nearly 80% at Los Angeles County's major hotels in March, allowing operators to raise average room prices more than 3% above rates a year ago. Average price per hotel room rose to $120.72 in March from $117.03 a year earlier, according to PKF Consulting in Los Angeles. At the same time, occupancy grew by nearly 5%.

The roughly 5,000 Democratic Party delegates and 15,000 members of the media expected to visit during the Democratic National Convention learned Tuesday where they will be staying, as convention planners released the names of 84 hotels being booked. In planning for the August 14-17 convention inside Staples Center Arena, nearly 18,000 rooms were reserved in hotels throughout Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles County's hotel operators were able to boost the average price of their rooms by roughly 5% last year without triggering a drop in demand, largely because commercial opportunities, particularly in the new technology and foreign trade sectors, have been a magnet for business travelers.

Thanks to the strong economy and resurgence of foreign travelers, Southern California hotel operators managed to boost the average price of their rooms last year while triggering little drop in demand, even in the construction-marred Anaheim area, according to reports released Thursday. Orange County occupancy held steady at about 70% while room rates rose 2.2%, to an average of $104.05, according to PKF Consulting, which monitors the hotel industry.

Sometimes you have to stand back to see something right in front of your eyes, like the way this pretty city of 87,000 on Santa Monica Bay has emerged as a top tourist destination. That should surprise no one because Santa Monica's attractions are obvious: a beautiful broad white beach, a recently renovated 1909 pier with a vintage carousel, the festive Third Street Promenade and now an unprecedented four luxury hotels right on the sand.