Where to stay

Century City (finish line)

0.2 mi to finish for the Fairmont; the finish is at Avenue of the Stars and Santa Monica Blvd

This is the base that makes a point-to-point race feel easy. The Fairmont Century Plaza at 2025 Avenue of the Stars is an official host hotel and the race lists it at 0.2 miles from the finish and 13 miles from the start; measured driving time from the finish is about 6 minutes. Century City is an office district, so at 5:45 a.m. it is silent, well-lit and empty, which is pleasant for a pre-dawn shuttle boarding and dull for everything else. The finish-to-start shuttle picks up on Avenue of the Stars just south of Olympic Blvd, so from here you walk to the bus rather than driving to it.

Beverly Hills (Waldorf Astoria, The Peninsula)

about 11 minutes from the finish by car

Neither is an official host hotel, so you are booking on the open market rather than into a block. Both sit roughly 11 minutes from the finish, which is close enough to be a real option and far enough that you should plan the last mile on foot or by car after you finish, not assume a straight shot. Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvd carry the course through this part of town, so the drive that takes 11 minutes on Saturday will not be the same drive on Sunday morning. Better than downtown for a walkable, pleasant Saturday evening; worse than Century City for the walk back to a shower.

Downtown LA (official host cluster and the shuttle)

race-listed distances: Westin Bonaventure 1.8 mi to start, Biltmore 2.1 mi, Sheraton Grand 2.3 mi, InterContinental 2.8 mi

Four of the five official host hotels are here: Sheraton Grand Los Angeles (711 Hope Street), The Biltmore (506 S. Grand Ave), InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown (900 Wilshire Blvd) and the Westin Bonaventure (404 S. Figueroa Street). The reason to stay here is the DTLA hotel shuttle from 500 S. Figueroa, 4 to 6 a.m., which requires a wristband you get or request at hotel check-in, so book through the official reservation channel or you will not have one. The trade is the afternoon: the only ride back downtown is the 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. return shuttle from Avenue of the Stars, so a slow finish or a long recovery in the finish area puts you against that window. Downtown is busy and mixed at street level; at 5:45 a.m. on Figueroa there will be other runners and shuttle staff, which is the main comfort argument for it.

Booking mechanics

HotelPlanner is the official hotel booking platform and carries participant rates beyond the five host properties. The Fairmont is the only host hotel on the finish side, so it goes first and it goes early; everything else near the finish is priced as ordinary Century City and Beverly Hills business inventory. If you want the DTLA shuttle, the booking channel matters, not just the hotel.