Our D has accepted the USC Viterbi admission! We are planning to go down for orientation in June - end or July - first week. My wife and I, we, Need recommendations for places to stay. There’s an option to stay on campus in the dorm. Or any good recommendations for hotel nearby. The USC hotel is sold-out. Open to suggestions. Thanks!
When possible, we stay at the USC Hotel https://uschotel.usc.edu/. We have also stayed at the Line Hotel in Koreatown https://www.thelinehotel.com/los-angeles/ and the JW Marriott at LA Live in Downtown LA. https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/laxjw-jw-marriott-los-angeles-la-live/ You can always just go to hotels.com and search for hotels near USC and enter in options like price, ratings, stars, etc.
The USC hotel is sold out. We stayed at the JWM last time we were there. Will look at the Line hotel or else back to JWM. We have a week during orientation and want to be there for 3-5 nights since we are OOS. 
If not at USC Hotel, we stay over in Manhattan Beach or Marina Del Rey. It’s a drive over to USC but those are super nice areas with great places to eat and shop, walk the beach, go down to Venice, etc. Since USC Hotel is full (it always is) you should stay downtown if you are just coming and going to USC, but if want to do more than that, you may want to stay elsewhere. You can get better prices at better hotels over there too. You would have to deal with the drive (traffic) to and from USC. Could split the trip with a couple downtown and a couple days somewhere else…
We stayed at Redondo Beach this time. It was the weekend so easy drive. The orientation is on weekdays.
How much time do parents spend at orientation on campus?
Ha, I am not the one to ask, but will tell you anyway. I have sent several to USC, but even for the first one, I bailed after the first presentation for parents. Such boring stuff that I thought was answered online or at Explore, or through research. You are separated from your student pretty much immediately, so you are free to attend things or sneak away. It’s super important for the student, for the parents, not so much imo. But then again, I am a 5-6 hour drive and knew I would be spending a lot of time on campus as I had an athlete there, so lots of back and forth. If someone is traveling a good distance and won’t be back except for move-in and move out kind of events, they may want to spend more time at orientation than I did. To attach a disclaimer, I have always found parent events at virtually every school all along the way pretty dreadful, but that’s me. My next Trojans were dropped off or flew in on their own.
@CADREAMIN I think folks who are proactive in researching their kids’ colleges are usually bored in those parent presentations. As for a hotel, if you are there for a few days be willing to look around and some areas might have better deals than others and are worth the drive. Santa Monica has some nice hotels within walking distance the the beach and the pier It was about 20 to 40 minutes each way to drive from there.
Very surprised that there are so few hotels within walking distance of the campus.
Agreed. We live in Seattle. So need to plan the trip. and she is only kid! 
Stay near LA Live/Staples Center and Uber in. Have your kid stay in the dorm!
Agree with above, since you are really there to be at orientation and spend time on campus - especially since you are from Seattle and this is your one and only - then stay downtown. LA Live is super cool with lots of good places to eat. If you have an extra day or two after orientation, you can check out some of the other areas mentioned for a little Socal vacation. They do have things for the parents to do throughout the day and you can explore all the nooks and crannies of campus, there are some super pretty spots throughout campus, some gorgeous buildings…hit up the bookstore.
Downtown the Intercontinental has rates that can be competitive and cheaper than some of the other Downtown hotels. I was going to book there once until my wife discovered what floor we might be on.
USC hotel is quite noisy. had a room on 10th Floor with view of campus. A lot of traffic noise whole night.
We booked the USC hotel for Orientation. And plan to stay at Residence Inn at LA Live for the move-in week!
I like Courtyard Santa Monica at 425 Colorado Avenue Santa Monica. You can take the Expo Train located just across hotel to USC (about 30 minutes ride).
@mmkedia I love the USC Hotel cause it is just so darn easy. We didn’t have an issue with noise but everytime we have been there I am so exhausted from the day’s events! We actually had good room service there - some pasta dish - late one night when pretty famished. (may have been reason it was good, ha.) Congrats on getting that for orientation. Good tip on the Courtyard @pecxs93. We try to stay at Marriott brand hotels whenever we can.
I love the Marriott brand and now that SPG(Sheraton) is part of it.
How does the Sheraton Grand downtown compare to Residence Inn LA Live or Courtyard Santa Monica.