I would highly recommend you stay in west LA (preferably the Santa Monica area). At hotels.com i see many hotels for around $200 a nite. You will thank us later…
Is Fastrak compatible with EZ Pass?
I checked Marina Del Ray and there are only 2 hotels available - one for $326/night and the other for over $1,000/night (the Ritz Carlton)
Here’s the Sheraton in Culver City on Booking.com
@NewJeffCT what week are you looking at?
@NewJeffCT unfortunately Fastrak only works in California and nothing else is compatible. https://turnpikeinfo.com/toll-passes.php?state=california
The hotels in Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Venice will be really expensive at all times. Culver City used to be cheap but nicer ones are all expensive too. Not only that, some of the hotels are starting to charge additional resort fees starting last year. I think I had mentioned The Line in Koreatown, they’re probably around $200 a night during the week, that’s a very nice 4-star place in between USC and UCLA. I guess it depends on what your budget and amenities and how many stars you are looking for.
Santa Barbara Hilton runs discounts in the winter…highly recommend this hotel if it’s affordable.
we’re looking mid March
There appears to be a few hotels/motels at or near the Santa Monica Pier for under $300/night. 
Come to the beach. The ocean is calling you. Answer the phone.
I’d be up for it, but my wife would have a stroke if we paid that much for a hotel - not even for Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
March 15 - 19 (Mid March) Aire Hotel, Venice Beach - just under $800 incl taxes
Four Points by Sheraton (vry convenient) near LAX $500 for 4 nights incl taxes
Hilton LAX $530 incl taxes 4 nights
I think if you can get a refund from Hawthorne, there are more convenient options.
I plugged in March 19-21 for any 4 star hotels between $100-200 somewhere between USC and UCLA, and yep, the Line in Koreatown came up, pretty much the only match. $177 per night with 2 double beds. Since I’ve personally stayed there before, I can highly recommend the place, right across the street from a Metro station, close to Hollywood and to tons of restaurants, 10 minute drive or so to USC, probably around a 30 minute drive to UCLA. Public transportation - 30 min to USC by Metro (one transfer), 1 hour to UCLA, there’s a 20 bus that goes straight down Wilshire pretty close to the UCLA campus.
Just keep in mind you will run into this when visiting your student at college too. CA can be $$$, especially LA.
I think the Four Points looks nice!
@ProfessorPlum168 - I tried hotels.com - where did you get $177 for The Line? When I tried it, it was well over $200
@NewJeffCT I used Kayak, which said that Agoda had that rate that I specified.
When we took my daughter to look at UCLA, we stayed at the Hampton Inn in Sherman Oaks. It was a pretty decent hotel. It was about 7 miles to UCLA, but it did take about 25 minutes to get to UCLA in traffic. I think our rate was about $160 a night.
thanks - Sherman Oaks sounds like a potential option. About 10 years back, I had a potential job opportunity in Woodlands Hills and I remember casually browsing homes in Sherman Oaks & Thousand Oaks at the time… however, my wife got a huge promotion at work before they were going to fly us out there for my interview, so we declined because the housing costs were much higher there.
Found another pretty good hotel for you that might fit most of your criteria. The Best Western Royal Palace. http://www.bestwesternroyalpalace.com/ It’s “only” a 3-star-ish hotel, but it has pretty much excellent reviews from TripAdvisor. And only valet parking is available, at $17 a night, in and out. But the location can’t be beat, 10 minute drive to UCLA at almost any time of the day, and the Metro station is literally right outside the door, about a 35 minute ride to USC; about a 20-30 minute drive to USC in the morning. Excellent neighborhood, and very close to Santa Monica and Hollywood. Rates for double beds is around $140-ish/night during the week in March.
I didn’t read all the posts so this may have already been addressed.
We toured LMU and USC in the same day. LMU in the morning and USC in the afternoon. We even had time to eat lunch at the USC Village which is amazing and not to be missed.
USC guarantees housing for two years. My D is a freshman there but got too merit from LMU and Chapman. Her best friend goes to LMU and loves it!
My other D is at one of the Claremonts. She loves the consortium. It really is a special place and worth checking out as each campus has its own vibe. I think most kids apply to a few of the schools. Mine applied to two of them.
Thanks Marcie.
@ProfessorPlum168 - we saw a pretty good Air B&B in or near downtown LA near Chinatown (according to the circle on the map that you get before booking). That seems to be a good location to USC at least? Though, it’s farther to UCLA.
When I had mentioned Hawthorne before, a few people had mentioned while that the town itself is okay, it’s not the best of drives to get to USC- would that also hold for other areas south of LA? I saw Signal Hill/Long Beach on another Air B&B.
actually, from Hawthorne going to USC is partly an opposite commute I would think, so it wouldn’t be too bad. Going from Hawthorne to UCLA is a bear though since you would hit all the 405 and 110 traffic all morning. Plus you have more options using the Metro to get to USC. Long Beach would not be ideal for UCLA and getting a bit further for USC.
Chinatown is fairly safe though the demographics have somewhat changed throughout the years. More of a Vietnamese/Cambodia town more than anything nowadays, if that means anything to you. It’s different than other Chinatowns you may have experienced - not bustling and full of life. (the real Chinese area is Monterey Park and surrounding areas). The Little Tokyo area next door is nice. Parts of downtown you definitely want to avoid at night, namely the Skid Row area. Yes, Chinatown isn’t too far away from USC, but probably still a 45 minute drive (or more) to UCLA in the daytime.