UCLA is in Westwood and other than the Kimpton Palomar, I’m not aware of anything of decent quality in that area. Century City is close by with more hotels. As far as LAX, there’s a ton of posts on that topic.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/los-...d-threads.html
15 miles in LA can be over an hour in traffic; depending where you are in relation to where you want to be and time of day.