The location: The Paradise Motel.

Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?

A. A sleazy motel the kids get stuck in overnight when their car breaks down on their way to Tijuana.

Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

A. Somewhere between Newport Beach and Tijuana.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In Episode 7 (of season one), "The Escape". Ryan, Marissa, Seth & Summer drive down the coast to Tijuana. Along the way, a temperamental Summer grabs the wheel while Seth is driving and puts the car in a ditch. So the kids end up being forced to spend the night together in the tacky Paradise Motel.  (Summer shares the bed with Seth but warns him: "Make a move, and I rip out your jugular!")

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. An actual motel - but nowhere near Tijuana or Newport.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. It's really called The Paradise Hotel, and it's not in the best of neighborhoods. It's located on Sunset Blvd, just west of downtown Los Angeles (south of Dodger Stadium), at 1116 W. Sunset Blvd.

Here's an aerial photo map link.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A. The motel looked real in the scene, and the signs were in English, not Spanish, so I assumed it was probably a local hotel. I just did a simple Yellow Pages search of the Los Angeles area and turned up three different Paradise Hotels. The one on Sunset Blvd turned out to be the right one. I found an old postcard of the motel, and from the looks of the automobiles in that postcard, this motel has been around for at least 60 years. (Alas, the only current online reviews of the motel that I could find online were not kind, so I can't suggest staying there...)