To me it sounds like a leisure trip, a site and see type trip. That the family isn't opening up about why she was here is a bit strange, unless they know she went to meet up with someone. However, why wouldn't that person here in LA, if that's where they were/are, not tell her about staying at The Cecil? It's very well known here if you are from Los Angeles, that's not a hotel you recommend for friends.
Which then leads me to believe if she was visiting someone it wasn't in LA first. I wonder what other hotels she was planning on staying at in Santa Cruz?
This hotel, however, is located right smack int he middle of the Fashion District. FIDM is right up the street. Not that my sleuthing has anything to do with FIDM, I did find another Elisa Lam online that is an aspiring model. I cannot tell if they are the same person based on the picture at the modeling site (her head is down, and her arms are raising her hair). FIDM is known to scout models for shoots and fashions shows the school has. I am unsure if the school provides that for the shows, or if the students are required to provide it. AGAIN - THIS PROBABLY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS ELISA LAM GOING MISSING, just something I noticed.
From the brother-in-law's twitter page, it appears that he contacted an account associated with a hostel/lodging service. To me that appears that she probably found lodging through their site and booked through those sites.
Maybe there isn't anyone to meet with at all?
Here is the twitter he was communicating with and reaching out to:
https://twitter.com/Hostelling
Based in UK? Maybe Elisa might be quite the seasoned traveler already.
(Sidenote: The Cecil didn't come up for me in a booking search, so unsure why they are reaching out to this company. Maybe to reach hostels around the globe?)
Hearing about the phone being left behind doesn't make me feel very good either. I shouldn't have read all those reviews last night cause it's really heartbreaking to think something bad happened. I was trying to hold on to that bit of hope...
Sorry for the long post, and the rambling.