My wife had never stayed in santa monica before. It is one of my favorite places in america, and I have been there a couple times prior to our honeymoon. Each time I stayed in a small, mom and pop hotel right off the beach. They are disappearing rather quickly. Which is a shame, because those hotels are what connect us to the history of Santa Monica and America.

We got into LAX rather late, so the hotel manager had a middle aged surfer dude sleeping in the office with our key. The "moron" (manager's words) gave us the wrong room. So the wife was not excited about the hotel right off the bat. But I reassured her that she would change her mind once i got everything situated in the morning. The manager apologized in the morning and we got our king size bed and room first thing. My wife was amazed at how close we were to the beach. you could see it from the rooftop patio. and the smell of the ocean was invigorating. my wife said that there is a feeling that comes with being so close to the pier.

Yes, the room wasnt the best. But it had recently been "updated" and was comfortable. The price was AWESOME...we spent $100 a night (taxes included) for our 9 night stay. You cant beat that in LA.

And it is centrally located. Venice beach is a short walk down the beach. 3rd street promenade is 2 blocks from the hotel (Same distance to the pier). The greatest thing about it: Two blocks down, before you turn onto the pier is the greatest italian restaurant, BRUNO'S. It is owned and run by bruno. It seats 75 people...and that is PACKED. You do not want to miss BRUNO'S, it will make your vacation.

We are going back in may and plan on staying there again.

Our room backed onto the main road and I found it quite noisy at night. Maybe new windows would keep more noise out as the current ones are just thin slats. Apart from that nice, clean room for a great price. No frills as previously stated by other reviewers. Would stay again though and recommend to others for a short stay.

Great location, good size room, clean, terrible stay. My room, next to office, had a primitive gas heater that was not properly vented. The room smelled of gas and I was forced to manaully shut it off. This is a real hazard. When I told the person in the office about it the next morning, she shrugged. Why didn't I have the night manager deal with it? He was a somewhat scary dude who shut the shades in the office and went to sleep. Skip this one.

We arrived at Seaview to spend the first 2 nights of our 8 night stay in California, my first impression was OMG, the premises looked a bit tired and when we went to check in the chap in the office was curled up asleep in the armchair with the TV blasting out, when we got his attention he advised us to come back in 1 hour as our room wasn't ready (we had arrived early) we debated going back to be honest, but I'm glad we did, in a nutshell, it's a great price for Santa Monica and the location is great, rooms was a good size, very comfy bed, kitchenette and bathroom dated but they done what we needed them to do, the staff where very laid back and very much loved watching TV in the armchair, but friendly and happy to help if we required assistance or help with where to eat etc, good value for money, we would be happy to return.
Nicola and Mark - England - Oct 2011