I stayed there back in June 2006. The hotel is rather expensive ($300ish per night), but then so are the other nice hotels in Santa Monica. I was fortunate to be able to use both my EEO certificates at the property (B1G1F weekend night and B1G1F room service entrée), so it was a very good value for me.

The hotel is just a few blocks south of the Santa Monica pier. Unfortunately there is a new apartment building that was build right in front of the hotel’s beach view, so now the hotel is effectively one block from the beach. The hotel is roughly shaped like a square bottomed “U” with the open end of the “U: facing the ocean. The rooms on the interior south facing side of the “U” have an angled view of the ocean, but don’t think beach front. As MR Gold I was upgraded to one of these limited ocean view rooms. It came with a large patio, spacious basic marble bathroom (floor and bath), comfortable furnishing (nicer than a regular Marriott), great bed with Italian sheets, and best of all a rubber fishy. The room also had good quiet air conditioning with good soundproofing between rooms (or I had quiet neighbors). Be warned that some of the rooms face a busy road (base of the “U”) … these would be very disappointing.

As MR Gold I was given two $15 credits for breakfast for each night because there is no lounge at the property. They were even good for room service, which was a nice surprise. We ate breakfast on the patio each day which was very enjoyable with good food and nice presentation.

The plot of land the hotel sits on is not very big, so there is not much space for resort facilities. The pool is very small as is the courtyard inside the “U”. But it is nicely done with some nice fountain features and comfortable outside furniture and bar service.

We did not have a car (we took the Big Blue bus from LAX) and were able to walk to all of the Santa Monica beach area sights. We also walked down to Venice Beach. We had lunch at Lula Cocina Mexicana on Main Street. I absolutely loved the food there.

All in all I enjoyed my stay at the Le Merigot. If I could use EEO certs I would return, but I would not pay $300 a night to stay there.