Oceana Santa Monica LXR {US-CA}
Dec 4, 2022, 7:47 pm
Jan 1, 2023, 12:19 pm
Oceana Santa Monica LXR Hotels & Resorts
Oceana Santa Monica LXR Hotels & Resorts
,
Great Hotel for Points spend (15 Photos)
Oceana Santa Monica LXR Hotels & Resorts
Check In
I got to the hotel early and happily my room was available. The staff were super friendly and I could not have had a warmer welcome to the hotel. The reception area is quite small and felt very boutique - there is a lovely fireplace in the centre and the lavender lemonade welcome was delicious! I used 90K Hilton points per night for a 2 night stay and think it was the best use I have had out of the points. Even a few months ago, the basic room was going for $1400 a night!
I was teen to my room by one of the staff who explained the layout of the hotel nice and clearly.
Room
The room was spectacular but there was a little too much style over practicality but it did not detract from a great stay overall. The lounge area had a lovely sofa and huge TV and a little balcony with a couple of chairs. As I was on the first floor, there was a road on each side of the suite so I am not sure whether it would be a private place to sit out as you are at eye level with everyone walking along the pavement. As it happens it was raining when I was there so I never wanted to sit out.
The bedroom area is an odd shape - with a huge bed taking centre stage looking out the window, onto the road and then across to the sea. The thing that bugged me was not lights by the bed and the light switch for the room was on the wall so you had to go to bed in the dark once you had switched the lights off! There was some USBs by the bed to charge things. The other thing I found odd was the TV sort of got in the way of getting to the bed - you had to go round it and vcould only get to the bed on one side - the other side it was too close to the wall to get to it that way. Again looks beautiful but less useful when using it!
The bathroom was lovely and modern, with Bottega Veneta toiltries. They were lovely and got replenished on the second day (well apart from the conditioner weirdly!). The only thing was there was no room to put my own toiletries out - no space at all around the skink - including to rest the hairdryer! Again style over practicality!
Service
Service throughout was exemplary - always remembered my name and cheery when they said hello. There was coffee, lavender lemonade or hot chocolate out - part of the $45 resort fee..... all were good quality though. I queried a charge on my bill and it was immediately sorted - it was a room charge, of something I had not had but no issues removing it.
Dining
I ate in the only restaurant to use my $100 credit up - this is where the Hilton credit works well - $25 per person per night gave us $100 to spend over the 2 days. I had dinner in the restaurant which was nice but quite expensive - especially the wine. The breakfast was good quality too. I am not sure why you would buy coffee from the breakfast restaurant when you can get free coffee in the foyer but maybe that is my Scottishness!
Location
The hotel is a bit of a walk from the pier area in Santa Monica but that means it is quiet and has very few tourists walking past. There is a bit of a hike down to the beach as it is on the cliff - lots of stairs if you have mobility issues. You could walk up to Brentwood shops whcih had a Whole foods and many food/coffee shops if your budget does not stretch to eating in the hotel!
Overall
I have pointed out some issues with the room - mainly silly design but that should not stop you staying here. This is without doubt the best use of points I have ever made and I would be back in a heart beat! Unfortunately it rained while I was there so the outside pool area was closed and the upstairs bar with a view was also closed. However this is a hotel that people stay in their rooms for privacy - not sitting at a hotel bar!
Jan 1, 2023, 1:25 pm
Glad you enjoyed.
Jan 1, 2023, 8:27 pm
Regards
aks120
Feb 4, 2023, 9:38 am
Great stay overall, hotel was at fairly low occupancy.
No issues using our $50 credit for cocktails each night.
This time I had a hire car. It’s $60 for valet parking but the street parking across on Ocean is free overnight from 6pm until 9am except Tuesday mornings so we used the valet overnight on Monday and parked on the street the rest of the nights.
Overall I probably prefer the WA Bev Hills for sheer wow factor on points but this remains an excellent LA property, close to LAX and reasonably close to the places I like to go as a visitor to LA
Feb 4, 2023, 6:15 pm
Great stay overall, hotel was at fairly low occupancy.
No issues using our $50 credit for cocktails each night.
This time I had a hire car. It’s $60 for valet parking but the street parking across on Ocean is free overnight from 6pm until 9am except Tuesday mornings so we used the valet overnight on Monday and parked on the street the rest of the nights.
Overall I probably prefer the WA Bev Hills for sheer wow factor on points but this remains an excellent LA property, close to LAX and reasonably close to the places I like to go as a visitor to LA
David
Feb 14, 2023, 5:33 pm
Apr 19, 2023, 7:10 pm
I had booked a One-bedroom Lanai Suiteand ultimately received the Pacific One-bedroom Lanai Suitebeing Diamond member.
I had previously requested this upgrade but it was rejected via the chat function because allegedly two children don't fit in the Pacific Lanai Suite.I asked again on site whether two twin beds could be pushed into the room.This was denied for reasons of space.When I asked how it was possible that I could book this suite in this configuration, I was then offered to push a twin bed into the room and to use the sofa as additional bed.Agreed, upgrade done.Interestingly enough, the room was later equipped with two twin beds.So there was enough space.
The early check-in was just as difficult.The room appeared to be ready, the receptionist made sure it was clean too.However, he wasn't allowed to let us into the room because the head of housekeeping hadn't released the room yet.But she was on her lunch break and couldnt be reached so we had to wait another 60min. It wasnt a big deal but many things were unnecessarily complicated.
It felt that the front office team did not know their own hotel.I had to take a nightly call and didnt want to do that in the room to not wake up the family.The receptionist offered me to turn on the heaters on the terrace as they didnt have a designated room for this.He reached out to the night guard, who came and told the perplexed receptionist that the hotel indeed had a small conference room for just that.Another problem solved.
Otherwise I truly enjoyed this great little chic hotel.Very nicely furnished, personal letter with cookies in the room, free bikes to borrow.Excellent.Only the prices in the restaurant were incredibly expensive and not worth recommending. Daily credit was 50 USD.
Apr 27, 2023, 1:36 pm
Overall the stay was great. The only issue we had was someone else's breakfast was charged to our bill. I did not notice until my credit card bill arrived. The bill was $190 which should've been around $90 once the $50 credit hit the original bill of $140. I checked the folio and called the hotel to get it fixed. The clerk recognized what happened and said she would fix it. I had to call again 2 weeks later and finally it got fixed and we were credited back approximately $100.
It is not too far from Santa Monica Pier and the promenade. The area is clean and well maintained. I would definitely stay here again given the opportunity.
Jul 28, 2023, 1:19 pm
But I do think it's a good "value" use of FNCs.
Jul 28, 2023, 2:17 pm
But I do think it's a good "value" use of FNCs.
What I meant was that Trip Advisor shows glowing reviews naming every single person that works there and its hard to believe those are authentic reviews.
Jul 28, 2023, 3:06 pm
Is there a reason you want to be in Santa Monica? People also speak highly of the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills if you're just looking to burn some certificates.