Very hip, but not a place for a good nights sleep. Very noisy and an uncomfortable mattress. I complained about the noise immediately after getting to my room and the staff was happy to book me a room at another hotel but said there was no way I could get out of paying for the room at Shades. This was past 10pm on a weeknight. I did not get fully to sleep, due to noise, until after 1am. Also, terrible room lighting.

The hotel room was clean, interesting, nicely decorated, was in a great location and had a great staff. Our balcony faced the street and we weren't even awaken during naps in the middle of the afternoon - very quiet. The tempurpedic mattress and body pillows are a nice touch, as is the rolling bed tray to have breakfast in bed. The shower and tub were also very nice and clean and they had great shower supplies. My wife even used them and she is very particular about what she puts in her hair. We were able to sit on the roof of the hotel (and while very small, still cute) and relax one day while staff brought us Margaritas from the lounge downstairs for a less than exorbitant $7.50 each - cheap for LA standards. I don't think there were any serious enough complaints to aire on a website. If you want to relax, then I think Manhattan Beach and the Shade is a perfect place for you. The drawback to that is that there is not that much to do in this town, but you are close enough if you want to drive to LA.

I forgot one thing - surprisingly, I found the residents of LA to be much more friendly than those in the beach town of Manhattan Beach - who were very pretentious and snobby. However, that should not really reflect on the great service I received at the Shade - where the staff was outstanding.

We have just returned from two weeks at Shade in Manhattan Beach. The hotel is in a brilliant spot and i was able to walk around the "village" and shops, and down to the ocean and pier each day with my two small children, (my partner was working). It is located in a small square (called the metlox, which is very new) with relaxing fountain in centre and cafes/ restaurants around the edge- it was lovely. Incidently, there is a fantastic market tuesdays 12-4pm just off the square at the back of the hotel, selling delicious fresh organic foods- try the raspberry lemonade and warm popped corn.

Now onto the hotel itself. We have extremely high standards (!) and i can honestly say there is nothing i disliked about this hotel. It is contemporary and chic, in a quality way. The room was amazing (we were lucky enough to stay in the penthouse). It consisted of a large bedroom, which had a cool cyclone fire, and sunny balcony, and a lounge/bar area, which has a sofa bed in and it's own bar area with beer tap and large plasma. The bathroom has a steam room and enormous jacuzzi bath. Just perfect! i must say the beds and pillows were ridiculously comfortable, and we are looking at getting some of the pillows back home! Also, the bed was enormous. The suite has chromatherapy which is essentially coloured mood lighting which was relaxing..

On a friday and saturday night the bar seems the place to be, with nonresidents queing to get in.. lots of glamorous dressing up going on and excellent people watching potential! There are also plenty of places to hang/eat out locally. Incidentally there is no formal restaurant in the hotel per se, but you can order food in the bar or room service. The food is excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed everything, try the jamaican jerk pizza, cheese fondue, steaks and oh yes, the chocolate fondue!

There is a small pool on the roof. It is a cool roof terrace affair with chilled music playing and pink lemonade on tap. It is the type of pool you have a dip in, not olympic laps! There are sunbeds and towels up there too. The weather was beautiful during our stay so we did use the pool a bit but never saw anyone up there.

The staff on the front desk were so friendly and cool genuinely nice people, nothing was too much trouble. I felt we were really looked after and would not hesitate to stay here again. It is a superb hotel in a great location. The beach down there is amazing by the way. We hired a car one weekend and did the usual sight seeing, which was interesting, but we were glad to get back to Mahattan Beach. It's a great place to be.

To put it simply, Shade is in a class of its own. Everything is done with the utmost care and quality. From the ground level up to the SkyDeck everything is perfect. The staff here really know how to make you feel welcome and the bartenders sure can cook up a fine mojito. For a night out on the town or a place to stay for the evening, you cannot go wrong with Shade.