We have just returned from a trip around America where we had a four night stay at the Sea Shore. We found this to be a top motel for the price and location. The rooms are neat and clean and the surrounding area has everything you need. There is a laundrette next door, great bars and resturants near by. The staff are friendly and helpful, we really enjoyed our stay at the Sea Shore.

This motel is in a great location! Main Street is absolutely delightful and the Tide Shuttle Bus is super convenient! It is only 25 cents and picks you up right outside the motel and takes you up and down Main Street, to the Third Street Promenade and to the Santa Monica Pier & Beach.

Pros....
*Great Location, Fabulous & Helpful Staff, Very Reasonable Price, Decent Size Room, Shuttle Bus Very Convenient

Cons....
*Extremely Noisy, Outdated Room Furnishings, Bathroom Not Always Completely Cleaned, Towels Old & Stained

If vacationing in California wasn't so expensive, I would of chosen somewhere else. However the location, friendly staff & price made up for the negatives.

Firstly, the few good things about this motel. The staff were excellent. Very friendly and able to answer all our questions. And its cheap. Thats about it.

We came to Santa Monica after Vegas and Maui for the final part of our summer vacation. This was the 4th place we stayed in overall and it was by far the worst. We were in the old building in a double room. The bed was very small and was like a rock. The hardest, most uncomfortable bed i've ever 'slept' in. It was so hard that neither of us slept well for any of our 5 nights.

Though of course it the bed had been comfy, we wouldn't have slept anyway because of the noise. We could hear the noise from the room above, the room either side, the courtyard and carpark, the street, and also when anybody in basically the whole motel opened or closed a door. (which seemed to be slammed closed by everyone)

On first arriving in the motel, my girlfriend immediately checked out the bathroom (her thing in hotels) and found hairs in the shower and stains on the towels. Get new cleaning staff!!!

The bedroom was clean but very dull and cold, with patches of paint on the wall making it look very run-down.

The A/C in the room above us dripped on to our own A/C outside our window and was so noisy one night that it woke us both up. To give management their due, when i complained they did put a towel on top of our A/C to muffle the sound. But another night of sleep had already been ruined.

The area (Main Street) is lovely with great shops and restaurants and the bus to Santa Monica is right outside the motel door. That was great.

But if i ever come back to Santa Monica i will spend a bit extra and stay somewhere else a bit more modern. And less NOISY!!!!!

We gave the motel a try in early June weekend because of its high marks from follow travellers, its location and reasonable room rates plus complimentary overnight parking. The full name of the family-run lodging is "Sea Shore Motel & Suites." The older building of motel rooms (where the run down dimmed reception office locates) are 2 stories and the fairly new suites are only on the 2nd floor (there are 4 suites) on another building.

Indeed, the older motel rooms and suites are separated by a laundromate, a retail store and an apartment building but we didn't know that UNTIL we checked into our rooms. The photos on motel's website only show viewers of the main/older building, so I thought they converted some rooms upstairs into suites. I thought all types of rooms are in one building and I was so wrong about that!

The motel staff sent me email confirmation but didn't reveal to me that there would be a distance between 2 rooms and would that be a concern?. We reserved a room with 2 double (queen) beds and a suite with a king-sized bed with a kitchen. We thought we'd have rooms close to each other, so I learned that I better ask more clear questions.

My parents arrived at the motel first and checked into the 2 double-beds-room only had to leave the room because the cleaning agents the motel used were quite strong and wouldn't go away even after opening the windows. When we let the person-in-charge at the reception know, he kindly showed us another vacant room that was closer to the Main street, it was a room that's got more natural light, but one could hear the traffic noise from the street and the strong cleaning chemical smell remained, so my parents decided to stay at the room they were given at first place. I felt bad about it but the motel didn't do anything to improve the situation.

Because I have a young baby, so we reserved a suite which has only been built not long ago so the decor is brighter, the ceiling is higher, a more pleasant feel than the older motel rooms. However, there is view of garbage and boring apartment outside the balcony. There is no scenic view to speak of. Also, we got a suite with 2 queen-sized beds what wasn't what we reserved but the other suites were all checked in already to make a suite change which was all right.

When we checked into the suite the pre-requested complimentary crib (playpen) was already set up and ready for us to use which was very appreciated.

The previous reviewer/parent mentioned that there is no soundproof to speak of between the living room and bedroom -- I found it to be a prevelent problem in Ameican buildings. I'd lobby for soundproof implementation in all living spaces!

Most of the accommodations in Santa Monica charge for parking, but this motel doesn't so that was one of the deciding factors to choose this motel, but I was disappointed with the parking situation. For the rooms in the older building which has its own parking area but it's often full and crammed.

Then for suite dwellers, our parking spaces are right beneath the suites on the 1st floor. The 1st night after we came back from dinner, we couldn't park our mid-sized car becasue someone's giant SUV pretty much dominated our parking space too! So I told the person-in-charge and he said he'd tell the customer to park well the next day? But the next day a different car was parked there?! I thought we were required to stay for at least 2 nights there during weekends. In any case, the space was still too tight for my car to get in so I parked somewhere outside that parking area and hope it would be all right.

During the day when we went back to the motel, we saw some customers of the laundromate and retail shop also parked in that area! Our "free" designated parking space was often occupied! I hope you'd have a better experience! And what could we say about giant cars and regular sized cars competing for the same sized parking space?!

We were in town for a wedding so we didn't get to explore the Main Street and the neighborhood which seems to be eclectic. I am glad to learn that the Sunday Farmer's Market right across from the motel was a good one. The Pacific ocean is 2 blocks west of the motel.

I've been trusting tripadvisor reviews to select accommodations and also have been sharing my own experiences here and I hope with each new review I am giving you the informed travellers new information about this motel. It's very beneficial to prepare by knowing more before you go to your choice of interest and then be open and flexible to aquire your own reality and share what you find to better other travellers' experiences!