· We were in a room that communicated with the rooms on both sides. Conversations were perfectly clear, word-by-word. I have stayed at Holiday Inns that were quieter than that.

· In addition, our room was close to a supply room, so we would hear the maids in their early morning pow-wows.

· We did not have a room with a view, which is fine. Our room overlooked an alley, and my guess is that the room was exactly above the laundry area, because the ceiling of the balcony was coated with dryer lint.

· With the gorgeous weather that Santa Monica has, it is a crime to have fake vegetation in your hotel. I understand the palm trees inside the building, but what about the ones by the pool? What about the rest of the shrubbery?

· We ate at the bar twice. Maybe by then I was oversensitive to everything, but when a waitress asks me “are you going to need change for that?” after less than terrific service, I get slightly irritated.

My wife & I and our 2 children have just returned from a very happy 3 week holiday in California. All of our hotel accomodation was fine except for this one which was by far the most expensive. The staff at reception were cool and aloof throughout. When we were shown to our room (partial sea view for an extra cost) it stank of smoke, When we rang down to the reception the lady refused initially to accept that people could have smoked in the room but was persuaded by the bell hop who waited with us. We were then shown another room which was facing the street and vastly inferior. We finally (tired & grumpy) took the smokey room after it was sprayed to reduce some of the smell. Throughout this the staff were completely unapologetic and, seemingly uncaring. I expected a lot more for my money generally. There seemed to be an air of arrogance throughout the hotel which made it cold & impersonal for family travellers. On the positive side, the hotel is almost on the beach which is great but otherwise I will go a long way to avoid staying here again.
PS I am a regular business & leisure traveller and do not believe we were expecting too much.

Overpriced, over-rated for the area. Would not feel safe walking around that area on my own. This was the most expensive hotel we stayed in on our vacation and was probably the one we liked the least. The receptionist was very friendly but it was such poor value for money.

I tried to book directly with the hotel where I was first redirected to the internet to join a "loew's frequent user" club to obtain free upgrades and special perks such as wine, fruit and newspapers. I then called back and was promised a fruit basket and bottled water upon arrival. We reserved an ocean view balcony room with seating on the balcony. Upon arrival we were escorted to a room with no fruit basket and a tiny balcony that was too small to accomodate seating. I called the front desk who said they would check to see if we could be relocated. When no one called me after 40 minutes, I called again and they kindly relocated us to a balcony room. However, they never provided the fruit basket and water. It also appeared that neither the shower nor the bath had been thoroughly cleaned as there were hairs in both. Starting at 9:00 p.m. the people next to our room had four people in their room for a party and we could hear literally every word of their conversation through the connecting door. We called to complain at 11:00 p.m. and the management said they would send around security, who thereafter never arived. We could also hear every conversation in the hallway and the elevator bell that was located quite a distance from our room. The next morning we received a wakeup call at 7:15 a.m.
that we never requested. The hotel kindly credited us the $25.00 parking when we expressed our disappointment with this problem.
Although the hotel is lovely and the management was courteous, I would not stay at this hotel again. We checked out early and relocated to a different hotel.