I stayed here for a couple of nights. It was very reasonably priced especially for Santa Monica. It's in a very good location. Just a ten minute walk to Main Street in Santa Monica, not a far walk to the Pier and the beach. The only dissapointment I have is with Santa Monica Beach itself. Don't get me wrong it's clean and beautiful, but there are no stalls or shops along the beach. But then again Venice Beach is just a short walk away where you'll find shops, stalls, muscle beach, restaraunts, bars ect. I'm choosing to stay here again when I go back later this year as the hotel staff are very friendly and helpfull. The hotel itself is safe, clean, free internet access in all rooms and has a gym.

We stayed at the Gateway Hotel on the 14th June as a stop over before heading out on a tour of South West USA. We had just flown into LAX from the UK and had been up for 24 hrs. We found the room to be clean, comfortable and well fitted if a little gloomy. The staff were OK but not particularly friendly. The free use of a computer access in the lobby was a big help for e-mailing.The hotel was further from downtown and the beach than we expected, 8 or 9 blocks away, so we didnt venture out that evening.We didnt think much of the iHop restaurant (not part of the hotel) ,an average diner where it was difficult to find anything not fried.(They even had deep fried cheesecake!).
One comment about the hotel, my wife is claustrophobic and only enters lifts if there is absolutley no other way to get between floors- quite happy to use the stairs. In this hotel the only stairs between floors are at the rear linking external landings/balconies. For security reasons the doors to the stairs on the ground floor were locked and so if you wanted to use the stairs you had to go and find a member of staff who was available to come and unlock the door. Quite inconvenient.
We had breakfast in Santa Monica (not included in the room rate) and enjoyed a short visit to the downtown area, pier and beach.

We stayed here for four nights as part of a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway - this was our last stop and served as our base for exploring LA.

All in all it was pretty good - plenty of (underground) parking, an IHOP on site and a McDonalds slightly up Santa Monica Blvd. LA is about 30 minutes away via the confusing highways (thank God for sat nav) while the local area does have a good range of food outlets.

All in all not a bad hotel - nothing amazingly magnificent but another perfectly acceptable stay. Big thanks to the night receptionist who tried his hardest to get us to the place we wanted to eat - we never found it in the end but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying!

We stayed here as our second last stay to complete our American Dream trip. It was completely different to any of the hotels that we stayed in from New York to Orlando and Las Vegas. The people were very friendly and helpful when booking any trips. I felt that it was a bit far away from LA, Beverly Hills, etc, but this was just what we needed after a rather hectic holiday. The beach at Santa Monica is wonderful as well as the shopping around the area. The restaurant at the end of the Santa Monica pier was fantastic. We ordered a very nice mexican meal and a fishbowl - yummy. Due to our accent (South African so we speak Afrikaans - similar to Dutch), the table next to us came over to buy us a drink. They were locals from Santa Monica and took as around town to give us the true LA experience. I loved the people from Santa Monica and definitely recommend this hotel and place for future travelers. The pancake shop next to the hotel is must for a lovely breakfast.