My friend and I stayed here this past weekend and just loved the hotel. It has great, old Hollywood charm with friendly, attentive staff. An attendant quickly met us at our car when we pulled up and took our bags out and parked our car in the gararge ($21/day). The lobby was warm and inviting and the person at the desk quickly checked us in. The room had a fantastic view facing north so we saw the ocean and the hills. The bathroom had a beautiful tiled floor, Aveda products, plenty of clean towels and two ropes. The room was rather large with two large beds. The first morning we had breakfast on the porch and the staff could not have been more attentive. The breakfast was delicious too. The price was great for Santa Monica at $200/night (before all the crazy taxes that are added on and the additional car parking charge). I booked the room directly on their website after checking the variety of travel search programs that all came up with the same rate.

My six-year old daughter and I stayed at this hotel last week. We were only in the area for one-night, and I chose the Georgian because of its proximity to the beach and pier. I also wanted to stay there because of its history and because I am a big fan of Art Deco.
I was very pleased with this choice, and my daughter was entranced by the way the hotel looked. We did not find the elevators to be slow and inconvenient as others have stated. It was a very short walk to the pier and the beach. The pier was perfect for entertaining her. She really enjoyed the man who stays by the carousel making huge bubbles for children to chase. We encountered a few homeless people but no one bothered us at all. I felt very safe the entire time. I found the hotel staff to be friendly and helpful, and was pleased by the amenities it offered. I would definitely recommend this place to others, and would love to stay there again.

We spent 6 nights at the Georgian in early April with our 2 kids aged 14 and 10 and I would summarise as follows :

Postives -
Great location 3 mins walk from Santa Monica Pier and 5 mins from 3rd St Promenade and the Santa Monica Place shopping centre and right across from the beach .
The suite was fabulous and loads of room for a family . We had a bedroom to ourselves - with a large and very comfortable bed - and the kids were in the lounge with large cabinet housed TVs in each . Very impressed by the accomodation and was very good value for money .
The lifts weren't as bad as some of the reviews suggested . A trifle slow but not as bad as we became exasperated by it .
We had great side views of the Pacific from the bedroom up the coast to Malibu . Even the city view - we were on the 7th floor which is the second highest floor - was actually pretty good as you looked across the roof tops of Santa Monica to the Hollywood hills .
The hotel provided a free USA Today newspaper M - F which was great for breakfast reading .

Negatives -
we were there when the weather wasn't particularly great and thus seemed to amplify the lack of facilities in the evening . Being Scottish we particularly were disappointed at the bar closing so early . It maybe states 9pm close but we found in reality last orders were in fact 8.45 .
Breakfast would appear to be made outwith the hotel and on one occassion it turned up cold , presumably because of the time it took for it to arrive from wherever it was being made . But as the weather was quite cold we didn't get the full " vibe " of breakfast on the terrace on a lovely sunny morning . But even then I would have thought the traffic would have been a bit intrusive ( the hotel is on Ocean Avenue which is a reasonably busy road ) .
The bathrooms are probably disproportionately small for a suite . In fact they are tiny really but only a small gripe as I'd rather have larger living accomodation which is what the suite delivered !
The staff are largely Hispanic - which is the case for most of LA of course - and not all of them were terribly great at speaking English so a language barrier did exist on occassion . But overall the service was actually ok .
The hotel is on a main road artery so a bit of night / early morning road noise was unavoidable . I guess some non-city dwellers may find this intrusive on occassion .

Would I go back ? Yes I probably would , simply because it has a great location and the suite was actually quite impressive .

The hotel is old, elevators are slow & ancient. The Georgian needs some serious renovations to their facility - the rooms, especially. The ongoing construction is noisy on the lower floors during the day. The staff and service were very friendly, prompt, and courteous.The food was very good, and the hotel is close to the Pier,3rd St Promenade & other attractions. Those pluses saved my visit there. I was upgraded to a Suite on a lower floor with a poor ocean view, but at least the room was quiet, larger, cleaner, & much nicer. If you're looking for excellent ocean views, stay on the top floor (8th I believe)in a room/Suite, or you'll be viewing palm trees, not the ocean. Lower floors offer good views between trees, but street noise & construction kill the mood. The lobby lounge & cafe setting entering the hotel is charming. Good drinks!