Great hotel, very good service and cleanliness. Fully equipped gym. Only downside the swimming pool although lovely and warm (as it is heated), the position is in the shade most of the day and the beach a long walk down. Restaurant quite pricey but apart from this I would recommend this hotel. Great location for restaurants and shopping.

This is a lovely hotel with two very different wings. We stayed in the Ocean Tower. The room was rather small, but was very well appointed, with a small balcony and beautiful ocean views from our upper floor room. The bathroom was small but very nice, and, as another reviewer mentioned, strangely had a louvered, rather than solid door. The service was impeccable: the bellhops, valets, and room service personnel were all extraordinary. The location is great: the lively Third Street Promenade with shopping and restaurants is just steps away, the very wide beach is across the highway but access is down a steep staircase. Only a 10 minute walk, but not one I would have wanted to do with small children or carrying a lot of beach gear. Our only disappointment: it took far too much effort on our part to get an error on our bill corrected.

Having stayed in a dive in Anaheim, this was a little piece of luxury to relax and recover from Disney. I agree, it isn't the quietest hotel, and isn't very close to the beach, but really none are, but it has the luxury one would expect from a Fairmont. The room was a good sized, with two double beds, and beautiful solid mahogony furniture.

The real differentiator from other hotels was the quality of service. The concierge was very helpful recommending and booking restaurants and routes to get to places. The children were exhausted so we went to put a DVD on, but no DVD or VCR in the room, even though it was listed in the info. Asked the front desk, and ping, in was wheeled in to the room, followed by freshly baked cookies and milk for the chlldren. True Canadian service.

The outdoor pool was warm, not particularly large, but surrounded by greenery, and very idylic. The changing rooms were like a spa.

The public areas were all quite intimate, not the impersonal big spaces of many US hotels. Although there were no coffee machines in the room, there was quick, delicious service at the piano bar for $2 a cup.

Location was good, less than 5 mins walk to the shops and restaurants, 10 mins to the beach, although down the steps was a little awkward with the pram, so we walked up to the pier next time.

Valet parking was expensive, but the car was safe, our hire car was next to a beautiful Ferrari, and the staff were great.

So why didn't we give it a five? Well we had a really rude woman, who ran the breakfast service. We waited over 15 mins to get served at 11am on Sunday, not a busy time, and she was rude, put us on a filthy table and never apologised. The waiter tried to make amends. One bad apple shouldn't ruin a review, but it did downgrade the rating to 4.

Never again will I stay here. 5 rooms in 4 nights, which invariably suffered from either the noise of elevators, the road (big, old windows with poor double glazing) or noise of air-conditioning - so loud in two of the rooms it felt like they were vibrating and at first I thought it was a swimming pool pump.

Some of the staff were helpful in trying to find a solution, others indifferent or downright rude. If the whole town hadn't been booked solid I would have checked out. I may have ended up in a room with a nice ocean view but I would frankly have preferred a good night's sleep!