We stayed here in February and spent 2 nights doing LA and environs as genuine tourists. The building is right on the beach at Santa Monica and is pretty much handy for everywhere. You arrive, they unload and take your vehicle away for you. The Reception staff and Concierge are very welcoming eager to please. The rooms are cosy (smallish) but very well equipped with lots of gadgets, flat screens TV's, books, dvds and a view of the beach. We dined first night in the hotel beach restaurant which is simply THE place to be. Good food and wine and well trained staff. Breakfast brunch on Sundays is an institution - the beautiful people brunch there after a bracing walk up the beach front. Second night, we dined at the famous Boa Steak House in Santa Monica, recommended by the Concierge. Again great food and lots of excellent food and wine and more beautiful people (silicon and wigs!). The Hotel pool was being rennovated whilst we were there(shame - looked nice) and everything in our bedroom, and I mean everything, was available for purchase....!! Would we return - definitely. A modern comfortable and stylish hotel in a great location. Not cheap, but then quality always does come at a price!!!

Checked into Shutters yesterday, having made our reservation on the recommendations of friends and reputation. The construction is a horrible mess; the main restaurant closed but not disclosed; the staff not knowledgeable; unbelievable noise in the streets. It took us about 3 hours to decide that we had to move out asap -- unfortunately that was after we were too exhausted to move. We stuck it out for the night, but are thankfully gone this morning. Failure to disclose all of these issues and still charge full rates is criminal!

I have always stayed at Shutters or Casa del Mar next door. I love both hotels but during a recent visit the construction was very disruptive. I do feel the remodeling is needed so I look forward to a return when all is done.

We just returned from a brief stay at Shutters and I have to agree with other reviewers that it must be noted that the construction going on is very disruptive. At checkin we were told that our room was located in the courtyard and that the pool was unavailable because there was some work going on, but that "it shouldn't disturb you." We proceeded to the room and could hear the noise from the hallway even before entering the room. We returned to the desk and were promptly moved to another room. The noise of this renovation is very loud and many of the rooms surround the pool, so it affects a great percentage of the hotel. They really should inform everyone at the time of reservation. We were quite annoyed at the way that whole thing was handled. Also, there was no bellman available either at checkin or when we changed rooms to assist us w/ our luggage.

The main restaurant is also closed for renovation. It was hard to get a seating at certain times w/ only one restaurant serving the whole hotel. It's impossible to acheive the level of service one would expect at a 5 star hotel during a project like this. All in all it was comfortable, but we were disappointed in the lack of info regarding the extent of this renovation.

As far as the rest of the services... We found the restaurant and patio to be very comfortable, with good food and a great wait staff. Very nice baths. Very nice linens. Room service fairly prompt. The rooms were very clean, but they were much smaller and darker than we had anticipated, with very low ceilings.