We stayed here a couple nights because I wanted to be near the beach, but not spend $400 + per night. I really had no problem with the place - the room was clean and so was the bathroom. The shower was the old vintage pink tile, and the grout was dark in places, but otherwise everything was ok. It reminded me of the motels we stayed in when I was a kid in the 60s. The traffic was noisy, but we did not have any trouble sleeping. The location was great. The pier, beach, restaurants and shopping are all walking distance. Parking was limited - but it seemed like everyone had a place. I would stay here again.

I stayed at the 'hotel' for 4 nights on the 6th April 2007.

The location of this hotel is amazing! Walking distance to the pier, beach and shops. The outside appearance of this hotel isn't to my tastes, but that was not a problem - I knew what it looked like before I booked it.

Being a bit picky, my first impressions of the staff weren't great, as the person who gave us our room keys, although very polite, was wearing a string top, which didn't put a cross a message of professionalism.

Unfortunately when we got into our room, we were in the triple suite, there was the packaging from a burger on one of the beds.

The room itself didn't give me the impression on being particularly clean, I felt like the carpet and curtains needed to be thoroughly cleaned. The bedding sheets, which were an off-white / cream colour didn't protray a clean look or feel. The blankets and bedspreads felt like they needed to be thrown out and replaced with cotton blanklets. I don't think they had been cleaned before, or at least in a long while.

My final issue is that every time the 'cleaner' had been in our room to make our beds / replace the towels etc... (she never left enough towels - only 2 when there were 4 of us in the room)long black hairs were everywhere, including on the towels and IN the beds. I would like to stress that this I found to be disgusting.

Although this hotel is cheap compared to the others in the area, I really wouldn't recommend it to anyone the way it is at the moment. It is my opinion that the management need to spend money cleaning it up and training staff on how to clean the rooms.

I went there expecting to stay in a 'no frills' budget clean room, I actually stayed in the 'no frills' cheap dirty room.

I have added pictures purely to show the layout of the triple suite.

I was apprehensive about booking the Ocean Lodge, due to some of the reviews posted here, but as it was only for one night, I thought I'd bite the bullet.

I needn't have worried! The Ocean Lodge was excellent.

You can't ask for a better location in Santa Monica. It was spitting distance from the pier.

We arrived long before the advised check-in time and our room wasn't ready. The front desk clerk was very helpful, and got it turned around within an hour or so.

The room was clean and a nice size. It was much better than the motel-style exterior would indicate. The room was equipped with a fridge. And it had the best smelling soap!

The hotel didn't offer any breakfast, but complimentary hot beverages are available at times when the front desk is open. There is also a complimentary internet terminal located at the front desk which can be used during office hours. This is limited to a 15 session if someone is waiting.

I was very impressed with this hotel.

The room had dust falling from the ceiling fan, so my mom & I both got sick. We had to go buy medication and we looked for an air purifier!

There are no ocean view or particial ocean view rooms in this hotel.

There is no airconditioning in the rooms! You have to open a window &/or use the ceiling fans.

Some strangers knocked on our door at 3 am Tuesday morining & threw rubbish at our door. There was no one at the front desk, so we called the police.

Parking is horrible! We rented a med size car & it wouldn't fit in there tiny parking spaces without hitting someone elses car door. We had to sweeze past the other parked cars to get in & out of our car. And, there aren't enough spaces for all of the guest in the hotel. Sometimes, we had to park on the street & there was no one at the front desk to help us. Most people have to back out onto the hwy (which is against the law) in order to get out of the parking lot. Someone almost back into us as we where coming into the hotel; because you can hardly turn around to face front, in the parking lot.

There's a bar next to the hotel & the people come out load & drunk. And, there's constrction going on on the side of the hotel.

There is no one available to help you at the front desk between some time around midnight & sometime in the morining.
Our plane left at 6am. Since there was no staff availble, I had to sweeze our room keys under the office door window. To this day, I don't know if they ever recieved our room keys.

We will never stay in a place like this again! It's more like a motel, than a hotel!

My advise is, pay the $200 plus a night & go to a clean, secure hotel someplace else. Find a hotel with round the clock security & front desk service.
And if you have any kind of allergies, stay away from this hotel.