Venice V Hotel — Hotel in Los Angeles

If you are planning on driving, do not trust the description of having “free parking”. What it should say is “free limited parking”. This hotel is actually an apartment building and most of the tenants drive large vehicles, whereas the lot is only for compact cars, and this leads people to park like absolute imbeciles. When I stayed here there was one open space, but there was no mathematical possibility of a car being able to manoeuvre into it. The last person who parked before me had to go straight in, blocking all the other cars. Another car was parked across the street and the poor teenage driver was flabbergasted at how he would ever fit into this narrow, awkward parking lot. We laughed about what a fool’s errand it was trying to fit in the lot.

When I called the management and told them that their lot was full they offered to give me a parking pass for another lot four blocks away from the building or a map of the “free” spaces that are all around the building. What free really means is that you have to wait for one of the locals who lives in the area to leave so you can get into their spot, and an hour and a half into driving around searching for a space without seeing even one I was fed up. I told the condescending, skinny office kid, Brian, that I would just like a refund as I don’t want to have to deal with this search every day for the week that I’m staying. He said that this was not a possibility due to their ten day cancelation policy.

I will not claim to be innocent here. I called Expedia who I had booked through, who informed me that there was nothing they could do since the payment collection is at the hotel, and then I promptly yelled at the customer service agent telling her that her company is a mockery and that I will never book through them again. This was not right of me since she was just doing her job, and I do feel bad about it.

When this didn’t work, I called back and spoke with the manager of the “hotel”, Cindy. When I told her that I just wanted my money back she replied, “Well, we don’t do that.” Again, I lost my temper and swore at her since, as the manager, she could make a decision to override the policy, and she hung up on me. Then, over the next 25 minutes I was spammed with 334 emails from Expedia reconfirming my reservation. I wonder why that would happen….

Please remember, this is all BEFORE setting foot in the actual building. Now I will list the issues with the building and the room.

First, this building is old. Like, old-old. There is no elevator and the stairs are creaky, warped, and rounded off. What fun going up and down three flights of stairs every time you want to leave. There is a dirty runner scaling the stairs up to the rooms, which gives the hallway a musty odor.

The room is not the worst I’ve ever stayed in, but it was obviously thrown together without any regard for comfort or sanitation. The bathroom is small and dark, with old, cracked grout - charcoal grey to hide the mildew spots and rusty, pitted fixtures.

The soundproofing in the room is absolutely nil. I can hear the conversation of the people in the adjacent room and the guy down on the beach whistling. This isn’t necessarily an issue for me, but there are many people who require silence to sleep. So keep this in mind.

Oh, by the way - the office is four blocks down the street and is not 24 hours. And they have no parking in front of that building either.

Anyway, I had the worst experience with this property and I in no way recommend it to anyone. Even for the price, pay ten percent more and get a nice room in Santa Monica whose WiFi won’t kick you off every...

My husband and I arrived at this hotel after dark. Be forewarned that you have to drive through a urine scented alley to get to their parking lot, which is really small. We were unaware that they had valet service until a man walked up to our car and said, "Hand me your keys, and I'll park your car." He did say that he was the valet after we seemed confused, but he was wearing only a black jacket with writing on the chest that didn't identify him as being part of the hotel. We declined to use the valet and parked ourselves in a spot that wouldn't block any other vehicles. He said we had to leave our keys with him, and I refused. A gentleman came outside and said he was working the front desk and wanted to know why I was being so combative, and I explained that neither of them had any identification on them or hotel tags as being part of the hotel and I'm not just handing my keys over. He agreed to let us keep our keys since our vehicle wasn't in the way. He got us checked in and offered to help us carry our bags, and I declined. He gave us our room key, and that was all. He didn't inform us of the wifi password or anything else. We went upstairs to our room, which was really nice. We had an "ocean view" which is technically true, but you really get a better view of the walking path beside a green area where people like to take their dogs to poo and a great view of the vagrants sleeping on the beach. Do be forewarned that there are a large number of homeless hanging around this hotel. I complained to the woman at the desk the following morning and she showed me the wonderful security cameras they have so I don't have to worry about my vehicle being broken into, but that doesn't make me feel safer. She also scolded me for "over-generalizing all valets" when I told her I don't trust valets because they steal. It's not her place to tell me how to feel about my experience with valets. It's also my choice to decline the use of the valets. Even the valet who was present the following morning told us we had to give him our keys when we went to our car to grab a few things. I told him, "No, I do not," and I continued walking. When we were checking out, I did compliment how kind and helpful the desk clerk was to the gentleman who checked in before we checked out, but she didn't give us the same helpful speech about all the cool places to go and eat. As tourists to the area, we did not feel safe staying at this location. I don't care how many security cameras you have or that you have security "on patrol." We do not feel like the price of the establishment was worth the stay. Yes, the room is nice, but the location is awful, and the valets are pushy. Also, it's a long walk to dip your toes in the Pacific, so you're not really going to hear the ocean from your room, but you'll hear the people walking by outside or singing or panhandling or whatever other interesting things you might see looking down onto...

Of all hotels I have been to in the entire world, this is by far my favourite. I don't even know where to start. But between their renovations last year that provide ultra-modern but classic looking fixtures everywhere and the unbelievable location. This is the most desirable hotel on this beach that I could tell. Some useful comments for others that may care about this that people don't often post are: the toilets are elongated (great for us guys), they let me rollerskate to my room, they have bicycles in the lobby you are free to use with locks that they show you how to use. It is a 20 minute ride from LAX and RIGHT on the beach. The views from the non-penthouse room that I had were AMAZING (I did pick oceanfront view). In fact looking at the building from the outside, I think id pick the room I was in over any other room anyway. Nice lounge area where you can just look outside. The shower head is REALLY cool, it took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to turn the shower on but once i did, wow, I love that shower head. They had a steamer for clothes in the room, and a nice hair dryer and great outlets. They had "boxed" water which is better for the earth. The bar fridge looks like a Marshall amp and is fully stocked and just really cool. They had a portable bluetooth speaker sitting by the bed that you could take to the beach if you wanted to. Entry is badge access even at the lobby (so they don't have random strangers walking in typically). There are so many restaurants in the area with great food and nightlife that you will never be bored. If you are a rollerskater or skaterboarder, this is the BEST BEST BEST hotel to stay at. If you are a rollerskater and going here, I recommend walking slowly out the front of the lobby till you get to the main strip as its a bit rough (even with 78A wheels). There is a coffee place just outside the hotel with great coffee that opens at 6:30am (which was great for me as my brain was on eastern time). I could even uber some bagels from a place nearby with ease. They only issues you may encounter at this hotel are: noisy outside, if you cant handle noisey nightlife or daylife, this hotel is not for you, its in the heart of a busy area. Anyway, 5 star hotel as far as I am concerned, and very worth the high price. This is a well done example of an early 1900s building retrofitted with modern luxury features. I will always book here...