Sandbourne Santa Monica, Autograph Collection — Hotel in Santa Monica

Unless you would like to be charged with $300+ in hidden fees then do not stay here. The new remodeling is nice, but not nice enough to deal with all the confusion, fees, and disappointments.

A few things to note: They do not tell you ahead of time any of the charges that are listed below. You will be charged $45 a night for valet service, even if you do not ever use your car, like we do. And they do not give you any other option to park your car elsewhere. You will be charged a mandatory destination fee of $50 dollars a day. That you have to spend, or else it's like flushing $$ down the drain.

In addition, you are paying to be confused the whole time. Sure, there is grace when you are transitioning to a whole new hotel stay, but it was a constant state of confusion from the staff. One person would tell us one thing, the next person would tell us something different.

The food: Though it was great, we would not have eaten there if we did not have to spend $50 dollars each day so our money wouldn't go to waste. The staff were unexperienced and did nothing for us after my husband was served very uncooked salmon, and was halfway into it and didn't notice because the lights of the restaurant were dimmed so dark!! Look it might be the vibe, but it is just not okay to do nothing after serving someone raw salmon...

The Complimentary Champagne/water at check in: We get there, check in, a guy has our bags, we are told we would get champagne, but are given this horrible refresher cocktail, and are told, that we didn't have a "stone..." or something to pay for it. We were like the guy told us from just right across the lobby to come over here. So she game us these little drink things all confused. Later we come down to the lobby and they are giving all the new incoming guests their champagne from the guy behind the check in counter. We were like, is it so hard to be organized in this place.

Bikes: We wanted to ride bikes, and they had only three available. So we waited, but then never had any update on the bikes. The next day we got the bikes, signed the waiver, and were back within 45 minutes of our 90 minute limit. Someone took them back in, and then we get a phone call, 2 hours later asking if we had returned the bikes. Where is the system, I'm sure that they would have just charged us without asking.

Beach chairs// pool attendant: There is supposed to be a pool attendant, there wasn't. We went up and down three times, being told that there would be someone after we were told there would be now. Finally a lady named Erica came to actually hear us and the other people asking for beach chairs after 30 minutes of waiting and going back & forth. We are given two chairs, which was not the "beach bundle" they said we were to be given.

Fees: I mentioned it above, but my husband and I would have never booked this place if they were doing to almost double the expense of staying there. Some people might think its's cool and don't care about hidden fees, but I want the people to know the real truth. Not to mention, that we were told at check in about these mandatory fees. Too late to cancel and get fined- again.

This was a trip for my husband and I's three year anniversary and we wanted to book a slightly nicer place, but instead are hit with double expenses, a confusing time, and a so/so stay. Please don't stay here unless you would like to be disappointed. When we saw the extra charges, we were told we would be reimbursed by one person and then not by another. And when we got home and saw a $136 dollar charge for valet, we called and asked because there was no signage or disclosure anywhere for us to know that or we would have parked somewhere else, but they say there was nothing they could do.

Also, almost everyone there was there for business, a bunch of gatherings. Which made it very awkward when you're one of the only couples at dinner and this restaurant.

Elevators: The south elevator closest to our room didn't work half the time, and the north elevator from the pool takes you to some random part...

My fiancé and I booked a week at the JW Marriott Santa Monica Le Merigot for spring break. We’d been planning for this trip for months, and were VERY excited, because it seemed (from the photos and description in the Marriott Bonvoy app) that it was a cute, beachfront hotel. I’d read some reviews that were less than flattering, but this was THE “beachfront” hotel that’s a Marriott, which is the hotel brand I primarily frequent.

Then we got here. The hotel was overbooked for the night, so there weren’t any upgrades available for Bonvoy platinum members. So, we settled into a “nice enough” room, and unpacked. Decided after that to explore the area, and the beach. It was late, so it was gonna be a quick walkabout. That’s how we discovered “beachfront” actually means “across the street, through the public parking lot, across the Pacific Coast Highway and down about 1/10 mi of sand to be on the beach.” Needless to say…this was a BIG disappointment, especially given the room rates.

When I raised this with hotel staff that night, they were polite, but didn’t really have much of a response. (It’s not like I was expecting much…they can’t really move the hotel.). I was ready to relocate…but there wasn’t anywhere to go without literally leaving town and going back to LAX, so we decided to make the best of it. Later in the week, after conversations sharing our concern over the inaccuracy of the “beachfront” label, Michael (the assistant manager) was very apologetic, and I told him again - there wasn’t anything to do, and we weren’t looking for anything; it’s just super frustrating to think you’ll be truly “beachfront” and you’re not. (We may have chosen differently had we known, which is partly why I’m writing a review, in case others feel similarly.). Michael reached back out later to take care of us, and was incredibly understanding of the frustration. The hotel team delivered - and we ended up having a great stay.

There ARE beach chairs (not loungers) and very small, clip-on umbrellas available as part of the resort fee - but you’ll be transporting them yourself, so keep that in mind. The hotel staff are OUTSTANDING. The bar staff WILL REMEMBER YOU! Housekeeping is VERY attentive! The restaurant has MAGNIFICENT food, which is surprising for “hotel food,” even at a JW Marriott. We rarely waited for anything we needed, and hotel management reached out a couple of times to check in after the initial issues when we arrived. Michael and the whole team we engaged with (and there were many!) at the hotel were outstanding, as was Eduardo at the hotel restaurant, who we saw almost every morning for breakfast.

For value of cost - it’s a little overpriced. But it was a solid experience, and we’d...

This was probably the worst hotel experience I've ever had and although I don't have a high Bonvoy status, I am a diamond level with Hilton, so I do travel a lot. Upon check in, not only did I not get the adjoining rooms I requested, but my kids were not even on the same floor. This after I booked direct (which I know is much more revenue than an Expedia) and called a few days before to confirm where I was assured the rooms would be at least near each other. So Angel at the front desk was trying to be helpful and made some moves to get us on the same floor but then the problem was that those new rooms were not ready, even though it was after 4pm. We sat in the lobby waiting, when I started to get worried about making our 5pm dinner reservation. Upon returning to the desk, miraculously now there were two rooms near each other on the 6th floor that James didn't want to give us earlier even though they were ready because they were more expensive. We ended up still having to push back the dinner reservation and we spent one night on the 6th floor. I went to the front desk at 7:30a the next morning and requested that we be able to move if adjoining rooms became available. Angel said she had not yet gotten the report for that day and agreed to let me know before she left at 3. I told her we were going to Universal Studios for the day so she'd have to call my cell. A couple of hours later as I walked through the lobby with our Uber on the way, she saw me and alerted me that indeed adjoining rooms would be available. I told her we'd be back around 7pm and could move then. Upon hearing that, another woman, Mariah, flips a complete attitude and says no, we can't "tie up" four rooms and we must go pack up now and leave our bags with the bellman to move to the new rooms when ready. I had to cancel my Uber and pay a cancelation fee. In such a rush to pack up, my daughter accidentally left an entire drawer full of her bathing suits, socks and underwear in the old room. We didn't discover this until the next morning, and despite several people checking with housekeeping and lost and found, the clothes somehow disappeared. And by the way, the room was unoccupied when they checked so there was no reason to rush us out of it! We had to go to Target and nearby stores and spend $250 to replace everything and the hotel acknowledged no responsibility even though it was Mariah's fault we  were forced to pack up like a fire drill. They comped us two drink tickets - only after I asked - which turned out were not a drink at all but $10 which means I still paid $6 for my $16 glass of wine. This hotel gives Marriott a bad name. We should have stayed at the...