SureStay by Best Western Santa Monica — Hotel in Santa Monica

My room was very clean, as well as the lobby and the dining area for the complimentary breakfast. At the time of my stay, my room was very quiet. I flew in from the East Coast exhausted, with very little sleep. I arrived early prior to check in time, and they were able to get me into a room.

When I was renting a car at LAX, I had the option of choosing an all EV car. But, turned it down because I wasn't sure where I was going to be able to find a charging station. This hotel actually provides free charging stations for EV cars. Good to know for my next trip to save me the crazy costs of California gas prices, which are currently $5.10/gal. Another GREAT perk is that parking is FREE, and self parking! Please do not change this. Most of the other hotels in the area charge outrageous prices to park your car.

There is cute little patio furniture outside most of the rooms, to sit out an enjoy the weather when it is good.

The free self-serve breakfast was simple but had adequate options: Coffee, juice, yogurt, fruit, bread, bagels with toppings (cream cheese, butter, peanut butter, Nutella), muffins, and very cool automated pancake maker, with the wave of your hand will pour out batter onto a conveyor belt and cook them.

The only thing - at no fault to the hotel, is that there is not much within walking distance. Everything across the street and on most of the block of the hotel seems to have shut down. There are just a couple of little restaurants down the street. Since my stay was for other reasons than for vacation, and I wasn't going to have time to go to the beach or anything, this fit my needs perfectly.

I did not use any services. But, any interaction with staff in passing or at the front desk was very friendly and attentive.

I usually wait until I get back from my trip to post a review some time later. But, I was surprisingly impressed. It was a great value! I would definitely...

If you own a tesla or other electric vehicle, you may find this hotel and the fact that it has electric charging stations on site as a positive worthy of booking here over other hotels.

I did. I booked this specifically because it has 3 tesla chargers I could use to charge my vehicle overnight and be ready on my way in the morning. Unfortunately, multiple problems arose:

This hotel does not reserve the spots that are available for charging for guests that purchase charging. Yes, charging is a $10 add on, which was fine for me. What I didn't know is that that $10 does not include the staff actually trying to ensure that I had a spot available, despite my discussion with them upon checking in that I need a spot to charge my car.

So, when I arrived back at the hotel after dinner, I found 6 non-EV vehicles parked in the 6 EV charging spots. I complained to management, which to their crsdit, refunded me the charging fee. But I could've booked other hotels in the area that reserve your charging spot for you. Instead, I will kit be waking up an hour earlier to charge my vehicle because this hotel couldn't bother to buy a $5 cone in Amazon and train it's employees to out said cone on a charging spot when a customer buys charging from them.

I will not be...

First of all, I loved the room I stayed in. I was able to secure a room to accommodate my pet, so that was huge bonus points from me. The bed was comfortable, the shower got hot very quickly, and the sink/table/microwave area was spacious. The front desk staff upon check in was super friendly.

The hotel is located by a lot of businesses so it's perfect for walking distance. The breakfast is within Covid standards, so you're going to get simple, yet still filling, food items. I was satisfied with the selection and have no complaints there.

A couple of cons though - I stayed in a ground level room. The floors are not carpeted which means extra loud walking from the occupants above me. It was a big distraction so if you plan on staying here, make sure to specify a second floor. However, there may be a down side to that because there are no elevators (at least in the building I stayed in there wasn't).

And finally, there are very limited parking spaces with the city not allowing street parking. If you get a parking spot right away, I would strongly suggest not driving your vehicle for the rest of the night because it was a major struggle for me. The front desk staff had to give me a pass to use at Trader Joe's to park (which is about a...