The Pierside Santa Monica — Hotel in Santa Monica

The Pierside Hotel is lovely, clean, and well staffed. Every employee we met was friendly, helpful, and genuinely welcoming. The location is unbeatable—it’s the closest hotel to the Santa Monica Pier. While you do have to cross a pedestrian bridge to reach the beach, it’s still the most convenient option. The valet staff were especially kind and accommodating.

The surrounding area is packed with shopping and dining. McDonald’s is across the street, and Taco 1986 is a must-try. Despite being near the ocean, don’t expect views—the back of the hotel is covered by a mural with no windows, so there are no beach-facing rooms or sunset views.

One of the reasons I chose this hotel was the wide range of amenities. You can borrow beach chairs (backpack-style), towels, blankets, umbrellas, paddle boards, skateboards, and games from the front desk. The pool is nicely heated to just over 80 degrees, with towels, bathrooms, and sunscreen available. The restaurant and bar downstairs are convenient, and there are lots of cozy places to sit and relax. However, the red light therapy mask and Xbox cost extra, which wasn’t mentioned on the website—a frustrating surprise.

Rooms are clean and stylish, with helpful touches like a fridge, coffee maker, robes, safe, and plenty of outlets. The blackout curtains work well, but there’s no microwave, which was annoying when we had leftovers. Double queen rooms lack a couch—just a tiny table and one chair. The TV is large but only visible from one bed, and the guide doesn’t work. Only Netflix and YouTube are available—no Hulu or Prime.

Now onto the design flaws. The sink setup is baffling. The faucet sits low and barely extends over the basin, giving you about two inches of usable space—making it hard to wash hands or brush teeth. The sink also juts out awkwardly into the room, which makes access tricky, especially for shorter guests. The toilet has a design issue too—it doesn’t flush completely. Waste stays on a flat area inside the bowl, and you have to wait minutes to flush again—and it still might not clear. The “automatic” bathroom light wasn’t automatic either.

The biggest issue, though, is the bed. The innerspring mattresses are hard, with little padding. You can feel the springs, and every movement is felt across the bed. The pillows were flat, and each bed only had three. For the price, it’s disappointing they haven’t upgraded the mattresses or added simple comforts like a topper.

Also be prepared for hidden costs. The resort fee is $45 per night plus tax, which isn’t clearly disclosed ahead of time. Parking at the hotel is $68 per night (plus tax), though there’s a garage across the street for $30 per day. Our two-queen room totaled about $550 per night.

If you can sleep on a rock and want to be closest to the beach, this is your place. The staff is excellent, and the amenities are great—but the lack of comfort at night was a deal-breaker for us. A hotel can have everything going for it, but if you can’t sleep, it’s hard to...

extremely disappointed with The Pierside Santa Monica. They overcharge for everything and they have oddball fees that DO NOT GIVE ANY VALUE TO THEIR GUESTS like the $40 "Destination Amenity Fee" where I didn't use anything other than the room... overnight rates also massively inflated, at beast this property should be no more than $199 a night.

Day before you arrive they also will text you from 310-510-6638 where their initial text says "Please text us back should you need any assistance before arrival or at any time during your stay. We look forward to welcoming you tomorrow." THAT IS A TOTAL LIE!!! THEY DO NOT HAVE ANYONE MONITORING 310-510-6638 and they are only using it to spam you. Strong recommend you block that number. I verified they do not monitor the number because I had to arrive 3 1/2 hours early and they could not not do an early checkin, which was fine. What was not fine was they recommended I wait at their "The Surfing Fox" outdoor seating and I sat down outside in the westernmost corner closest to the entrance to the pier. After waiting for 15-mins, no server came so I walked to the bar and asked the bartender for a menu and to please send a server outside to my take order since i don't want to leave my luggage unattended and he said they would send someone out "in a bit but we are short of staff" so I expected it might be 30-mins of waiting. 30-minutes later I texted 310-510-6638 "please send a server to the outside seating The Surfing Fox . i'm sitting in the west corner..." AND NO SERVER CAME so I tried texting 310-510-6638 again after waiting 30+minutes after sending that request to send a server "still no server. please have them deliver Guacamole and Chips and a Passion Fruit Foxtail..." and I waited until 3:55pm and nothing arrived!!! That's pretty brilliant business model The Pierside has to not serve their guests who want server and ignore the texts sent to the number they claim to want to have any issues experienced while staying with them. THEY VERY CLEARLY DO NOT MONITOR THEIR TEXT NUMBER SYSTEM or their staff at The Surfing Fox are all hopelessly incompetent or both.

They try to be full service hotel but are frankly NO SERVICE if you want to eat and drink while waiting for your room to be ready. Room itself was recently renovated and clean and is basically a modern version of a standard holiday inn or hilton box from the 1970s; worth at best $199 a night.

This is a really disappointing property that is only busy because it is located extremely close to the Pier, Broadway Mall and 3rd Street Promenade so unless you absolutely need to be close to those avoid the overcharging and fees that give no benefit you and they will not serve you when you request service...

So many reviews are all about location, status, "influencer" points. Well this is from a 58 year old man travelling Route 66 together with is wife and we really are not into that kind of review. So let's cut to the chase.

This hotel rocks!!!

Literally from the moment we arrived after driving the perilous (well for a UK couple they are) multi lane freeways into the heart of Los Angeles we felt at comfortable in Santa Monica!

As soon as we arrived at The Pierside Hotel we were a bit frazzled to be honest. It's Memorial weekend so everywhere is super busy and unknown to us it was also a huge skateboard festival as well plus add in the normal tourist traffic.

The valet just said "listen your early but don't worry - pull up over there (in a secure car park area and see if you can check in. Everything will be ok".

And do you know what he was right. His attitude defused all of the tenseness and stress in a millisecond! Thank you sir!

We checked in and fortunately our room was ready which was awesome. The receptionist was so friendly and informative - she couldn't have done more for us.

So freeway madness to chill in about 5 minutes!!!

Check in sorted it was then time to decamp the car - bearing in mind we read doing Route 66 and then on to more of California so the car is rammed. The valets reaction was brilliant - "I'll get you a trolley, take your time to sort your luggage and when you are done let me know and I will sort your car." No pressure at all.

Car unpacked and room keys in hand we take the lift to our floor. Open the door and the "WOW" moment happens. A well designed, well laid out room with an L shaped sofa, a lovely bed with super soft linen, a great work area for me, fridge, safe and a great shower room. Perfect.

This venue is literally 5 minutes to walk to the end point of Route 66 on the Pier, The Pacific, The beach and some amazing restaurants, bars and shopping.

We ate and drank in the bar/restaurant area and it really was very good quality. We had the benefit of a superb singer guitar player who really knows his stuff and made the ambience even more special if that was possible. Our server was outstanding but to be fair all of the team were amazing!!

So cut to it - the room was amazing, the team are awesome, the ambience incredible and the location perfect.

I would never have said that I would want to come to LA or Santa Monica once let alone come again - I would now!!!

Thank you Team The Pierside Santa Monica - you...