Sonesta ES Suites Torrance Redondo Beach — Hotel in Torrance

Let me start with saying the staff are warm friendly and accommodating. That is probably the only reason I gave 2 stars. One star for the grounds and one star for the staff. |The living-room had old dirty carpet, the couch and chair were abysmally uncomfortable and worn down to the point that the wood was showing on the arm rests. |The bedrooms were small and also had dirty carpet. There was just enough space to walk around all the furniture and that’s it. There is a nice “walk-in” closet so luggage storage was good. The linens were clean and there are stools under the bedside tables to put you suitcase on which was handy.|The door to the toilet and shower barely cleared the toilet so you had to get around the door in order to close it. If you are one of those that uses the supplied toiletries I can only speak to the conditioner and body wash. The conditioner felt like the cheap dollar store stuff and the body wash was close to water. If you want clean linens or for the room to be cleaned they only provide this service every 7 days. We were there 8 nights. We did not know about the 7 days cleaning limit so one day I took the “do not disturb” sign down thinking they would clean so I had my family put the towels on the floor so they could be picked up and refreshed. We got back around 10pm and the room hadn’t been touched. I went to the front desk and was informed that they do a towel exchange so I would need to bring the towels to the office and pick up clean ones. So if you want clean towels be sure to bring a beach bag so you can carry the clean ones back to your room!|The kitchen had a full size frig that didn’t open all the way because the door hit the wall. No oven but a dual stove top and microwave. There were glasses, silverware, knives, cooking utensils, pots, pans, plates, and bowls. All that was great but there was no dish soap to wash any of it and the bathroom only had bar soap. We didn’t do any cooking beyond popcorn so I can’t speak to how the stove top works. It would also be nice to have a table to eat at. There was a desk in the corner by the kitchen but not enough chairs to make a table to eat at. The trash is also DIY so be prepared to take out the trash when it gets full.|The free breakfast….I hate to complain about a free breakfast but at the same time I know that cost is rolled into my room charge in some way. First day we didn’t think it was too bad. Sausage links, eggs, and breakfast taco makings. My daughter thought the pancakes were ok and my husband made due with sausage and bread (he’s the picky eater in the family!). The second day I can only describe that patty as mystery meat and the eggs were a very pale yellow and tasted like nothing. The egg taste stayed consistent the next 2 days and we decided to make a trip to the grocery store for breakfast items because we don’t eat cereal. |The frustrating thing is that with a few small tweaks and upgrades this hotel has great potential to be amazing! The location was off the beaten path but close to food and shopping. It was also a nice midway point for South LA and North LA and only 2 miles from Redondo beach. The set up with 2 bedrooms, living room, and kitchen are nice for families with older kids. Hopefully they will do some upgrades and refresh to make this a fantastic...

My wife and I along with two pets stayed at this hotel for around 7 months and the experience was not as good as we thought it would be. I will elucidate by the pros and cons of this hotel: Cons:

1. Their service is pathetic when I compare to other hotels (e.g. Marriott grp) in the same price range. Especially, when COVID-19 hit they completely stopped providing daily room service. We talked to the reception if they would provide if we step out for sometime and they denied the service. Now, a hotel room without any room service for days gets pretty unlivable as you would imagine. We were out of fresh bedsheets, towels and what not. They do provide once a week full service which was not sufficient. I understand that this is a tough time how ever we expected them to manage the situation even better which they did not.
2. Their door locks are outdated and their key cards won't work every other day. To get a new key card you need to go to the reception. As they claim they are 'pet-friendly' hotel, you would think they would allow guests' pets in the reception area. But they DONT. So if you are walking your dog and gets locked out you have to stand in front of reception door, ring the bell, if you are lucky they will answer and bring the key outside. You have to tolerate all these even after paying $100+/night. Twice, I had to go inside and the receptionists were immensely arrogant. Whats even worse, depending on the receptionist liking towards dog they set rule. One of the receptionist was nice enough to let us in to get our cards. Most of the time others won't let you in. We didn't get this inconsistency before and got shouted at.
3. You would think this hotel is 'pet-friendly' but it is not. I explained this above.
4. The walls of the room are thin and you would hear every sound from the adjacent rooms.
5. The room where we stayed was shabby as it didn't get any sunlight or fresh air. Pros:
6. The location of this hotel is great. It is very close to the LAX and downtown LA. The Redondo Beach is about 3-4 miles drive from here.
7. Before the COVID hit the country, they maintained their regular daily breakfast buffet. The buffet was good and above average. We specially enjoyed their after social snack time. However, after COVID hit and the county had shut down they stopped these buffet services and started the packet take-away services. In this trying times, I honestly believe that was wonderful effort on their part.
8. The rooms had a kitchen which is a must have when somebody is staying over...

When we were checking in we had to wait for a bit because the desk clerk was on the phone....when we got to our room it wad actually the wrong room that we had made a reservation for, we asked for two beds in one room and just got one. I went to the front desk to let the desk clerk know that we got the wrong room, Again we had to wait while she was on the phone...when we got her undivided attention she checked her computer and said this is what you made reservations for....not wanting to make waves I asked her if it's possible to get another room and she said no...."check back in the morning and see what we can do, but I fount seriously if we can accommodate you"...,so later on that evening I went back and asked her if we can have extra pillows and blankets and she stated that she will have housekeeping take us some, they never showed up. The following day we did what we had to do and when we arrived back to our room later that evening we noticed that the shower was backing up in one of the rooms and there was a very foul Oder....ago in we called the front desk to advise them of the situation...a few minutes later maintenance showed up and told us that this always happens in this room so it's no big deal.....after about 30 minutes he was done and told us it was taken care of...he stayed a bit and was expecting a tip.... The social gathering in the evening was nice except for the gentleman that was constantly watching us whenever we went up for good and drinks....again he was expecting a tip. In the evening we went out to the patio and were amongst other guests sitting around the fire pit....one guest went to the front desk to ask the clerk if she could send someone over to light the fire put.....a half hour later someone showed up to light it only to find out that it would not light.....after several attempts he left and told us that it's not working and they will check on it in the morning. And yo top it off...well housekeeping actually was bad...

Yes, this is petty stuff to complain about, but we actually just stayed at the Staybridge a Suites in San Diego prior to coming to this one and I can say is the Staybridge in San Diego actually went out of their way to accommodate all their guests and were nothing like the staff in Torrance. Needles to say, I do not recommend this hotel and we will not...