JW Marriott Santa Monica: If you want to see the sea, you have to show your money!

As part of a vacation in the American West, we stayed at the JW Marriott Santa Monica, as the last stop on our trip before returning to Europe.

Indeed, we wanted to be by the sea and enjoy the sun and the beach before returning to Paris. It was a bad idea: the price was prohibitive for the proposed services, and the weather was not really good.

Booking

I had originally booked at Le Meridien Santa Monica, located a few miles away. But the average reviews and the hope of better services at the JW Marriott made me change this reservation for an extra hundred dollars…

Unlike Starwood, Marriott’s reservations don’t seem to update prior to arrival in the event of an upgrade. At least, nothing for us this time.

Arrival

We arrived by Uber from the Los Angeles airport, a30-minute drive away.

The reception outside is very attentive (mandatory tips …) and we are directed to the reception.

The process will be most professional, even though the receptionist was obviously in training considering his hesitations.

We were upgraded to an Executive Suite with an ocean view, we couldn’t have asked for better. We choose the breakfast as a welcome gift instead of the 750 points, but you will see later that this was not a very good idea…

The receptionist accompanies us to the elevatorto wish us a pleasant stay.

Room

The suite was located on the 5th and penultimate floor of the property.

While it does havea view of the sea, it is quite distant, and the room has more of a view of the terrace and pool (although I think this is the best possible view given the layout of the hotel).

It is more of a magnified room than a suite, as there is no real separation between the living space and the sleeping space.

To the right after the entrance is the bathroom. Good point: it was the subject of a very nice recent renovation, both in terms of lighting and decoration.

The toilets are separate and it is very appreciable.

After the bathroom is the day area with the desk and the sofa.

The sleeping area is located at the back, with a rather comfortable king size bed.

So more a very large room than a suite.

To finish, the visit in video:

JW Marriott Santa Monica - Suite Exécutive

Hotel facilities

The hotel is sold as a resort, so it has all the corresponding bathing facilities, as well as a fitness room.

It also has access to the beach, which is necessarily public in California.

Restaurants

The property has a bar located in the lobby with a pleasant terrace. Beware, however, that prices are very high.

We had breakfast in the main dining room the next morning, thanks to the coupon given at check-in.

Beware, the continental options are very limited: no so-called special coffees (espressos, cappucinos surely made by a machine) and no eggs. A bit cheap at JW Marriott, especially at almost $400 a night!

Departure

Check-out was simple, but they went so far as to charge for bottled water in the room when no free bottle was provided. Really petty.

Bottom line

We will not return there: beyond the prohibitive price of the room, the fact of scraping at most on the extras is a really detestable attitude. Lame!

Olivier Delestre-Levai
Olivier Delestre-Levai
Olivier has been into airline blogging since 2010. First a major contributor to the FlyerTalk forum, he created the FlyerPlan website in July 2012, and writes articles with a major echo among airline specialists. He now co-runs the TravelGuys blog with Bertrand, focusing on travel experience and loyalty programs.
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