Shade Hotel Manhattan Beach: The Lounge

Highly recommend The Shade Hotel. After issues with our AirBnB, we decided to stay here. From the booking, through the changes, checkin, valet, room, restaurant, bar, to our departure, everything was great. The staff all went above and beyond to make sure our stay was great. Location was perfect for our trip. We will definitely be back to stay again. Thank you to Ron, Marissa, Gustavo and Daniel for making our stay amazing!

On our recent trip to Manhattan Beach we thought we’d change things up and stay at a hotel vs. our normal Airbnb preference. After reviewing the options we decide that Shade Hotel would meet our needs. It was on the higher price point I’d options, but it was a special occasion so why not? We were greeting by the amazing staff upon our arrival. The staff during our entire four nights was awesome. They were very friendly and attentive, which is hard to come by. We were told that we will be staying in one of the newly renovated rooms (the rest of the hotel would be renovated over the winter months), which was beautifully decorated and modern. The only complaint about the design of the room would be the light switches. They are an LED touch switch, which looks cool, but is not practical. Sometimes they work and other times they didn’t. The annoying part is that you have nightlights all over the room while you are trying to sleep. This switch also controls the curtains, which did not work. The wonderful women who was assigned to our room was kind enough to come and close them for us. I will say the blackout curtains were appreciated as other places we stayed didn’t offer this and it doesn’t get bright early. You need to be careful not to put anything on the floor of the shower area as water goes everywhere when you are showering, even with the curtain fully closed. We loved the inside of our room was nice, but the location not too ideal. We were in the service hallway which was used for storage of tables, heat lamps and kegs of beer. It was also across from the courtyard which had an event during our stay, which was loud and also awkward coming out of our room and having to walk by everyone to leave the hotel. The restaurant/bar is also very close by which made it hard to go to sleep at night. One thing that is in the fine print and important to be aware of is the amenities fee that is not optional. This was $20 USD per day per person; so for us this was $40 USD each day. With that they do offer a $10 per day per person voucher to use at the hotel restaurant, but a max of two vouchers is allowed per day. This fee wouldn’t be a problem if the hotel offered great amenities, but our idea of amenities is very different than theirs. They have a rooftop patio with lounge chairs, towel, string lights, and a pool. However the “pool” is extremely small and is truly a Jacuzzi with jets. This area also closes at sunset so isn’t available in the evening once the sun goes down. Also included in the amenities is the use of their bikes. This is a nice to have, but for us wasn’t something we used as we were traveling by car to further destination. There is a gym included in the fee, but that is off-site and a ten minute drive, which is not convenient for the time we had. I’m addition to the amenities fee, the parking, which is valet only was $35 per day. The valet drivers were wonderful, but an option to park on our own would have been nice to save a few dollars. Overall the hotel is nice, staff very friendly, and the food was delicious and well priced. However, we did pay $775 (Canadian) per night and didn’t feel it was worth that price point.

Our visit was an all-around excellent experience. We will definitely stay at the Shade Hotel Manhattan Beach again in the future.

The Manhattan location of Shade is retro, stuck in the 90s with it's mahogany decor, faded carpets and dark interior design. If you're lucky the get a ground floor room you might encounter the sweet sounds of restaurant and kitchen clattering. The hotel is centrally located near the pier and many local restaurants. The bed was firm and comfortable, the ac worked too well, and the bathrooms were more like a 2.5-3 star hotel. We were surprised at how busy the hotel was, we couldn't check in until check-in time, 3. I've usually found it quite easy at other hotels to get an earlier check-in.

Great location and comfortable rooms, if a bit dog eared and dated. Carpets etc could use a refresh. Staff is wonderful and the hotel has a very comfortable vibe. Food good as well. Only compaint is the $20 per person / per night "resort fee". So annoying. Just charge AND list the rates you need to charge in order to make money. Or, let me decline resort fee at check in and take away my rights to use the elevators, pool and public restrooms.