The Ocean View Hotel is ideally situated two blocks from Santa Monica Pier and three short blocks from the Third Street Promenade. Palisades Park is across the road. It also offers easy access to the Pacific Coast Highway and the Santa Monica Freeway.

It is a no thrills establishment but clean and comfortable. Furniture is not luxurious but in a good condition. The room was adequate rather than spacious. Plumbing was a bit noisy not only from our own room but also from neighboring rooms, especially opening the bath / shower taps caused rumblings. The air-conditioning unit was also pretty noisy without an obvious "off" switch. The room also lacked adequate storing space – as we stayed five days we wanted to unpack and there were not really enough drawers to put any clothes in. The iron and coffee maker in the room were appreciated although the coffee was not of the best standard. Ice and vending machines for soft drinks are available on each floor.

The hotel offers few services, which suited us just fine, as great food is available from several restaurants within the same block. Continental breakfast is included in the room rate and consists of juice, tea, coffee (even worse tasting than the in room coffee!), pastries, cereals and apples.

The multilingual hotel personnel, especially at the front desk, were very friendly and competent. We needed a crib and it was delivered to the room in seconds rather than minutes. The hotel seems popular with young Japanese couples and there were also several German guests during our stay.

We had a room at $100 per night with a balcony facing the parking lot – it seemed a bit much to pay $50 per night more for an ocean view, as we were not planning to spend much time in the room in any case. Parking at $10 per night is available in the basement parking lot.

An internet search showed no difference in prices from different booking agencies so we booked at Best Western’s official site (www.bestwestern.com/oceanview) as it offered more flexible cancellation options.