Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel is an excellent choice if you want to spend time in the Santa Monica area. The beach is just steps away and the ocean is visible from some of the rooms. The Santa Monica Pier is less than 2 blocks away. It's amusement park isn't great, but it adds beautiful lights to the evening sky and a fun carnival atmosphere with lots of people around. The beach location is excellent for walking north and south for miles. The famed "muscle beach" is here, too.
Third Avenue Promenade is a short walk. You will find many great restaurants and upscale stores along this pedestrian mall.
On the seedier side, Venice Beach is an easy walk south either on the paved walking path or along the water's edge. I don't recommend Venice Beach for people with young children because of the drug culture there, but there are some great spots to eat and the people watching is great. If you have young children in tow, keep to the beach and enjoy the beautiful pier - it's very long and has beautiful views of the shoreline in both directions as well as Santa Catalina Island.
There is one negative about the hotel. Some of the rooms look directly at another hotel, 30 feet away. We requested a move and were moved to a room that fronted on Santa Monica Blvd. It was a big improvement. Although it was a bit noisy do to street sounds, we left the fan running and could not hear the street noise.

our room wasn t ready until 5.37 in the afternoon which was terrible after a long haul flight and it ruined the first day completely
our little boy was anxious to taste an all american burger (his gavourite meal) so he ask the waiter in the breakfast if he could have a burger what in my opinion was cute made the waiter react badly it was so unbelivable how rude he was when he shouted that they do not serve burgers in breakfast (ok we know that ) and how we dare ask !
in general all the staff were rather not friendly and most important i had to call twice in a particular day for someone to make up the room eventually someone came in at 830 to just straight the bed cover and leave the sheets to arrange myself as he told me the sofa for my boy to sleep in he didnt enter the bathroom which was as we left it in the morning
out of 4 nights they clean up the room only 3 nights (but we pay for 4)

I have very mixed feelings about this hotel. We stayed here because both the Viceroy and the Fairmont were sold out and we were looking to stay in Santa Monica (rather than West Hollywood at the excellent Sunset Marquis). On the one hand, the price is reasonable considering the wildly wonderful beach location. On the other, the service leaves quite a bit to be desired as did the room. We had a suite overlooking the beach, it was a good value for the money size-wise so I would give it a 4 on that score but there were issues. First of all, check in at this hotel is 4 pm, which is something you should know if you're flying from the east coast. Check in is normally 3 pm (in my experience) and we are pretty spoiled since we usually book through Amex platinum and get 12 check in. So a 4 pm check in was an unpleasant surprise and believe me our room wasn't ready one second before 4. In fact, in my opinion it wasn't even ready at 4. When we checked in the carpet was wet. And I don't mean a little. It was full on wet, had just been shampooed (and it still smelled). There were no other suites available so we just sucked it up but it was kind of gross and i had to keep my flip flops on for the whole first night. Despite the apparent shampoo, the room had a kind of musty odor that persisted for the whole trip -- maybe just an inevitable part of being at the beach. So that's the bad stuff. The good stuff is that if you're looking to go to the beach, this is a great spot. Also if you're traveling with a family, this is probably an awesome place for you (we weren't and that was a bit of a downside for us--kids everywhere). The lobby is really nice-big high ceilings, modern clean look-- and a great place to have a meeting. Even though there are a lot of kids about, the lobby is very big and it's easy to find a private table tucked away between the columns. The restaurant food was good, nothing outstanding but it's a nice place to eat, overlooking the beach. The health club is very well equipped, much much better than a standard hotel health club.

We stayed over Xmas for 5 nights, rooms are big & beds are comfy, very clean & amenities are good, has everything except slippers. There is no complimentary water & the bottle in room is $7!
Wifi is free in lobby but $11 in room per day, valet parking is pretty much the only option for parking overnight its $35 a night bit pricey but valet service is very efficient
Lobby is located on 4th floor, there is a separate elevator to the beach on -1 & it will lead you direct to the beach.
Hotel has a really relax environment & pool is good size, lots of sun beds to chill out on.
Location is on right by the beach with lots of restaurants, the pier & shopping all walking distant, tourist sites are only a short drive away.
Hotel is also pet friendly
Will stay here again if returning to LA.