There are some hotels that I see in those “dreamiest hotels in the world” posts and stash away for just in case one day we might be able to stay there too. Shutters on the Beach was one of those hotels. It’s right on the beach in Santa Monica, California. It feels like one of those more simpler elegant resort hotels of old with good food, a central pool, and rooms that make you want to sit and relax for awhile in a home away from home. So on our last trip to California when we found out our early afternoon flight home got cancelled while we were in Joshua Tree and we ended up with a late night flight instead, we scrambled to figure out how to make the best of a day so that we didn’t waste it. And that’s how we booked Shutters on the Beach hotel.
Would you do Shutters on the Beach or a day at Disneyland?
We already had a hotel booked in Santa Monica, but because our original flight plan was early we did not book a hotel that had late check out so we would like have to leave the hotel by 11am. Because our new flight was late that would leave us carrying our luggage, etc. around the city a long time. We haven’t been to Disneyland forever and we were tempted to change our last night to Anaheim and get Disneyland tickets. But it was a school holiday. We still don’t like crowds because of Covid. And Disneyland and a hotel close to Disneyland was adding up in dollars too.
We have an Amex card that gives us access to something called Fine hotels and Resorts. If we book these hotels (they are always 4 or 5 star hotels but usually on the spendier side) we get guaranteed late check out at 4pm, sometimes early check in at 12pm, breakfast for 2 and usually some other kinds of bonuses at the hotel as well. What we really wanted this time was the 4pm checkout. Usually we can book online but online wasn’t working. And this is how we really ended up with Shutters on the Beach.
We had to call in our reservation with AMEX and the person on the other end was fabulously helpful.
The Amex reservations person gave us a range of hotels that were in the Fine hotels and Resorts category and told us where they were located and also gave her opinions on the hotels. I was tempted to get the Langham hotel in Huntington Beach where I had stayed for Mom2.0 before but here we would have to drive to the beach and at Shutters we could just keep our car where it was. Ultimately we all thought Shutters on the Beach would be the best hotel for our situation to give us entertainment as well as the guaranteed late checkout even though it was on the way splurgier side from what we typically book.
After being the most helpful person in the world, our reservation person accidentally booked us for the wrong night. She called the hotel and assured us it would be removed from our credit card and rebooked for the correct night. (Reader, it was not. It ended up on our credit card bill and took my husband a couple hours on the phone to get removed after we got home from our trip. But isn’t that how customer service is in this doomsday era we all live in now….)
But this is not a sob story about an accidental booking. This is a rave post about the Shutters on the Beach Hotel
Because honestly, this hotel was perfect. It was the type of place I will remember and dream about for a long long time. When he booked this hotel, my husband said he wanted to erase any negativity that would come to our first family airplane trip in two years with having our flights cancelled and this is truly what this did.
We arrived at around 2pm in the afternoon and there was a room ready for us. They gave us fancy bottled water in the lobby. We were invited to have welcome drinks on the patio or in a restaurant. Our room was comfortable with cozy beach-themed decor and even though we booked one of the lowest categories at this hotel we still had a little peak of the beach (and all the fancy cars that kept arriving).
About 30 minutes after we arrived in our room there was a knock at the door and macarons arrived. We borrowed bikes and rode to pick up dinner at Venice Beach (we got takeout from a restaurant called Fabio’s that my kid looked up and it was delicious pasta!) and we made it back in time to catch a magnificent sunset at Santa Monica Pier.
The next day, we had breakfast on the patio at the hotel restaurant. We walked the beach and swam in the hotel pool. We had a credit with our hotel package that could be used for the spa or beach chairs so we booked two beach chairs and sprawled on the sand for a bit. We strolled through Santa Monica. And we checked out at 4pm and slowly made our way to the airport for our late flight home. It felt like we had a leisurely two days in this hotel instead of just one. And it was the best airline delay we’ve ever had.
(PS. I think we were all really glad we chose this over Disneyland this time. Staying at this hotel and having a relaxing last day in the California sunshine on the beach helped make our first airplane adventure together after the whole world shut down a truly memorable and healing one too.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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