We have a big event coming up in October and need to block hotel space in Santa Monica, walking distance to the 3rd street promenade. Although I am a native of the area, I have never stayed in any of the hotels, nor needed this many rooms for guests. Price is a factor, but I am aware that there is nothing really "reasonable" in SM so I need suggestions for best location with best value for the money. Thanks for your help!

You will get lots of help from people on this forum and it would be helpful for them to have a bit more information. How many people are you trying to accommodate... and how many rooms is that exactly? What are your dates? weekend or weekdays? Lastly, what price is reasonable to you? under $300? Give a bit more detail and top this post on Monday morning so the "weekday Fodorites" can find it easily... you'll get lots of help!

Will need about 10-12 rooms in mid October, Friday night thourgh Sunday. $300+ is high, but I think that is the going rate for the nicer hotels. I think we have to aim around that figure. Sorry, I can't post on Monday, so I hope Fodorites will still see this.

I haven't a lot of experience staying at hotels in that area but I think you'll have several options in your price range... finding the 12 rooms at the same place may be trickier!

My company has a weekend retreat planned at Bacara in Santa Barbara planned for the last weekend of September and I know it's been booked for many months already. On the good side, October is a beautiful month here so you should have wonderful watm, sunny weather.

Have you looked at hotels on www.expedia.com or www.tripadvisor.com? YOu may want to do that next, to get a feel for prices, location and amenities. Maybe narrow down to three or four and then start phoning to see who has availablility. That would be my suggestion anyway.

Hopefully you'll get some better resonses about detailed hotels! Good luck!

The Santa Monica Fairmont hotel is right across the street from the 3rd St Promenade on Wilshire. I've worked with alot of groups that stay at this hotel. I don't know prices there, though.

I get offers from that Fairmont every year, the rooms vary from one extreme to another. See if any of you are Fairmont loyalty members. Have you tried calling the chain hotels and ask for group rates?

Hi, one of the best Fodorite resources for this area is rjw_lgb_ca. He works in Santa Monica and gives spot on advice.

Recently, when researching a hotel in Santa Monica, I came to this board and typed in his name.

Here's what I've come up with: the Georgian Hotel.

Haven't stayed there yet, but I'd take rjw's recommendations any day. He once recommended to me a great French restaurant in the Santa Monica area.

Good luck!

We did tour the Georgian yesterday. They let us look at a few of their rooms. We really liked what we saw. Its our first choice, but it was also one of the most expensive hotels in the area. Thanks for the feedback. We may end up booking there.

DH and I stayed at Le Merigot last fall and loved it. Great location right on the beach and within easy walking distance to the 3rd St. Promenade. The pool is not great, however, if that's a factor. Everything else (including rooms) were wonderful.

...that would be WAS wonderful.