Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Manhattan Beach, Manhattan Beach

The room was nice enough, clean and large. The location was a bit less than ideal, a busy suburban intersection with no sense of being near the beach.I was impressed that the clerk gave us bottled water and a toiletries gift pack when we checked in. There was also a beer/wine/cheese happy hour in the evening at no charge at which there was also free massage. The biggest disappointment was the "hot breakfast" in the morning. The food there was cold, dried out, limited in selection. The coffee was undrinkable. I had to go out somewhere to eat. For the $170 cost of the room, I expected something better.

My family stayed at the Hawthorn Suites on a recent weekend in July, and were pleasantly surprised. We stayed in a two-room family suite, which had a bedroom separated from the main living area by a door, and also a surprisingly large kitchen area. Pros: - service is terrific: everybody I spoke to, on the phone or in person, was friendly and helpful - it's clean. The hotel looks like it was built within maybe the last 5 years, and everything's in good shape. The room was very good. The courtyard is very pretty and pleasant in the morning. - the parking garage below the hotel had many spaces available, even during the tourist season. - it was generally peaceful and quiet. Many hotels near the beaches have the hard-partying crowd as their guests, which gets noisy, but we didn't see that here. Cons: - a little expensive. But in my opinion it was worth the money - all the rooms face into the courtyard, which is potentially noisy and echo-y. One afternoon there was a family party in the courtyard which got rather loud, even inside our room. But other than that, it was quiet all weekend, so this wasn't really a problem. - the dining area was definitely a step above most continental hotel breakfasts, with a waffle station, hot eggs and bacon, etc. But you still serve yourself, and when food runs out, you have to wait for a hotel employee to come restock things. (That happened to us a few times.) The room is also tightly packed, and we were tripping over other hotel guests in the morning. However, the adjacent courtyard was not crowded at all, and was a good place to bring breakfast. Overall, we were very pleased, and will definitely stay here again in the future. -Tim Miller

Originally, we had planned to stay here for 8 days but changed our stay to one day after a timeshare became available. The only complaint we had was that the room smelled of smoke... not just a little, but like there was a smoker's convention there the day before. It was terrible. Having said that, if we didn't arrive late (1am), or we were planning to stay another night, I am confident that the hotel would have moved us to another room and we would have been happy. Our room was a one bedroom. It had a full kitchen, living room with a TV, and a decent bedroom with a second TV. The air conditioner in the bedroom was a little noisy however we didn't need to use it all night. Everything was clean which is the most important thing to us. All the rooms face inward into a courtyard. It reminded me of the TV show Melrose Place. We didn't get an opportunity to make use of the courtyard however I am confident that we would have had we stayed longer. The breakfast was great. If a hotel has a continental breakfast, I find a restaurant to eat a real meal. This place has a small area (maybe 4 or 5 tables) where guests can help themselves to all the basics plus yogurt, eggs, bacon, sausage, and do-it-yourself waffles. While we were planning to buy groceries and cook our own breakfast and dinners for the week we were there, I probably would have found myself eating breakfast in the hotel dining room more often than not. Parking was great. There's a large underground parking lot so your car is safe. No charge for parking. The bottom line is that I would stay here again. The price was good for what we got, and it was a good location. Eric Wittkopp

Did not like the lack of amenities. For the amount of money this hotel charges, there should be shampoo, soap ,etc. Thankfully we had some left from our previous trip. The hotel is very clean, except for the tables in the open lounge area. The complimentary hot breakfast is delicious, but you certainly do pay for it in your total room charges.