City Holiday Apartments

My husband and I stayed in the Santa Monica location in early September 2013. It was our first time in California and we chose this place because it was reasonably priced for the area compared to other hotels we looked at. I wish I could give City Holiday 5 stars but we did have some problems with this place. However, I’ll do my best to write a fair, unbiased review.
LOCATION: The location was a bit hard to find as Google Maps didn’t pinpoint the right location at first. Even when we did find the actual location, there isn’t a City Holiday sign so you have to look for the actual address number which is often hidden by the street parked cars. Needless to say, we had to memorize landmarks so we wouldn’t miss the driveway. I think adding a City Holiday sign would work wonders. The location itself is just ok. Santa Monica is beautiful but this is not in downtown Santa Monica. It does have a Vons grocery store and a couple of restaurants nearby but some of the streets felt unsafe to walk down in the dark and that’s not appealing to me, especially when I’m on vacation.
PARKING: The parking is one of my biggest complaints. I do appreciate the off street parking but the lot is TINY and you often have to squeeze out of your car or get out through the passenger door because there just isn’t room for all the cars to park here comfortably. On top of that, the lot is situated in such a way that unless you get the one good spot where you can turn around, you have to back out down the entire driveway into oncoming traffic to get out of the lot. I found it very uncomfortable and dangerous pulling out like that.
UNIT: The complex in Santa Monica has 6 units, 3 on the bottom floor and 3 on top. Entry is separate for each and finding and retrieving the key for our unit was quick and easy. We stayed in 4406. The unit was very clean when we arrived but SO HOT. I could tell no one had been there in a while because all of the windows were shut tight and the AC wasn’t on. I understand the need to save electricity but the room was too hot for us to even unpack. When we turned on the AC it read the inside temp at 98 °F! We had to leave the place until it cooled down.
It was nice to have a full kitchen and some essentials are provided. The bed was comfortable and we never used the pull out couch so I can’t comment on that. We had trouble connecting to the WI-​FI because the password for our router wasn’t there. We ended up connecting to the downstairs unit’s Wi-​Fi which had terrible coverage. Eventually my husband figured out the password for our router because he works with computers every day, but please add the password for future guests!
NOISE: The noise level is not great. We were in the middle unit on the second floor so we heard noises from everywhere — beside and below us. I wish the walls were thicker or more noise controlled, I could even hear when the neighbors flushed their toilet or cleared their throat. We did have one incident that required the manager to be called and it was handled immediately.
MANAGEMENT: I have nothing but positive things to say about the manager, Rebecca. She answered all of my questions before I arrived and handled the noise complaint very kindly. I know companies can’t control everyone who comes in and out, it was just unfortunate that we had to deal with it at all.
Overall we had an OK experience, not terrible but not great. I would recommend to City Holiday to add a sign outside for easy location spotting, prepare the room (temperature) prior to guests arriving so it is more comfortable, and perhaps find a way to screen guests because noise complaints seem to be a common theme for this location. California in all is a beautiful state and we’ll definitely be back to see more of it!

We were very dissatisfied with the apartment, I was looking for a good deal, read the positive reviews, but was so disappointed! These are the things they don’t list on the description and have not been stated in any reviews:
+They advertise $ 140/​night, but once you add the cleaning fee and the obligatory insurance you’re at $ 206.90/night! Next time I’ll consider an «All suite» hotel, the price they advertise is the price you pay
+ The first night there was an extremely loud party with yelling and music that went well into 1am! I called the owners to complain and I never received a call back from them! They ignored me completely to this day.
+ Extremely loud traffic noise starting at 5:30am! even with the windows closed, it’s impossible to sleep
+ The building is a motel like rat box on Centinela Ave. which is an extremely busy, loud and dirty street. Just a bad bad choice to have an apartment for rent.
+ The designated parking space is «straight on» with a wall on the left — and the weekend I stayed — a huge SUV on the right. Lucky that I am 130lbs. otherwise I would have not been able to get out of the car! The other 3 spaces were taken.
+ Bring your own toilet paper! They think they are saving money by providing cheap, transparent and rough toilet paper
+ Bring you own towels! They are small, rough, thin and old!
+ There are no flat surfaces in the bathroom, unless you consider the toilet lid a top? There is a metal open shelf way above the toilet, but things fall through and it can’t be used while you shave, apply make up, or rest a water bottle!
+ Bring your own blanket for whomever sleeps on the couch — there was none.
+ Could never watch TV — there are no instructions INSIDE the apartment on how to operate the remotes.
+ Watch out for the closet door and the door to the bedroom! They both open out and it’s an accident waiting to happen!
+ ok, the only positive thing was that it was clean, small as described and the pictures posted are accurate.