Review: Oceana Santa Monica, Hilton LXR

Hilton’s LXR Hotels and Resorts are known for unparalleled, personalized service in an immersive setting, which I got to experience for the first time last year at the Mango House Seychelles. The brand has since become one of my personal favourites.

At the end our family trip to Anaheim, we decided to spend two nights in Santa Monica before heading home. This gave me the perfect excuse to burn a Hilton Free Night Reward and try out the new Hilton LXR property there. 

Oceana Santa Monica is the the brand’s first property in the United States, and opened in early 2021. The property is meant to mimic that of a beachside residence, like a home away from home, rather than your traditional hotel experience. 

Oceana Santa Monica – Booking

I booked our two-night stay at this hotel using 95,000 Hilton Honors points and a Hilton Free Night Reward from my Hilton Aspire Card. Our two-night stay was over a weekend, and unfortunately, the hotel didn’t allow single-night bookings over weekends in the summer. 

I initially wanted to use a Free Night Reward from both my husband’s Hilton Honors account and my own, but unfortunately the system wouldn’t allow for it. As we found out, apparently it wasn’t something that neither Hilton’s central reservation line nor the hotel could do. 

The standard redemption of 95,000 points booked me into a Oceana Double Queen Suite, which was pricing out at $1,020 (USD) ($1,388 CAD) at the time. We value Hilton Honors points at 0.6 cents per point (CAD), so I was pretty happy with the value of the redemption.

One thing to take note is that the property charges a daily resort fee. This resort fee covers Wi-Fi, yoga sessions, bike use, water, coffee, newspaper delivery, in-room streaming, a welcome gift and beverage, and use of their house car.

The good news is that resort fees are waived on award bookings.