Venice Beach, United States

Venice V Hotel

Price per night from$267.75

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD267.75), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

High-flying V

Setting

Freewheeling Dogtown

The Venice V Hotel (brought back to life over four years by the Proper hotel group), has had more brushes with history than Forrest Gump. During Venice Beach’s Golden Era, it hosted Charlie Chaplin and Clara Bow, in the Sixties it became a hangout for the Doors, and in the Seventies it was home to skaters of the legendary Z-Boy crew. It’s seen seismic cultural shifts and the neighbourhood’s highs and lows, but this is surely its most elevated form. Rooms are by turns bohemian, board-obsessed and sparkle like an old-school starlet; staff offer highly personalised service; and the curious buzz of the boardwalk is just outside – plus all rooms have an ocean view. It’s ridden the many waves of Cali’s counterculture and while we can’t promise a significant shift during your stay, this may well be the place where you catch the next one. 

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Facilities

Photos Venice V Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

34, including 12 suites.

Check–Out

12 noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £242.17 ($306), including tax at 14.195 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional service charge of 4% per room per night on check-out and an additional resort fee of $30.84 per room per night on check-out.

More details

Rates don’t include breakfast and there’s no restaurant onsite. A daily $25 amenity charge will be added to your bill, which includes WiFi, Boxed Water, and use of beach towels and your room’s Nespresso machine.

Also

There are two adapted rooms (an Ocean View and Ocean View Double) with roll-in showers and grab bars; one has a strobe fire alarm too. And there’s the oldest operating elevator west of the Mississippi (we think that’s a good thing).

At the hotel

Public beach, rooftop lounge, WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, Marshall Bluetooth speaker, wet bar, WiFi, mini fridge with soft drinks, bathrobes, Aesop bath products, retro phone, fabric steamer (on request). Some rooms have Nespresso coffee machines too.

Our favourite rooms

If you’re concerned that you’ll book into a beachside hotel only to gaze on a sad carpark from your window, fear not – every room at the hotel has at least a partial view of the ocean. Clearly the penthouse suites have the edge – from the top floor they have a clear view of sun, sea, swaying palm trees and whatever curious incidents are taking place on the boardwalk. Rooms have three styles that reference the surroundings’ stand-out eras: sultry ‘artist’ rooms evoke old-school Hollywood glam, bohemian rooms nod back to halcyon hippie days with a light palette and intricately carved headboards, and Dogtown rooms have skateboards on the walls, photo prints of vintage skaters and – in one Oceanfront One-Bedroom Suite – a graffiti mural spreads over one wall.

Poolside

There’s no pool onsite, but you’re a short dive away from the Pacific Ocean.

Packing tips

Whether you’ve conquered some dizzying verts or you can barely roll down the road without falling over, you’ll want to engage with the area’s skate culture, so bring knee-pads, a pair of Etnies and your finest set of wheels. And, if you like to settle into your stay with an apéritif, bring a bottle of what takes your fancy – the hotel’s currently bar-free.

Also

The lobby’s V-shaped chandelier and foxed mirrors nod back to the era when Charlie Chaplin and Clara Bow would hold court in their penthouse residences.

Pet‐friendly

You can bring up to two furry friends (each under 45 pounds) to stay here for $100 a pet, each stay. See more pet-friendly hotels in Venice Beach.

Children

All ages are welcome here, but teens will especially enjoy the nod to skate culture, graffiti art and the kitschy cool of Venice Beach. The Oceanfront Two-Bedroom Studio and Oceanfront One-Bedroom Suite can both comfortably sleep four.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel duly recycles and does all laundry onsite; housekeeping is on request only and in your room you’ll find recyclable Boxed Water.

Food and Drink

Photos Venice V Hotel food and drink

Top Table

If you're in a penthouse suite, make the most of your inspirational ocean view while sat at a table by the window. Otherwise, secure a seat at the small rooftop lounge.

Dress Code

Time to shine, skater boys (and girls).

Hotel restaurant

There’s no restaurant onsite (yet), but you won’t go hungry. The hotel has partnered with top local eatery Great White, so you can have their extensive menu delivered to your door (weekdays only). Start your day with a breakfast sandwich that heaves with cheesy hash browns, smashed avo, Peads & Barnetts bacon and sweet chilli, or a hemp- and algae-infused breakfast bowl, lunch on market salads and fish tacos, then finish your day with a wagyu steak or penne with a mezcal and tomato sauce.

Hotel bar

There’s no bar at the hotel and minibars only have soft drinks, but Venice Beach has plenty of places where you can get sauced, whether it’s at one of the trendy establishments along Abbot Kinney or cocktail-hopping along West Washington Boulevard. And, if the party’s back at yours, then hit up the Great White app to have fruity cocktails (we like the Paloma with grapefruit, yuzu and mezcal, or the pineapple-mint spritz) or an intriguing wine (say, a Czech white, Moroccan red, Californian orange or pet nat) ferried over.

Last orders

Great White snaps to it from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday.

Room service

Just look for the card in your room with Great White restaurant’s Jaws-style logo. Scan the QR code on the back, place your order, and your food will be with you shortly.

Location

Photos Venice V Hotel location
Address
Venice V Hotel
5 Westminster Ave, Venice
Los Angeles
90291
United States

Venice V Hotel is right by Venice Beach boardwalk, just opposite the skatepark’s bowls and ramps and a graffitied sprawl of art walls. The hotel itself has a large ‘V’ sprayed on the side, so you can’t miss it.

Planes

LAX is the closest airport to the hotel, just a 15-minute drive away; flights arrive direct here from all over the States and many destinations further afield. There are car-hire booths at the airport (you’ll need one for covering LA’s urban sprawl), or the hotel can help to arrange transfers via ridesharing app Alto. They can provide rides for up to five guests and (unlike Uber) they’ll pick you up at the terminal, but you can only book from 6am onwards.

Trains

If you’re riding the rails across California, you’re most likely to pull into Union station, which most Amtrak itineraries cross. The historic hub is a 30-minute drive from the hotel and before you leave you can admire its beautiful art deco interiors and see what pop-up events are taking place.

Automobiles

The land of knotty freeways and satellite neighbourhoods, LA was definitely not made for walking. If your plan is simply to skate, surf and sunbathe you may be able to get by on two legs, but further exploration will require a full tank of gas.

Worth getting out of bed for

From its early-20th-century days as a carnival-esque pleasure centre frequented by silent-film A-listers, to its time as a countercultural crucible through the 1960s and 1970s, when the Doors and Dennis Hopper moved in and Dogtown’s Z-Boys skated into the history books, Venice Beach has always embraced the freakier side of life. And just a stroll along the boardwalk (officially called Ocean Front Walk) that runs in front of the hotel, past fortune tellers, musicians and artists of varying lucidity, tumblers, fire-breathers and the odd skateboarding dog, and you’ll see that it’s still delightfully eccentric. But, that’s not the only notable street here; Abbot Kinney Boulevard has earnt the title of America’s coolest street for its 1.6 kilometres of vintage and niche-label boutiques, cult beauty (and even a handful of optometrists for all your hipster-glasses needs) and in-your-face street art, with pit stops for gourmet doughnuts, cold-pressed refreshments and plant-based eats along the way. Pick up Seventies-style puffas and rainbow surfboards at Aviator Nation, rummage around for Old Venice treasures in Bazar (1108C Abbot Kinney), invest in super-soft tees at Junk Food Clothing, then stop for a scoop at cult creamery Salt & Straw and a serious brew at Intelligentsia. After, pay tribute to the tobacco mogul and entrepreneur the street’s named after with a trip to what’s left of his vision of the Venice of America. Once there were piers with elegant cafes and auditoriums, colonnaded promenades and even gondolas, but all that remains is the canals, which are perfect for peaceful strolls away from the seafront’s madness. Or borrow a beach-cruiser bike free from the hotel to tackle 22 miles of coastal paths. Volleyball matches, yoga sessions and running clubs take place on the sand, or you can get seriously physical at Muscle Beach, an open-air workout space where no less than governator Arnold Schwarzennegger’s guns got pumped. And, you can’t really come to Dogtown without catching some air – the Skatepark’s rails, boxes, ramps, bowls and verts will get your heart pumping too, albeit in far more rad fashion. Tackle them in style with a wooden board from Arbor Skate.

Local restaurants

Along Abbot Kinney healthy eating is remarkably haute, with offerings such as Matthew Kenney’s Plant Food + Wine, where you sit in a verdant garden to dine on kimchi dumplings, blistered shishito with aioli and berries with olive-oil ice-cream. And the Butcher’s Daughter, where you’ll find not one lonely chop, but instead plant-based and vegetarian delicacies: kale Caesar salad, pad Thai, mushroom calamari and eggplant steak. Breakfast and brunch is especially good, swapping in impossible meats for a heartier start to your day. For the more carnivorous there’s the Tasting Kitchen, where you can get a hefty NY strip steak or ‘nduja-slathered pork chops, plus a Eurocentric cheeseboard with some leftfield picks. And Gjelina offers a flavourful thwack in the form of tasty Mediterranean fare, say saffron spaghetti with bottarga and Calabrian chilli, Japanese sweet potato with jalapeño yoghurt and scallions.

Local cafés

Along Rose Avenue, Café Gratitude asks you to search your feelings first before ordering – their menu is more a list of affirmations. So, if you’re feeling ‘exquisite’ that’ll be the coconut calamari with cocktail sauce, if you’re ‘blessed’ it’s butternut-squash bolognese, and if you’re ‘empowered’ it’s an adaptogenic raw-cacao protein shake (sure, why not?).

Local bars

We love the laidback retro feel of the Waterfront: warm woods, wicker seating and south-of-the-border woven pieces make it feel like someone’s stylish throwback home, and the terrace is set for brilliant people-watching, as this is probably the best of the boardwalk’s bars. And, the team behind it have relaunched Winston House, a hush-hush music venue whose Thursday night concerts have hosted the likes of Billie Eilish and Janelle Monáe. While perhaps not entirely kosher skate culture, having a flight of beers wheeled in on a skateboard definitely appeals to us, so we’re fans of Venice Ale House. With 25 beers on tap and more bottled craft brews, you’ll need to roll out a few. And, bohemian types will be drawn to the Brig on Abbot Kinney and former Jim Morrison haunt Hinano Café, both a little bit dive-y, but a lot of fun, with live music, games of pool and jukeboxes, plus, at the former, a dangerously lengthy weekend happy hour.

Reviews

Photos Venice V Hotel reviews
Rhys Lewis

Anonymous review

By Rhys Lewis, Singer-songwriter

As a European, I’ve always struggled to make sense of LA. Besides a few parks, iconic landmarks, and the natural border of the hills to its north, Los Angeles has always felt endless and sprawling. To my untrained, foreign eye, each district seems to merge into the next. Before you know it, you’re in Pasadena.

That’s why it was nice to be on the coast this trip. You know where you stand with the coast. Coming from an island, the beachfront is a neighbourhood I’m more familiar with conceptually. With the Pacific on my side, I could walk around with confidence. ‘Have a wander’ as we Brits like to say. Feel like one of the locals. [READ THE FULL REVIEW]

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Price per night from $267.75