Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey: Hotel Review

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Ritz Carlton Marina Del Ray - Hotel Review
Location
Rooms at The Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey
Restaurants and Bars at The Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey
Activities and Things to do
Points and Elite Status
How to Stay Here with Points+−
- Overall Rating: Would I Recommend this hotel or stay here again?

Ritz Carlton Marina Del Ray – Hotel Review

The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey
4375 Admiralty Way, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 USA
Tel: +1 310.823.1700
Book Direct: Ritz Carlton or Marriott
Check OTA Rates: Booking.com, Orbitz, Hotels.com
TripAdvisor Reviews: TripAdvisor
Award Category for Using Points: Marriott Category 6

My stay at the Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey was part of a Spring Break trip to San Diego and Los Angeles with my wife, daughter and her friend. This was on the tail end of the trip and we wanted to be close to the LAX airport and beaches of Santa Monica, Venice and Malibu.

Location

The Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey is located just 15 minutes from the LAX airport and right in the middle of the 22 mile bike path along the Pacific known as The Strand. It’s a great location for anyone who wants to spend time on the beach with easy access to Venice and Santa Monica part of The Strand.

With L.A. traffic, you are looking at a 30-45 minute drive to Beverly Hills / Hollywood and about the same amount of time to drive Downtown, so keep that in mind when planning your activities.

Rooms at The Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey

The 300+ room hotel has been around for over 25 years and went through a renovation in 2016, updating and refreshing the rooms and decor. The new look of the rooms is very bright and crisp with hues of orange, gold and blue.

Twice daily housekeeping with turn-down service is provided and each room came with a Nespresso coffee machine with a variety of tea options as well.

The bathrooms are about what you would expect from a Ritz Carlton – white marble with nice fixtures and Asprey bath amenities. I prefer a separate shower and bath vs. the integrated tub/shower with shower curtain that was in our room. The water pressure in the shower was ok, but definitely nothing like what you will find at Mr. C Beverly Hills, which has the best shower pressure of any hotel I have stayed in. Overall I would say the bathrooms were just ok.

There are several view categories for the rooms including partial city, partial marina and pool and direct marina. Our room was a partial marina and pool view.

Restaurants and Bars at The Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey

The hotel has 2 restaurants and a bar. The main dining option is the Cast & Plow restaurant which focuses on “Community-Made” local and sustainable ingredients, and is open from 6:30 am to midnight. The bar is integrated into the restaurant as well as a nice lounge area which is a great place to hang out if you have to get some work done during your stay. If you want to eat outside and overlook the marina they have plenty of outdoor seating as well.

Next to the pool there is the Wave Poolside Bar + Grill, which is open seasonally for lunch.

Activities and Things to do

Here is a list of some of the property features and things to do.

Waterfront heated saltwater swimming pool and whirlpool, available 24 hours a day
Two lighted tennis courts and basketball court
State-of-the-art fitness center, available 24 hours a day
Sisley Spa featuring 8 luxurious treatment rooms, nail salon and spa boutique
Poolside cabanas
Covered valet parking ($44 USD per day, per vehicle – self parking is not allowed)
Bicycle rentals
Access to waterfront walking/jogging trails
Dogs and cats are welcome at The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey. There is a non-refundable $125 USD cleaning fee for each guest room occupied with a pet. We welcome pets weighing less than 30 pounds.
Check out Abbot Kinney Boulevard – a mile long strip of eclectic boutiques, great restaurants and pop-up art galleries
Walking to the Venice Beach Boardwalk
Ride a bike on the Strand to Santa Monica for shopping and the famous Santa Monica Pier

Points and Elite Status

The Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey is a category 6 hotel in the Marriott Bonvoy Program, requiring 50,000 points for a 1 night stay.

Regarding Elite status, I have Marriott Titanium status and received an upgrade to a partial marina view room overlooking the pool. While this is “officially” a room upgrade over the room I booked, it’s nothing to get excited about. Basically the same room, with a slightly better view. I also booked a separate room for my daughter, which did not receive an upgrade.

Ritz-Carlton properties participate in the “points earning and redemption” portion of the Marriott rewards program, but they don’t honor the majority of the benefits that come with top tier elite status like suite upgrades, free breakfast, lounge access etc. Although, in fairness, a Ritz Carlton club lounge is drastically different than any other Marriott lounge, with great food served throughout the day, a nice collection of wine, beer and mixed drinks etc…

How to Stay Here with Points

At a cost of 50,000 Marriott points per night, there a couple of ways to earn enough points to stay here for free. The first is through staying at Marriott properties and earning points through stays and promotions. Marriott’s loyalty program is one of the highest point earning programs for stays, so earning free nights through stays can be done easier than with other properties, like Hyatt or Hilton.

The fastest way to earn free nights at this hotel, if you are not a frequent traveler, is to apply for a credit card with a solid bonus offer such as the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa Card or Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card. Between the sign up bonus and ongoing spending you can rack up some points pretty quick.

While I don’t have any major complaints about the hotel iteself, I would probably not stay here again. The location was convenient to the airport, but I would prefer to stay closer to Santa Monica next time or at a hotel that had a little more character.

If the Ritz-Carlton provided more benefits to Titanium elite members I might reconsider, but I couldn’t even use my Titanium suite upgrade certificates to confirm an upgrade in advance, which was a pretty big disappointment and was originally one of the reasons I considered staying at this property.