Malibu Beach Inn

Who's Going

David Geffen, LA Weekenders, Overflow Houseguests

Reason to Stay

Beachfront Location, Waterfront Eatery, Boutique Hotel

Hotel Type

Boutique Beach Hotel

For being one of America's best beach town, Malibu is notoriously for resident's only. Its collection of beach motels and surf shacks would make even a Motel 6 regular shudder, that was until Malibu Beach Beach Inn got a much needed makeover by owner and nearby resident David Geffen who turned the property into a surfside boutique hotel. The facade still features a center turret design with rambling terracotta rooftop that leads to a cozy entry lobby with counter-reception and honesty bar with windows facing the Malibu Pier.

The hotel is home to Carbon Beach Club, essentially a galley-style dining room of elegant Barbara- Barry-inspired interiors that merge white club chairs with ebony legs with creamy white walls with occasional bold, black design splash. An all-day menu of raw fish appetizers, hefty salads and steakhouse entrees is available for beach service on the narrow row of loungers the hotel arranges each morning on the adjoining beach. An in-house spa called Cure offers massage and facial treatments in a reconfigured space that formerly house rooms of the hotel. Clientele can range from LA movie execs on a one-night getaway from the city to overflow house-guests that didn't make the cut for a room in the beach house. 

The Room

When the hotel was reconfigured, few of the existing walls were disrupted which means that rooms can be awkward in shape and small in size. A design palette that wouldn’t look out of place at a Kimpton of JDV Hotel offers cushy modernist lounge furnishings with oversize club chairs and puffy pillows on carpets of contrasting brown and beige colors. Artwork is a hit, poolside painting by Glenn Ness that is one of the few truly original visual experience one has in the hotel misses the mark in it too-dark veneer furnishings with swivel desk chairs an frosted glass coffee tables that miss the design mark. Better rooms like the King Beach Suite feature separate living and bedroom with step-put balconies that offer sounds of the crashing waves that mute the nearby PCH to silent. By far the best located beach hotel in LA County, it’s summer must for anyone privy to the Malibu party scene without a beach house of their own.

Preferred Room

King Beach Suite

Special Features

Waterfront Location, Celebrity Owned, Surfer Beach

Amenities

Lounge, Restaurant, Spa