This place is just ok. I stayed here with my husband on my birthday and while the staff was very nice and the lobby looks nice, the rooms themselves were definitely standard at best. You could tell that decades ago this used to be a small apartment complex and the room we stayed in was a studio. The bed wasn't comfortable (it felt like an old mattress) and the room was completely bare bones. The "fancy" amenities in the room was the diffuser and the sound machine, which, don't get me wrong, we liked a lot. After our trip we bought our own sound machine because we liked the one in the hotel so much. There is no tv, but we don't watch tv when we go on vacation so not a big deal. The bathroom is very small and uses a sliding door/barn door for the shower and toilet...not exactly something I like, but whatever, I can deal with it.
Parking was weird and the spots are TINY. Again, you can tell this was an apartment and the parking garage was for the residents who lived there. A group of guests parked a massive SUV rental and I remember them having a hard time getting out, lol.
I forgot to mention the whole check in aspect. Maybe they changed it, but a couple years ago after we reserved and paid for our room, there was no information about parking in our confirmation. We tried to call the hotel beforehand but the first time we called, the person on the other end sounded like they weren't even in the hotel or Laguna Beach. It was really strange, but the person advised that parking is available for guests in the back of the hotel. On the day of our trip we ended up parking at a metered space because we didn't know where we could leave our car to check in to our room. We also had to call the phone number at the front door since the entrance was locked...what hotel does that? Anyway, we did move our car into their "garage", but we only knew about it because the front desk showed us the alleyway into their garage.
Honestly I could look past all of what I just mentioned and I don't expect every hotel to be like a Waldorf Astoria, but the main thing I really did NOT like about this hotel is their courtyard. At night the guests were talking and hanging out in the courtyard and you can easily hear them! It was incredibly annoying and aggravating, especially when I'm trying to sleep at 11pm. The sound machine could not drown out their voices. If the hotel is not going to monitor guests during after hours at least close off the courtyard during the evening. The guests weren't being loud but this place is small and sound easily picks up in this area.
I really hesitated writing this review because the employees were nice and isn't horrible, but I couldn't help but feel like this place was lacking and not that great. The following year we stayed at a different hotel in Laguna that was cheaper and was considered a "3 star" hotel (SCP Seven4One is supposed to be a "4 star" boutique hotel) and let's just say that the difference between the second hotel and SCP Seven4One was like night and day. The only things that I genuinely liked about SCP Seven4One was the sound machine and that the hotel is right across the street from Ralph's (I bought some fruit and cakes and stored them in the hotel fridge, haha). Otherwise SCP Seven4One is not a place I would stay in again. read more