Sea View Inn Celebrates Earning Travelers' Choice Award
Jun 05, 2021 10:35AM ● By Jeanne FratelloPhoto via the Sea View Inn
Making Changes to Adapt to COVID
Murphy said that he was proud that the Sea View Inn was able to stay open throughout the pandemic and did not rely on federal aid.
From the start of the pandemic, the hotel had to adapt to circumstances to ensure that they were keeping all rooms and guests COVID-safe. Among other new routines, they began using an Ozonator (an ozone generator that is used to purify air and disinfect rooms) in every room before a new guest arrived.
In the past, while the hotel might have been more lax about the checkout time, they had to stick firmly by the 11:00 a.m. deadline to allow enough time to do thorough sanitizing before another guest came in, said Murphy.
During the pandemic, many of the initial guests were health care and frontline workers who had come to work at local hospitals and needed a place to stay. Then gradually, the hotel started getting visitors from California, then from Nevada and Arizona, then from the Midwest, and now from all across the U.S.
In past years, the Sea View Inn has been popular among French visitors because it had been featured in a prominent French travel magazine, said Murphy, but visitors from France have not started coming back yet.
Nevertheless, he added, the hotel has been sold out the past few weekends and gradually weekdays are filling up in the summer as well.
Murphy said that what makes the Sea View Inn unique is its proximity to the beach (almost all of the rooms have ocean views; some with panoramic views) and its ability to let guests feel like locals.
"We encourage people to live like a local. We have free bikes, free boogie boards, seats, chairs, umbrellas, beach towels, toys... They can take those things out, enjoy the day, come back up here, go to a bar or restaurant, and have everything within walking distance. That’s really what sets us apart," he said.
Keasler has owned the hotel for 41 years; Murphy joined as a partner 12 years ago.
Located at 3400 Highland Ave., the Sea View Inn has been a fixture of the North Manhattan Beach community for more than a generation.