Santa Barbara Inn

We stayed at the Santa Barbara Inn to celebrate a special occasion, and unfortunately did not have a good experience. I don’t usually speak up when I get bad service, but our time at the SB Inn was particularly disappointing. Here are the issues we experienced: 1. The Valet attendant when we arrived on Friday very loudly and rudely yelled at my spouse in her car for not pulling up enough. It shocked us both, and was completely unwarranted. It really upset her and made a bad first impression. 2. At check-in the gentleman working the desk was unorganized and didn’t even wish us congratulations, even though we were celebrating a special occasion which was on our reservation. 3. When we came back down to get service at the front desk because only one key worked, the front desk was unattended for a long period of time even though we could hear people talking behind the desk, and we had to yell for someone to come help us. 4. There is no coffee or tea complimentary in the room which was very inconvenient because of its limited availability. This seems very unreasonable when you consider we paid $550 a night, and even a cheaper or lesser quality hotel has coffee complimentary in the room. 5. The only coffee they have available in the lobby is bad quality, and is not even available all day. 6. When we expressed our concern about not having access to coffee all day, and that it was not available in the room, the front desk staff chose to use the opportunity to say how we should have come earlier, and very rudely minimized our concern. Instead of owning the situation, they chose to lecture us on how it was the restaurant’s fault, instead of trying to sympathize and apologize. They generally acted as if they didn’t care, and didn’t care about us. 7. The internet never worked for us during our stay. We tried multiple different ways to troubleshoot, such as disconnecting/reconnecting, restarting our devices, and turning off cellular data, but it still didn’t work. Because of this, we were not able to respond to pressing work-related emails, and had to go off property to get internet access. 8. The room furnishings, particularly in the bathroom, are cheap and worn. The floors are very thin and you hear everything above or below you. The quality of the room and its appearance should at least be relative to the price paid. In this instance, the price paid is not on par with the quality of room provided. 9. Lastly, was just generally had bad customer service at this property. The front of the house staff don’t seem to care about the guests or don’t seem interested in delivering good quality service. They care more about being right and lecturing you, then resolving issues with your stay. 10. There were also many low quality attributes which seemed out of place. Such as the restaurant staff doing silverware roll ups on the pool deck, food service staff having meetings on the pool deck / guest areas, staff not being at their posts when we need service, and repairs to the room below us taking place early in the morning without warning. When we were there to celebrate a special occasion, and paying $2,000 for 3 nights we expected a better quality of service.

First the great. Staff are wonderful. Convivo restaurant is amazing. Breakfasts fantastic, both food and coffee. Renee and Carlos were special servers. Really efficient and friendly. Now the not so great! Room was clean but with rather dated looking furniture and horrendous view of telephone wires, delivery trucks and garbage area. We didn't book an ocean view but the ad said ALL rooms had ocean OR mountain view. We were part of a wedding party and booked six months ago. For $475 a night, we were shocked. Also, the toiletries were not a luxurious brand as supplied by other hotels with lower prices. My husband and I are world travelers and have experienced many top notch hotels. Sadly, apart from the staff and restaurant, Santa Barbara Inn isn't one of them.