The Franciscan Hotel

Where to begin? Unfortunately, there is a long list of negatives here. NOTE - please take a look at other recent reviews (I stayed here December 2023). The critical reviews are spot-on and consistent with my sub-par experience. This inn is overpriced and not a worthy Santa Barbara hotel stay. I visited this property with my adult brother and my 81-year-old mother. The review of the property is predicated on our collective experience. We stayed for one night, arriving in the evening after dark. For an expensive property, too many things were difficult. A hotel stay should be easy, straightforward and pleasant. The good: the rooms are clean. The location is excellent. The neighborhood is peaceful and beautiful. The not-so-good: 1. This property is not correctly represented in the photos--it is a motel, albeit one in a very nice neighborhood with a prime location and a photogenic, nice central office building. It is in need of some careful, curated attention from the owners in order to earn the price point it commands. For example, the parking lot is old and has alligator cracking throughout...not the best look for a premium property in Santa Barbara. If you are a light sleeper, you will likely be bothered by people making noise outside or by car lights shining in the window of your room. The staff are badly hampered by resources that do not work properly. Several examples: 2. Outdoor lighting - we arrived after dark. The exterior lights of the property were not on; the parking lot was not lit, nor were the walkway lights outside each room. My mother could not find the public bathroom in the dark walkway and gave up. I asked the front desk clerk if the lights could be turned on--her answer was that they are on a timer. Again, we arrived an hour after nightfall, so this was a very odd proposition. It is a dangerous safety hazard to not have exterior lights on after dark. Other hotel guests were using flashlights in the parking lot and walkways to get around. The fact that the lights were not on after dark could result in someone getting injured. 3. The TV set was far too complex. The TV in my mother's room would not function correctly. We had to ask the front desk clerk for assistance--she couldn't solve the problem either. We had to unplug the cable box and the TV and restart both of them. Even then, we could not get the TV to work properly--there are two remotes and no instructions. My mother finally gave up and read a book. For a $270/night motel, this is far short of one's expectations. My TV at a Motel 6 would work more reliably. 4. The room had no instructions—not for the A/C unit (which was attached to the wall—if you were not familiar with the control, you would have a frustrating evening). The accoutrements for coffee were lacking—my brother’s room had no stirrers for coffee, so he used a Q-tip to stir his sugar into the coffee). I’ve already written about the two remotes…one controlled volume and channels; the other controlled the smart TV. Without guidance from the hotel staff it would be a game of trial and error to get to TV stations. Additionally, the rooms are stark. No clock and no phone. No place to plug in USB devices. Even a little device on the nightstand could improve the experience. Instead, you plug things into the wall outlets and hope for the best. 6. Computers for public use do not function. The computer for boarding pass printing was a complete failure. My mother likes to have a paper boarding pass—we got all the way to the Print page only to have the desk clerk tell us the computer didn’t work. Really? Why is it even turned on? 7. I then tried to email the pass to the clerk. Her “info@” email could not receive emails from me, even after trying two different accounts. I even tried to respond to her email to me—which came through correctly—yet she could not receive my email response. 8. Finally, the lack of breakfast is a surprise. There is coffee and some fruit…but nothing that one might consider even approaching a continental breakfast. Spend your money elsewhere.

AVOID THIS PLACE EVEN IF THEY ARE GIVING ROOMS AWAY. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND PAY A LITTLE MORE IF YOU HAVE TO. IT'S WELL WORTH IT. I can't tell you the number of times we've been here. IT WAS GREAT. Apparently it was sold and "renovated" about a year ago. This was a quaint and confortable hotel before the remodel. It's now Euro-Ikea-minimalist (picture being locked in an IKEA at night and sleeping in a display). The rooms are clean but extremely sterile. There are no pictures on the wall and it's filled with what appears to be disposable furniture (kind of an incarceration feeling). The mattress was extremely uncomfortable; there are no box springs and the mattress is worn in a way that you will either roll into the hole in the middle or give you that fall off the bed feeling. There really is no space to layout makeup or anything (wife's input) and the bathroom is extremely small. This place is cold and not very welcoming. The only saving grace was the staff at the desk. However, I can't speak of management. Monday morning 7 AM, a large truck carrying 3 palm trees about 20+ feet arrived in the parking lot. About 8:30 we received a call from the management asking us to move our cars so they can begin working on tearing out the old trees and planting new ones. (I kid you not I think they felt they let us sleep in long enough). An extremely large diesel truck was used. The noise was unbelievable. Upon checking out I asked to speak with management. A week later we gave yet to speak with anyone. Below is a review I found which I believe sums this place up perfectly. Allison Mac: Beware the "renovated" rooms! A woke designed nightmare. We stayed one night, had an upgrade to a "king" room. We're very surprised room looked nothing like those in the website. Shocked to find it was just white cement walls, bare cheap vinyl plank floor throughout, inc bathroom, and white bed white sheets and essentially the barest of furnishings. Nothing on walls, no decor except cheap floating desk shelf with a few plastic cactus. Felt a bit like living in a prison cell, no where to put your bags, a tiny bedside table and a large wall mounted tv which didn't work until we had the helpful staff member reboot the box hidden behind tv. There are no rugs to soften hard floor and everything echoes, and you hear everything in next room. The bathroom is a design nightmare. The wash basin is a trendy looking basin suspended on a steel trolley like fitting which means it's just the basin with no where to put your cosmetics etc. No storage no cupboards throughout except in the wardrobe. Then when you have a shower, the taps from the bath haven't been moved up to hand height, which means to adjust taps you need to firstly manoeuvre yourself around the jutting steel washbasin and then crouch down really low bent around to turn taps on. Then once in the shower, you need to bend into the water and get hair wet to adjust temperature. No facilities to make coffee or fridge in room. Pre made Coffee and granola bars and cookies in avo is provided at the front office. I'd rather have the facilities in room. Overall the incredibly severe white on cement white look and sparse furnishings mean it's not pleasant at all to stay in, like a large empty cement box, we both had trouble sleeping. The shutters are not blockout so you are awakened with first light. Quite a few plusses: The front office staff provided very good service with map and recommendation. It is easy walking distance to beach and restaurants (but there are many of this sort of older drive up motel style places around). The front gardens are well manicured and give the place a nice feel but the palms lining the rooms were all dead looking. The heated pool looked nice and seemed to have enough poolside chairs and umbrellas. Younger folk who don't care about functionality and just want the hip feel will probably fare ok here but for a practical traveller trust me this is not worth the time or money. I think they have a few design bugs to iron out first.