Hotel Californian

This is by far one of my favorite hotels, not just in Santa Barbara, but in general :)

The location couldn't be more perfect, right on State Street in the heart of the funk zone and walking distance across from the beach. Not only that, but it's gorgeous and I love the Spanish style design. The rooftop has one of the prettiest views I've seen in Santa Barbara! It's so nice to be in the pool and have a beautiful view of the ocean and pier. The spa is small, but really cute + cozy and my massage from Quinn was amazing and so relaxing.

It's just overall an amazing property, but my favorite part about this hotel is hands down the people who work here. Everyone is so friendly and accommodating, which really makes the experience that much more special. I've stayed here on my own and with friends, but when you travel alone it makes a difference when the staff is friendly and makes you feel comfortable. Some of the people that come to mind who have helped make it a special experience include Steven, Lorenzo and Emily at the front desk, Amanda from the Society State & Mason Wine Tasting Room, Joe the bartender in the lobby area and Freddy + Cooper in the valet, but pretty much all of the valet guys are so friendly and great, as well!

Anyways, I truly love this hotel and would recommend it to anyone and everyone if you want to stay at a comfortable, beautiful hotel with the BEST employees and customer service :)

We enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Californian overall. The property, as well as the room and common areas, is beautiful. Our first check-in interaction was a bit disappointing, but once the room was ready, the team that took over did a much better job explaining our travel agent benefits and amenities. The location is excellent, with lots of foot traffic and plenty of restaurants and wine tasting rooms within walking distance. Still, given the price and its affiliation with Preferred Hotels & Resorts, it was not quite what we expected. We were also disappointed by how many people were using the amenities through Resort Pass. The pool area is too small, which left other guests and me with nowhere to sit, and service was slow because the staff was not prepared. At checkout, it took almost 30 minutes for the bellman to help with our luggage, so we ended up bringing it ourselves. The staff said that "they only had one bellman that day", but when we got to the valet area, the staff were chatting and on their cell phones. On the positive side, the concierge, Martha, was amazing. If it's your first time in Santa Barbara, I'd recommend staying there if the price is right. For what we paid — even with it being high season — I'd suggest looking at other options.

If you're planning on staying at the Hotel Californian, please check to make sure that your AC is working in your room. If it isn't, call the front desk and if they don't fix it/move you to a different room in a timely manner, GO DOWN TO THE FRONT DESK so that they provide the experience that reflects the price you're paying.

We chose the Hotel Californian because we took the train to Santa Barbara and it was the closest hotel to the station. It was pricey, but if you sign up for the Preferred Hotels rewards program, you can access discounted rates and early check-in/late check-in and room upgrades. Having arrived at noon, well in advance of the 4pm check-in, we were told that we would be put on a list and notified once our room was available.

Santa Barbara was in the throes of a heat wave and temps were in the 80's. Since we didn't get a text by 3pm, we tried cooling off in Finney's across the street. At 3;50pm, we went to the the front desk to see if our room was ready. Turns out, it was and they failed to send a text.

THE GOOD:
The rooms are nicely decorated and they have Malin + Goetz toiletries. Beds are comfortable. Free hotel-branded bottled water. There's a Nespresso machine in the room and a Starbucks located on the property.

THE BAD:
There was only one robe in the room. The lights on the sides of the bed are controlled by one switch, so it's impossible for only one side of the bed to have lights on - it's either both sides or not at all.

THE UGLY:
Our room, #212 in the building with the spa across the street, was warm. The AC did not seem to be working as the thermostat said 80 degrees, even though the temp was set for much lower. We went for a walk, hoping that the room would cool down in the meantime, but came back and found the room was still hot. The front desk said they would send someone to look at it. Frankie spent an hour trying to fix it but declared that it was not something that would not be fixed in a timely manner. He alerted the front desk and told us that we would be moved to another room and that we should wait for them to call.

Fifteen minutes passed and no phone call. We called and were told that they were assisting another customer with check-in and would call us back. After another 15 minutes, we grabbed our stuff and went down to the lobby, expecting to see it filled with guests. It was empty. The guy at the front desk who had been handling our calls (let's call him Steven because that's his name) said, "We just tried calling you," to which I wanted to say, "REALLY?" We were finally moved to another room, which was larger and had working AC. It should not have taken 1.5 hours for us to be switched to another room. There are several reviews complaining about broken AC, so this is not a unique problem.

It's a shame because if our first room had working AC or if they had immediately offered us a new room, this would have been a positive review. If they had honored the room upgrade benefit of being a I Prefer Hotel Rewards member initially and placed us in the second room, this mess could have been avoided. The front desk seems pleasant enough but they fail to provide outstanding service. When we checked out, I was not asked, "How was your stay?" Perhaps they already knew how my stay had gone and were afraid to ask.

Great location by the sea, great and beautiful hotel and the best employees. Nice food, good gym and we will certainly come back.

We had 3 rooms confirmed. One of the rooms did not have a working air conditioner and as a remedy, 3 loud industrial fans were brought in. Staff at the valet, bar and front desk were exceptional. Other 2 rooms were beautiful.

The room and the pool were great but service was horrendous. We ordered room service, waited an hour and a half and it never came. Within that hour and a half I called room service twice—was connected to guest services—-and they said someone would call me back. Nobody called back.
We wasted almost two hours of our day and itinerary for a breakfast that never came. We then went to the restaurant and received nonexistent service. Food was good but service was terrible.
That afternoon we went to the pool and tried again to order food. It took over an hour to get a sandwich, the people sitting in front of us said they waited an hour and a half for their food. The manager came and said it was because they are across the street. If that is the issue, don’t offer food!
The next day we went to breakfast at Goat Tree and had a very nice server. We told her what happened the day before and she was apologetic and brought the manager out who said “we are going to do something special for you to make up for what happened.” What they did special was get our breakfast order wrong and took forever to get us our check. We received no kind of credit upon check out.
For the premium the Californian charges, they need to make some major changes. While I loved the room and location, the wrongs were inexcusable. I was traveling as an American Express platinum member and will be letting them know this experience did not live up to the caliber of hotels typically includes in the Fine Hotels category.

La beauté du bâtiment

Perfect location to the harbor, shops, and funk zone in walking distance. Hotel is classy looking and clean. Staffs are courteous and friendly. I didn’t get to check out the Knock restaurant though as they are not open Mondays and Tuesdays. Maybe next time.

Hotel Californian is billed as a 5-star hotel but this has to be the lowest 5-star hotel we have ever stayed at. We've stayed at several 5-star hotels including Fairmonts, Ritz-Carltons, Corinthia, and Rosewood Hotels all over the US, Canada and Europe. This hotel did not compare.

My husband and I had booked two nights at this hotel. We had two separate reservations for one night each. Before arrival, the hotel texted my husband asking if we had any requests. He asked if we could stay in the same room both nights, and they assured us we were "locked in" to the same room.

We arrived at 4:15pm and check in. While we are at the front desk, another couple walks up next to us and says, "We got a text that our room is ready." I then hear the woman explain that they had checked in earlier but the A/C wasn't working in their room, so they had to check back out while the hotel serviced their room and now they were checking in again to another room. I'm thinking, I hope the hotel isn't having widespread A/C problems, it is hot today. (foreshadowing here)

The front desk person tells us we have two $100 resort credits, one for each reservation, which we were unaware we were getting. We asked him if he was sure and he said yes, two credits for $100 each. A welcomed surprise!

He explains our room is in the building across the street. We take our luggage, cross the street with it, and go up to our room. When we open the door, first thing we notice is a big, bright yellow evaporative cooler sitting on the floor in our room. It looked like one of those units they put out after cleaning carpets to help it dry faster.

My husband calls down to the front desk to ask if they can pick it up. The man (the same one that checked us in - so he knew what room he was sending us to) apologizes and explains that the A/C wasn't working in our room, but it's fixed now, and maintenance just forgot to pick it back up. He said he'd send someone to come get it.

In the meantime, we notice the thermostat is set to 65° and it is anything but 65° in there. It's way hotter and super humid, likely from the cooler. The room was cute though and had a balcony with a courtyard view.

We had our 2 kids with us, so 4 people in the room, but there was only 1 single washcloth and 2 bath towels in the bathroom. My husband tracked down a housekeeping cart and picked up several more washcloths and two bath towels for us and brought them back to the room.

The maintenance guy then comes to pick up the cooler. He tests the A/C and it's still not working. He said he will go service the unit and come back in a few minutes. He offered to leave the evap cooler in our room if we were okay with that, we said no. It was still way too hot and humid in there and that thing was noisy.

Before he left, I asked him if the whole hotel was having A/C issues or just this room, and he said, "Just this room."

So apparently, we got the other couple's room that they had checked out of after complaining, and the hotel decided to put us into it next. Were they hoping we wouldn't notice?

What are the chances that I would hear that next to us while we're checking in and then we get the same room??

The maintenance man ended up saying the A/C could not be fixed and that he had contacted the front desk to "work with us on something."

We go back down to the Front Desk and they tell us they are giving us a new room that is an "upgraded class" from what we booked. Great! We had dinner reservations and were starving after driving all day to SB so we asked if we could move after we came back from dinner. They said yes. They also said someone was scheduled to check in to the new room the next day but they would do their best to keep us in the new room and move them somewhere else.

After dinner, we go back to our old room, gather all our stuff, cross the street with our luggage again as our new room was in the main building now, and go to our new room. It was slightly larger but had a smaller balcony with what I would call a partial ocean view.

The A/C worked great in this room and the room was nice. But I told my husband if we had paid extra for this "upgraded class" of a room which is stated on the hotel's website as having an ocean view, I would have been disappointed.

The "view" was marred by the ugly rooftop of a commercial building next door and the ocean was far and hard to see. See my photo of what the ocean view really looked like. Glad we didn't pay extra for that. The courtyard view in our previous room was prettier. Note that Hotel Californian doesn't show pictures of the "ocean view" on their website for their rooms - this is why.

We were told that because we had two separate one-night reservations, we had to stop by the Front Desk the next day to "check out and back in again" and get more new keys but it would be for the same room. Fair. We go back to the Front Desk the next day and a different girl tells us we have to actually check out now and leave the room again because it's a "higher class" room and someone else has booked it for the day.

My husband explains that the A/C wasn't working in our first room, we already had to move once to a second room, and we were told the day before that they were going to try their best to keep us in that room so we didn't have to move to a third room during our two night stay.

She said she would have her manager get back to us later that day. They did call us and said we could stay in the same room. That was nice but all this back and forth and time spent communicating with the Front Desk on a short stay was frustrating.

The new room again provided only 2 washcloths and 2 bath towels for 4 people. Luckily, we had snuck over the extras that my husband had picked up in the previous room. But I don't know why, if there are 4 people, they don't provide at least 4 washcloths and 4 bath towels.

Finally, we check out Sunday morning and there is no $100 resort credit applied to the second night. The girl tells me it was only for the first night. I say we were told it was for both nights and we had specifically confirmed with the man checking us in that it was for both nights and he said yes. She said he must have made a mistake but we do not get a credit. I tell her it's not our fault that he made a mistake and they should honor what they told us. My husband had ordered two drinks at the bar because we were told it was going to be covered by the credit. She finally said she would comp the two drinks my husband had ordered ~$50 but couldn't give me more than that, and I said that was fine.

Pros: the room was nice, exceptionally comfortable beds and pillows, and every employee we interacted with was friendly.

Cons: Knowingly giving us a room where the AC didn't work and hoping we would just take it. Could have had a much smoother experience for $1200 a night at a "5-star hotel" - too much time spent communicating with the Front Desk. Ocean view disappointing. Bath towel count did not consider guest count, had to track down our own towels. Ran out of towels on the 2nd night and my husband had to reuse a damp one. Tiny little bar soap given for hand soap which is immediately gross after 1 or 2 uses and sits in water in their rusted brass tray. All bathroom fixtures rusted and gross.

Also charged an exorbitantly high $312 incidental fee *per night.* The hotel mistakenly (intentionally?) charged both of my provided credit cards the $312 incidental fee for Saturday (so twice Sat), and one charge on Fri, for a total or three $312 incidental charges for two nights, tying up nearly $1000 on my credit cards unnecessarily. The Rosewood Hotel charges only $100 per night for incidentals, not sure why this hotel charges $312 per night!! It was nowhere near as nice!

I think if we had gotten our intended room that we booked, and not a broken room originally intended for another couple that we were put in to after they complained which necessitated us also moving, we could have had a good experience here.

Overall really disappointed. We spent over $2500 here for 2 nights and it was the worst "5-star hotel" we've ever experienced.

Beautiful room. Exceptional staff. Perfect location.

Excellent valet

Everything about the hotel was perfect. We arrived by train and it was so convenient to just walk a few minutes to the hotel. Then when we wanted to go somewhere and were too tired to walk, we used the hotel golf cart (can't remember what it's actually called). Most everything was walkable though so location was ideal. The room was lovely and very comfortable, we slept great. Plus the entire hotel was very tastefully designed. We'll go back for sure!

Location is convenient. Building is gorgeous. Decor is nice. Excellent cocktails. Excellent shower pressure. Shuttle was non existent, the air didn’t work at night so we were all sweating, tv wouldn’t allow streaming even with the $15 app it made us purchase. We asked for coffee recommendations and were told to try Starbucks. Asked for winery recs and they didn’t have any. We ordered breakfast at the goat- 3 sandwiches and 3 bloody Mary’s- no modifications and got the wrong order twice and there was hair in our food. After an hour we finally got our drinks. Would be fine if this was a standard Hilton but didn’t feel at all like the luxury price tag. We received mail and they refused to give it to us. The tv wouldn’t work and they said they were sending someone up and he never came. The upgraded “city view” was a parking lot. When we finally found the pool and were told to go relax there- we were asked to leave 10 minutes later. The “fire pit” is standard outdoor seating for 4 and a fire place.
The location is pretty but an overall perplexing service experience. It’s like they were pleasant and nice but no one had the authority to make a decision and no one gave useful information or a helpful description of the layout. I expected much more for the price. Emily at the front desk was very nice and the younger blonde bartender was very nice and he was easy to talk to. They say they provide room service but everything we tried to order was not available

Every aspect of our stay at the Hotel Californian was amazing. The staff, location, amenities, room and total experience was incredible. I highly recommend!

Location is perfect and is close to the beach, within walking distance to all attractions and restaurants. The room was clean, comfortable, and very well maintained. The front desk staff was friendly, though a bit more warmth and attentiveness would have made the experience even better. Overall, we had a pleasant stay and appreciated the quality of the accommodations.

Overall pretty good stay but had a couple of issues during our brief stay.
1. We were expecting to relax in the room at check in but were not informed of a roof top party at check in. We were unable to stay in the room because the music caused the room to vibrate until 9pm. When I called the front desk I was told that we should just “wait it out” until 9pm. They apologized for not telling us at check in about the party, offered a room credit, but none was reflected on the final bill
2. Service animals. I was asked for identification at check in and presented credentials at check in but apparently not noted and the hotel proceeded to charge a 250 dollar fee after i checked out and saw the bill come through the credit card. I was told it would be refunded but still waiting.
Location was good and I enjoyed goat tree for breakfast but the room was not really worth the price due to being not really relaxing during out stay for a couple of days. It would have been nice to inform us of this at check in and lost some quality sleep time and relaxation. We came from LA to rest but the party made it not a relaxing stay at this hotel. There must be miscommunication and poor notations made by reception.

Truly for a 5 star resort this a waste of money. I went for a birthday celebration and tried to contact the hotel to coordinate a bottle of champagne to be delivered, they assured me they would arrange something...they didn't do anything. I would have happily paid for something to be delivered if they let me know ahead of time that needed to be done. Additionally, we ordered room service for breakfast and you pre pay when you order on the mobile app, and half our items were missing when it was delivered. It took them 2 hours to miss half our order and an entire bottle of champagne, and after I complained they told me they didn't have it and charged me for a larger bottle instead. We tried room service again for lunch because we were frankly so tired from this entire experience and just wanted to have another bite and leave ASAP, however me and my partner both got severe food poisoning...

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this property to anyone. Sure it is in the middle of State St. and has a convenience factor but the entire experience is so inconvenient you are better off staying anywhere else

A five star hotel is one that has five star service. The service here was lacking in many ways. Both days of our stay we were out of our room from 10 am-4pm, and returned to a room that had not been made up. Housekeeping only came when called, and then they only made the beds. They did not replenish empty shampoo or soap, and did not replace coffee pods - use the toiletries sparingly because apparently what is in the room when you arrive is all you get. At the pool, the towels and water were empty when we arrived, and were not replenished during the ~2 hrs that we spent there. On our last day, we learned that the woman perpetually admiring her appearance in the hotel lobby mirror was the concierge. We walked past her a dozen times and she never once asked us whether we needed assistance. We never saw her speaking to anyone else, so I have no idea what her purpose is. This hotel has a nice location close to the beach, but is so lacking in service that I suggest staying at one of the many other hotels nearby.