Hotel Californian

Room was comfortable, but our premium category room was right under the rooftop, where loud club music played for four hours on a Sunday night. Others may love that, but not at all what I am looking for.

Only positives -- near the beach and Funk Zone. Insanely loud with trains, traffic and deliveries at all hours. The pool is meant for about 20 people and looks NOTHING like the pics. Rooms are ok but not remarkable. If you want a quiet, luxurious getaway, avoid it. Not what you would want or expect from a supposed 4/5 star hotel.

From the start this was a less than luxurious welcome - I called on our way to see if my room might be ready an hour early and was told that nothing could be guaranteed. I had to request that the person check my specific room. In my experience usually someone will do this first and even say they would check in with housekeeping, prior to saying no. We were warmly welcomed by Lorenzo and Emily at the front desk who were the only staff we interacted with the entire stay. They were lovely. On arriving to our $2000 suite we found the air conditioning to be broken – on a hot weekend in August. We left the room to cool off and enjoy our welcome drink and requested to have someone come look at it. On our return we were told that the air conditioning could not be repaired but they left three fans in the room and the window opened. It was very hot. I had to then go to the front desk who kindly offered the room complementary. It was still rather hot. Although Lorenzo and Emily were absolutely wonderful to work with, I am surprised that there was no further outreach. I would have let this go entirely but found out that I was still charged a resort fee which seems inapparopriate given the situation. I filled out my survey on-line and haven’t heard back so I am wondering if a more public survey might result in some outreach from the hotel.

Location location location. Enjoyed our stay at the Californian. Room was lovely with nice amenities. Plenty of food options. Great service! (Emily at the front desk was a Star). Interesting layout with 3 corners of the intersection having different buildings that have different amenities. The roof pool is a great option to the beach and is across the street from the main part of the hotel in the same building as the gym and spa. Our next trip to Santa Barbara will include another stay at the Californian.

Beautiful hotel! Clean!!! Lovely staff! I felt at home on my solo trip. Great location! Would stay here again, for sure!!! Actually, didn't want to go home. 5 days was not enough!