Hotel Californian

We had a perfect weekend in Santa Barbara for my wife's birthday. The hotel Californian experience put it over the top. The room was beautiful and the location can't be beat.

Best bedding and pillows in any hotel I stayed at and extremely nice shower pressure. The roof top pool was nice and the service was quick.

Love this property! Bed was so comfortable, the shower is amazing and the courtyard location was so peaceful. Love the text notification/concierge and the ease of asking questions and receiving timely responses. Blackbird happy hour with $2 oysters was delicious and the perfect first stop after the drive from San Diego. The location can't be beat for a true Santa Barbara, California coast experience and the staff were all so friendly and accommodating. Can't wait to come back!!

We have spent multiple nights each year at the Hotel Californian since it first opened. The location is great, and for the most part, the rooms and service have been fine. This last stay may have been our last. We booked our usual room type, which is supposed to feature an ocean view. Well, if you stood on the balcony, you could sorta see the ocean. If you sat, the solid balcony walls prevented you from seeing anything. There were two TVs in the room, but only one remote. It controlled both TVs at the same time, so we couldn't turn on just one. The sound wasn't completely synchronized, so there was an annoying echo. We ended up unplugging one TV because we couldn't otherwise turn it off without turning both off. We stayed three nights and had to request housekeeping if we wanted our room tidied during our stay. After the second night, housekeeping made up our room, but didn't touch the coffee cups we used for in-room coffee. When we inquired, we were told that cleaning the coffee cups wasn't standard for stayover rooms. After many decades of travel, this was the first time we ever encountered that. And the room rate was well over $1,000/night! We usually start our mornings with a cappuccino and pastry at the Goat Tree. Service was so slow and inattentive the first morning, we simply skipped it from then on. I'm really sorry we had such a lousy experience. We think the location is great, it's very walkable, and we like being able to wander around the Funk Zone. But I can't see paying these kinds of rates for this poor level of service. Will look for another place to stay on future trips to Santa Barbara.

It was perfect. The staff was wonderful, the hotel was exquisite, the food was great, but the best part was the pool and the view.