katrina S.
Google
First thing to note is this is more of a hostel than a hotel. If you just need a spot to lay your head while you explore Downtown Santa Barbara, then this is a good choice. The funk zone, state street, and the warf are all walking distance. There is a communal kitchen to store and prepare your food in lieu of a in-room mini fridge. A lounge space with board games. There is a bar and a pantry with snacks available, both for a fee. The free breakfast is cold coffee and stale muffins. The pool is 3ft 10inches deep and is so small that more than 5 people in it will feel overwhelming. The staff are friendly overall, no complaints about any of them. My partner, housemate, and I stayed at the hotel for 3 days while our apartment was being worked on, we appreciated this hotel's pet policy as we have 2 cats. We booked a double room with 2 queen beds, 183 Sq ft, yet when we arrive the room is barely 100sq ft and the beds are full size. I double checked my booking and saw the Sq footage changed but it still promised 2 queen beds. We were tired from having to vacate our apartment on short notice and decided to just accept the room's size and beds. We learned that the walls were so thin, we heard every conversation in the lobby, hallways and other rooms; every guest come and go. Our cats were very stressed out over the sound. I asked for a room away from foot traffic if possible. Later, our remote controlled curtains would not go down. Being so tired, we tied up some blankets for privacy and called it a night. As we slept, the A/C unit gave off a weird bubbling sound while on and off. Next morning we asked the front desk for assistance on the curtains as they won't move anymore. We waited many hours for maintenance man to arrive, as we were told that there is only one man for multiple Marriott locations. We learned that the batteries on the curtain were not charged prior to our stay. Once they charged, for about an hour, the curtains came down and then refused to go back up again. In the end we accepted the blinds being permanently down and the staff gave us binder clips to use to hold them up. They didn't stay up much however, because the view of the parking lot and front door did not provide much in the feeling of privacy. We checked the windows from the outside looking in and found that we were fully visible inside our room, even moreso at night. The room appeared to be an old coat room with the bar on one side and a utility closet on the other. The television hung on the wall just under the many hooks and was not able to be pulled out. It could not be tilted toward either bed so instead it sat at an awkward angle not ideal for either bed.
The beds were definitely full sized and not queens. Additionally, within the layers of bedding, some layers were not big enough to go across the whole bed. The mattress was so thin that you could feel the bed frame and the lack of headboard made it more uncomfortable to sit and watch the awkward TV. The bathroom is large and spacious and beautifully decorated. The room needs a fan and the toilet seat could use a lid. The shower had a removable head with two mount options: One that sat above your head and only affixed at a 90° angle. Another that sits at your chest and tilts down onto a shower seat. Either way, the water hits the shower curtain and floods the bathroom floor way too easily.
I did appreciate the steamer and blow dryer.
Overall we felt the lack of larger amenities and lack of functional amenities made us feel that the cost was not equal to the experience. We enjoyed the location but we'd hoped we would feel okay to leave our pets for an hour or two in a stress free environment. The noise, the hostel vibe yet high price, and the false advertisement of room size/amenities.
We admit that we did not look into it enough for our needs/expectations due to a short time frame.
