ToneDaBass

It's also high tourist season here right now, so all hotels are just about full for the next month. You can also book an ADA room, and request a change to a normal room at check-in.

broadbandcowboy

Completed a stay with our young family last weekend. Overall, I'll give the place a thumbs up. However, this is not a beach resort. Bring your expectations in line with the property and you'll have a great stay.

The location is great. The hotel is directly across the street from the beach. It's a quick 20 minute walk along the beach to town. Uber was about $6 each way to town.

We booked one night on points and one night paid at $275. Hotels in SB are expensive over the weekend and this seemed to be the going rate. We were upgraded to a large ocean view room with two double beds on the third floor. The room had plenty of space for a family of four and a small balcony with 2 seats. Rooms in the main/original building looked much smaller. Our room was recently updated, clean and the bathroom had a tub/shower combo. Nothing fancy, but again it's not a fancy beach resort hotel.

We easily found street parking and avoided the $26/day valet. Breakfast was good (not amazing) and we sat outside one morning. The pool area is small but our kids still enjoyed an hour long swim when we arrived.

The ocean view rooms face the road but the noise was not bad on the third floor. After the second night we were ready to move on but enjoyed the stay. The hotel was perfect for two nights but again not especially relaxing or special in any way that made us want to stay longer. We would return to this hotel, would not suggest staying more then a few nights and overall felt good about the experience. Again, it's not a luxurious beach resort but a solid hotel across from the beach and walking distance to town. Rooms are expensive because of the local market and if you can use points for a portion of the stay you'll probably end up happy.

hooterbif

I stayed here recently. It would be a let down as a family beach resort because the beach is not that great, is across the street, and has cold water. The prices are very high. The rooms are mediocre, although I had the Santa Maria suite. Service is ok, but room service is slow.

rntraveller

Iam deciding if to do a one night stay later this month for hubbys birthday. Do they now alow Diamond Suite upgrades if available? as I know last year they didnt. Was alos thinking about doing the "Romance" package as it comes with breakfast in room but if roomservice not so good maybe better jsut to do reg rate and have the diamond breakfast in retaurant. We usually do Huntington Beach for one night stays but just wanted to go somewhere different this time as we like Santa Barbara and wanted to to holiday shopping at the Sunday craft market

oc2005

I typically stay here several weeks a year, and it's definitely a mixed bag. Here are some notes I've kept on this place and surrounding area in case any of this helps anyone:

There are three buildings:

1. [*]
2. [*]

Some other recent changes and updates:

• They've gotten rid of all self parking a while back, though you may be able to find street parking depending on how busy things are.
• They've now gone to a voucher based system for the Diamond breakfast (a HUGE improvement). They give you one voucher per day with the number of registered guests, and you can use this for the restaurant or room service. This also makes it easier if the guests are not dining at the same time (since you can request multiple vouchers with 1 guest listed per voucher).
• This property has gone through some ownership and management changes the last few years and there is a fair amount of turnover in staff.
• This property while sometimes pricey, can have decent luck with BRG's, which often can get the price down in the $130s-$160s.
• While renovated, this place really is a motel with some slightly nicer finishes. In general it has thin walls, small rooms, old fashioned wall unit ac units, etc.
• Diamond upgrades are inconsistent at best -- I've has some miniscule rooms and on a very rare occasion a nice large room or suite.
• They still don't allow Diamond suite upgrades (a HUGE minus).

There are some fantastic restaurants within a mile or two; current favorites I'd recommend are:

• Los Agaves on Milpas
• the Lark in the Funk Zone
• Cava in Montecito
• Tre Lune in Montecito

oc2005

Still no Diamond suite upgrades sadly. This hotel is definitely several steps down from the HB Hyatt, especially when you factor in the lack of suite upgrades.

I'd probably avoid this for a special occasion unless you really need the stay credit or can book a suite. If you don't have to stay here, I'd either look at a different nicer Hyatt (Park Aviara or HB would be my choices in So Cal), or even check out prices on Kayak at the Bacara which often isn't that much more than the Hyatt.

Oh and in my last stay, they now allow room service for the Diamond breakfast!

tringer2103

Just stayed over the Thanksgiving holiday. Greatly enjoyed the stay, we were in the main building and had a clear ocean view. I'm only a Platinum, so not sure if it was considered an upgrade or not. Perhaps our enjoyment of the city of Santa Barbara influenced my opinion of the hotel. Very nice location across the street from a very nice beach. The only small downside is the walk to restaurants, wine tasting rooms, shops, etc. downtown is lengthy. There is a shuttle that only costs $.50 each way but stops running at 6 PM in the off-season. We walked downtown to dinner the first night but opted for taking the shuttle into town and Uber back to the hotel (about $7 for the Uber ride). We were able to find street parking to avoid the valet fee which seems awfully high at $26/day. Lots of street parking available in the area. I certainly would stay again.

WheelsFirst

What's the deal with the Parkside rooms? My best analysis is the Hyatt Santa Barbara manages this budget hotel, the Parkside Inn, and has figured out a way to put all the Hyatt Gold Passport award stays in this other property (with 225 sq ft rooms)? Seems very confusing, I cancelled by booking and will avoid this hotel until I can figure out what's going on.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

"Room(s) Booked: SANTA BARBARA 1K

Room Description: 1 King bed:Bldg is 1 block from main hotel: 225 sq ft:tub/shower combination:refrigerator"

slocouple

Are you sure it's not just that whole other group of rooms past the parking lot and fitness center, etc.? We've stayed several times, and it's a very long property.

WheelsFirst

I'm definitely not sure, which is why I posted, but I don't think so given the description is different and the square footage is different. I'm going to email the hotel and ask for clarification, and will report back here.

SK56

Any update?

Cygnet

Anyone who's been to this property have any insight or comment on the "Santa Barbara House" as mentioned in this package:

[Excerpt:] "Santa Barbara House
Experience Santa Barbara like a local with our unique Santa Barbara House Package. Located in a satellite building only blocks from our lobby and the Pacific Ocean, our Santa Barbara House completed a stylish renovation in 2015 and affords a glimpse of local living on a tree lined residential street.
...
This package includes parking at Santa Barbara House and parking at the main hotel during your stay. Guests booking the Santa Barbara House Package are asked to check-in at the front desk in the hotel's main lobby and a parking access pass will be provided during registration."

Have never been to this property, so have no basis of experience. Have a wedding to attend in town, so trying to decide if a stay is worth it (rates currently upwards of $340+). The package is marginally cheaper...but how do those rooms compare to the "main hotel" rooms? Sounds like the "Santa Barbara House" matches the "Parkside" as described earlier in this thread?

Thanks.

oc2005

I have never stayed in these new buildings, but when I was walking around the neighborhood around the property about a month ago, I came across a couple of buildings marked "Hyatt" which might be the ones they are referring to:

The first building was right across the street from the Hyatt and didn't look too bad from the outside (and had parking underneath, which seemed to be blocked by a cone if I recall):

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4179...8i6656!6m1!1e1

But the second building was pretty far away and didn't look as nice from the outside (and had an uncovered parking lot in front of it):

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4190...7i13312!8i6656

If you want to use any of the amenities on the main property (restaurant, pool, gym, etc.), it would be a bit of a pain going back and forth between the second one and the main hotel.

As a side note, when I booked a Points+Cash stay for a couple of months from now, the only rooms they had available using Points+Cash were for the "Parkside" portion of the hotel, so they seem to be trying to use these new buildings for their award capacity.

Mastermind

Will this location be converted to a Centric, or is that an entirely new property?

musikdude

i never see any award avails for the main property- they are ONLY offering award rooms when this Parkside annex is not sold out. I wonder, as a Diamond, whether they will upgrade to the main building automatically- assuming it is not sold out?