We had a suite with partial view of the ocean on the 1st floor. Had small patio with lounge chairs. Room was great and spacious enough for me to have my glam peeps for day of my wedding. Would stay again! read more

Staff was friendly, rooms are very clean and well done, location is excellent parking was easy

The worse hotel staff in Santa Barbara! As a customer I could hear parking staff yelling obscene language at a customer with children present early in the morning. The parking staff should be fired. The staff was threatening the customer over parking on the property as a customer. Avoid this hotel and spend your money at The Californian Hotel around the corner. The Harbor View Inn should be closed for mistreating customers and yelling obscene language early in the morning at customers. Don't have a restaurant on your property and have staff yelling and threatening the customers! Get a clue and be professional to people spending money at your property. Now it is time to report your property to the City of Santa Barbara to require you to designate parking for the restaurant! read more

Great location near the train, shops, restaurants, entertainment, wine tasting rooms, the pier and many fun water activities. We upgraded to an ocean view room with a balcony. There is a pool and hot tub. Walking distance to the beach and boat rides. read more

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Loved this place. Had an amazing view from my room. The beach is right across the street and they also have a nice pool. The staff was really friendly and helpful. Brandon the bell guy was really cool. There's a lot to do around this hotel and area. Lots of cool shops and restaurants. Just walk up State street and you will run into a ton of fun things to see and do. Santa Barbara is awesome! Can't wait to go back and stay here again! read more

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We have spent countless nights in different hotels in Santa Barbara through the years since our son attended college at UCSB but never at the Harbor View Inn so this was our first stay. What a lovely property and the room was fabulous. A great view, comfortable room at a reasonable price. We will be returning. read more

This is one of the more beautiful spaces my wife and I have stayed in. Their front desk is very kind and courteous. Their staff is very attentive, and ready to help, and they kindly set up the child pack and play. We stayed in the king ocean view room. Lovely room, very clean, excellent walk in shower, gorgeous sized tub, great king bed, and quiet, couldn't tell anyone was staying next to us in either side. I look forward to our next stay. Great work on hiring the staff team y'all got! read more

California is in a state of emergency due to the wildfires. Unfortunately I got evacuated from my home in Brentwood. Thereafter my family was evacuated the day of our booking at this hotel. My partner and I called and asked if we could post pone our trip (not even asking for a refund) due to the STATE OF DECLARED EMERGENCY. My father is 80 years old- we cannot leave my family. We had to help them pack and relocate today. There are several road closures as well in the area. This business refused to allow us to reschedule and we lost the money we spent booking this. No one could even explain why we couldn't just simply re schedule. No one seemed to care of the ravaging fires or how that money was necessary to help cover relocation costs, food and medicine. Even air b n b is offering a free stay at their properties. Lyft is offering free rides to get people out that are being evacuated. This is unthinkable, unethical and DISGUSTING what this property is doing. I am going to report to the BBB and post reviews everywhere. This isn't right. read more

I had a terrible experience with the customer service at this hotel. From booking the reservation to check out just issue after issue. When I first made the reservation I was told that I would just have a hold on my card for the first night with taxes two days before my arrival. I said that I was ok, when I arrived at Check-in I was told that was not a hold but they actually charged my card for the first night stay. I told them from the beginning that I was only using my CC to book and I wanted to use my debit card to pay the final balance like I've done at the hundreds of hotels I've stayed at in the past. They told me I would just get a refund at check out and I could use my debit to pay. Then I was told they had to do a "hold" for the remaining balance on my card until I check out which I thought was very odd I've never had to hold the entire balance on my card until check out. Then during my stay I get a duplicate charge for the hold amount. During my check out they said they only show one "hold" they issued and have no clue why there was a duplicate. Then after I check out and have a refund issued. Only one refund was issued for the charge they put before my arrival and hold they had issued there was no refund or release of this mysterious second hold they put on my card. There was no general manager, there was no corporate number only a front desk manager who was no help at all. The location is great for the beach the room itself was good but please avoid any place like this that lacks accountability, customer service, and has outdated policy and procedures. I have never had a terrible hotel experience like this. This place is not cheap and the duplicate charges put my credit card over the balance because the charges were well over a thousand dollars. My first experience with Santa Barbara, first experience with this hotel. I would never again. I would book with Motel 6 before I booked with this place again. read more

It was great until they assigned the room above me to kids that continually bounced balls and stomped around keeping me from sleeping, working or watching TV. I called several times and they offered for me to move rooms. But they did not care that this was happening. They just kept quoting the noise ordinance. I would have been happy if they moved the kids. I would only stay on the top floor if you stay here. And I feel totally helpless as I lay awake listening to the kids above me bouncing balls and stomping around. read more

Nice hotel and a great price for being on the beach and in a walkable area. The staff was friendly, the room was clean and attractive.

One of worst hotels we've stayed at when it comes to prioritizing customer satisfaction. We had made plans to visit SB on a weekend where we had availability, and were not made aware that there was a festival happening right next to the hotel. This is not a heavily publicized/marketed festival either, but it does require all of the surrounding streets to be blocked off. The hotel gave us 0 heads up / directional recommendations in advance. Since this was our first time visiting, we called the hotel asking if they had any guidance as to how we navigate our way to the hotel parking lot. They left us on hold for 30+ minutes, and when we finally got ahold of someone at the front desk, their simple answer was "Uh, I think you should still be able to get in" when very clearly, we could not. We ended up having to ask a police officer to move a barricade for us to eventually enter a backstreet to the hotel lot. Once we approached the front desk in clear frustration over the little care to help, the woman at the front desk was all but apologetic/sympathetic for our situation. She kept saying "We're not responsible for something that the city coordinates" which may be the least hospitable thing you can say as a HOTEL. You knew months ahead of time that this festival would be taking place, yet you provided no alert to existing customers to prepare for heavy traffic / alternative routes. We ended up talking to the manager later that evening and he was far more apologetic and receptive of what we had to say, but it was just an awful start to what we'd anticipated being a wonderful (and expensive) stay. Bottom line, Santa Barbara is a city that attracts and prides itself on tourism. As a hotel, restaurant, store, etc, ensuring your customers receive top-class service should be a given. read more

Great hotel in a great location. The rooms are nice and spacious, and the location right on the beach next to Stearns Wharf is really convenient. read more

I reserved an Ocean view room. This is what they consider ocean view. There is a huge tree right in middle of view. I asked front desk if there was anything they could do but they offered no help and were super rude about it. This room was very expensive so disappointed. read more

Harbor View Inn - Over priced ocean view - Hotels Near Me - Santa Barbara, California

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We booked this room for our 5 year wedding anniversary and it also coincided with UCSB graduation. We booked a city/resort view room and we were thrilled. We are from Napa Valley and travel all over the world to high end hotels typically. The room was fantastic. Updated and tastefully done, view was great for a city/resort view room, location was spectacular and the staff...AMAZING! Jason, who I believe is the front desk manager, is nothing short of spectacular. He is kind, funny, charismatic and everyone we have met at the hotel has made us feel welcome. When we checked in, Jason was being BERATED by an unhappy New Yorker who had just flown in. Nothing he or the staff did to make things better for her were enough. My husband and I watched her go after the staff for at least 10 minutes and he was calm, cool, and collected. Honestly, that's why I am writing the review. This is one of the better hotels in the area and the location can't be beat. The staff clearly care about their guests and if you're nice to them, they will be nice to you and go out of their way to make your stay wonderful. They are working hard, and the entire front staff handled our check-in, this woman who was the nastiest I've seen (and believe me, I've seen a lot), as well at the check-in of other guests, flawlessly. We will be back without hesitation because of the staff, the clean room, and the fantastic location. If you're hesitant to book, don't be. Book this hotel, take in the beautiful surroundings, and treat the staff as you would want to be treated and you'll have an absolutely incredible time. Plus, if I am being absolutely honest, the hotel room we stayed at is nicer than one we recently stayed at in The Ritz Carlton. read more

Very Lovely Hotel. Very clean and nice rooms. Front Desk staff is always very professional and attentive. Location is wonderful. Thank you to Management as you are on the ball. read more

Had a great experience overall! I came with friends for my birthday and couldn't have picked a better spot. It's super close to the beach and the customer service was honestly the best. I especially wanted to thank Will and Thomas for going above and beyond to make my birthday weekend special. They also gave great recommendations about local restaurants and tourist spots, which made getting around way easier. Highly recommend, I'll definitely be back! read more

BEWARE! THE CUSTOMER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT AT THIS HOTEL!!!!!!!!! I rated 2 stars bc they charged me for 2 rooms when I only booked one. I tried booking this hotel for one night, but during checkout I received the infinite circle scroll (I was doing this on my phone) so I closed out of safari. I never received a confirmation email, so figured it didn't go thru, so a couple weeks later I booked one night (the same night for 3 people -listing the same 3 names as per instructions) and it went thru- I took a screen shot of the confirmation number, but again, never received a confirmation email to my aol address. Keep in mind the ads for this hotel were received in my aol address but no confirmation. I had never been to Santa Barbara before- I usually book bigger hotel brands when traveling but this seemed like a good location so I figured maybe it's family owned and they don't send out confirmations. The only way I could confirm my hotel reservation was to go to their website, put in my confirmation number and email address and then a pdf would pop up that I could print. I probably could've called them- and that's the only error on my part where this clusterf&ck lies. We arrived to check in and they claimed I had 2 rooms reserved. They had printed out emails that were sent to me to confirm these rooms. I had the confirmation from one of them, but the other must have been the first attempt that I thought hadn't gone thru. I explained this to them. 'Unfortunately' since 'the policy which I agreed to in the booking' was that if bookings aren't cancelled 72 hours in advance, you are charged one nights accommodation, so WE WERE ON THE HOOK FOR PAYING FOR BOTH ROOMS! They wouldn't budge on that, despite that their emails were never received (I checked spam and never delete stuff) and despite that 'their policy' is to only send the ONE confirmation email despite having my cellphone number that they could easily text a week prior to confirm my stay/ LIKE EVERY OTHER HOTEL DID during my week in CA. Even tho both rooms listed the same individuals staying in them, they were only willing to take off the parking fee from one of the rooms. Keep in mind, when I asked for a manager, the woman said to him 'it's a double booking' as if they have had that before! At what point are they going to realize double booking mistakes are THEIR fault, NOT the customers! At the time, we were livid. But wanting to not ruin an otherwise nice vacation (we were there only one night- the hotel was not full, so our reservation hadn't kept anyone else from being turned away), and since they were charging me anyways, I signed off on the room and we used both of them. I had them print the 2 emails they had sent- and now that I'm home- these 'proof' emails were addressed to a 'Lara B' - NOT EVEN MY NAME OR EMAIL. The content of the message had my email but there is NO PROOF that this was EVER sent to me. SO BEWARE - this hotel's policy does not fix THEIR mistakes. I told the manager they should be texting confirmations a week before- yada, yada, yada, - they'll 'look into it' DON'T BOTHER- just stay at the Ritz and save yourself the headache. read more

I had high expectations for Harbor View Inn, but my experience with their customer service has been nothing short of abysmal. My partner and I had to cancel our one-night stay due to the recent Malibu Wildfires, which made it physically impossible to travel to Santa Barbara. Despite calling well in advance [1 week prior] to cancel and explaining the extenuating circumstances, the hotel's handling of the situation has been shockingly egregious. From the outset, communication was a nightmare. After speaking with their assistant manager, I was subjected to repeated runarounds, placed on endless holds, offered different solutions from different staff members, and ultimately ignored. At one point, Junior, the general manager had promised a full refund to us. Then, only a day later, they rescinded that and promised a partial refund instead, which would have been disappointing but acceptable under the circumstances. However, they never followed through. When I escalated the matter to the owner, Mark, I was met with an email that showed a complete lack of empathy or willingness to resolve the issue fairly. And here we are, a week and a half later with the full room charge on my credit card and no closer to a feasible solution. The final insult came when they offered a "credit" toward a future stay, valid only for a limited time (until February; our original booking was December 14), despite my clear frustration and dissatisfaction. There isn't a time in that window that we could reschedule. Their refusal to issue a full refund--or even extend the credit window--speaks volumes about their lack of customer care. The canned responses and unwillingness to take responsibility for their mishandling of the situation left me feeling unheard and unvalued. To anyone considering this hotel: proceed with caution. Harbor View Inn appears to have an extremely rigid cancellation policy and little to no flexibility, even in the face of extraordinary circumstances. If you book here, be prepared to forfeit your money should you need to cancel for any reason, as their unwillingness to issue refunds or offer meaningful resolutions is glaringly apparent. What makes this even more frustrating is the condescending tone of their responses, claiming they are "very pleased with their staff" and "happy to welcome me back in the future." After this ordeal, I cannot imagine ever staying at Harbor View Inn, let alone recommending it to anyone. Their customer service is unresponsive, dismissive, and unwilling to accommodate guests, even in extreme situations. If you value professionalism and genuine care, look elsewhere. read more

Had our typical great anniversary weekend stay at Harbor View. Great service, clean room, great ocean view. Great value. I'm a Santa Barbara native and we come back here ever year . Had a couple visitors so couldn't sleep with the balcony door open this time. The $32 parking is annoying though. read more

Harbor View Inn - Nighttime visitors looking for food. Not feeding them - Hotels Near Me - Santa Barbara, California

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want to start this by saying that the location of this hotel is amazing. Walking distance from everything and right on the beach. My one star review is because of the customer service this hotel has. Me, my husband and our 4 year old son were here for a weekend. The first night was great but the second night the AC went out and it's the end of June so it's HOT. We called and they sent maintenance right up. Maintenance was there for an hour and couldn't fix it. We called the front desk again and they offered to change us rooms and we agreed. When we got to the new room, the AC was broken again!! At this point, it was 930 and our 4 year old just wanted to sleep. At checkout, my husband brought this up to them and they gave him $100 off the room and comped parking. For me, that was not enough since it was HOT and we paid a ton for these rooms. I believe they should make it right and comp the night the AC was broken. I just got off the phone with the manager, Junior, and he kept saying "we upgraded your room and gave you $100 off". I explained that we would've been more than fine staying in our room, we just wanted working AC. And the "upgraded" room didn't have working AC either! I get things happen, but during summer at these prices, the AC has to work. He reluctantly gave me another $100 off (still not enough in my opinion) and had such an attitude!! I saw all the reviews before I booked about bad customer service but didn't think I'd experience it (jokes on me) read more

Very clean room, good service, reasonable price. Parking included. Ideally located at walking distance of State St and Downtown Santa Barbara as well as the main pier. No incredible view from the room however. read more

Harbor View Inn - View from room balcony. - Hotels Near Me - Santa Barbara, California

Celebrated an early Valentine's Day with my wife this past weekend. Our 36th Valentine's Day for us. On our last trip we stayed at a Marriott property in Goleta and wished we had stayed in downtown so this trip we decided on Harbor View Inn. First, the positives: the excellent front desk staff. Friendly, professional, on point consistently. The location was very conveniently located near great restaurants and entertainment. Right across the street from the beach too. The furniture in the room was classy and clean. Our biggest disappointments: the partial ocean view room was right on the main drag so we heard every Harley and police car, as well as every loud mouth walking by on the sidewalk. Smelled every cigarette smoked by passers by as well. The waist high hedge on the patio served as a privacy hedge (not for sound unfortunately) but when we sat in our chaise lounges our partial ocean view turned into zero view. Although the hotel has a store, apparently they sell some toiletries items and hotel robes but nothing to drink like sodas or beer. We had to walk to a vending machine outside near the pool area for beverages. The room itself seemed nice at first but... when it was time to shower we realized the shower stall was in the same small space shared with the toilet. We have never seen that strange layout before. Not ideal. Earlier in the day we picked up a small cake dessert and we left it on the bureau to eat later that evening. When we returned from dinner the bureau was covered with ants and our dessert was ruined. I spent the next 20 minutes throwing away our dessert and wiping away the hundreds of ants. The better rooms are the ones behind the pool with ocean view. Unfortunately those rooms were booked. If we stay here again it would only be in one of those rooms, not the rooms right on Cabrillo, and not the rooms in the other nearby buildings. A bright spot at the end of our visit was enjoying a late breakfast at Jeannine's, the restaurant that is adjacent to the hotel's property. Long wait (40 minutes) to order but excellent food and service with a view of the busy street and beach in the background. Can't give the hotel any credit for the quality food and service at the restaurant since it's under separate ownership. We weren't necessarily expecting a 5 star experience but certainly 4 stars as it should have been. 2 stars would be overly harsh but 3 stars feels a bit generous. read more

The location and the room was fantastic. We paid EXTRA for the front ocean view 3rd floor room for our anniversary. It was a huge splurge for us. They refused to honor the room reservation and tried to even give us a garden view room on third floor. We've been through a lot. Recovery from cancer and loss and this was our staycation. Jason Jauregi, manager was so cold and did not care one bit. He acknowledged the surcharge and proceeded to make light if the dollar amount and mocked our distress. He simply did not care at all nor did he try to refund or give any credit to use. A refund of just the surcharge for the premium room would have made us happy. Kept saying we don't guarantee. If you don't guarantee then why are you charging specifically extra for that 3rd floor ocean view room? he was so unfeeling methodical which makes me believe we were discriminated against. I couldn't even walk through the lobby when he was there. It's giving me anxiety to even write this but I need to warn others about that person and I hope that higher management training takes note. Jason Jauregi should not be there read more

I am changing my review of this property. The property itself is well kept and in a great location. While I cannot give them 5 stars due to their front desk and the debacle with charging my credit card for excess charges, once I was finally able to get to the Asst Prop Mgr, Junior, he took the time to get the phantom charges credited back. My only caution to everyone, please check your credit card transactions after you have checked out! read more

My wife and stayed here the last week of May. What an absolute treat it was. We were fortunate to have an ocean view room overlooking Stearn's Wharf and the adjacent area. The room was beautifully designed and very roomy. We loved it. Staff was attentive to all our needs and available to help when needed. The location of the hotel is perfect. We were able to walk to most of things we wanted to do. Definitely a major advantage to staying here. For our first time staying here we were very pleased. We'll definitely be back. read more

I hate to throw more wood into the bonfire but this place is a little pricey for what you get. The room was great but the hotel has like four buildings and ONE tiny pool. There is no restaurant in the hotel so if you want breakfast you better hit the pavement. Day one: at 3 pm no towels at the pool. Day two: at 3 pm no towels at the pool. The pool bar advertised is not open during the week even though the pool is packed with people. At about $1,000 for two nights I'll go somewhere else. read more

Booked a room on Harbor View inn website and called to ask advice about the location etc. advised to book a different room. Told reservations to cancel the first reservation AND canceled on line. listed the names of the three people staying in the room both times. Hotel made notes that I wanted to cancel, and that the online attempt didnot come they. No notification or phone call to advise me of the situation though noted in their notes. Showed up and they charged me for two rooms although their notes showed I wanted only one. Hotel not sold out. Jmust greedy Mark wanted money. Ruined my birthday celebration. Clear from staff this is a regular occurrencw. Mark you are a pathetic and selfish human being. Pray for those who live with you and work for you. read more

My boyfriend and I stayed at this wonderful hotel. We booked the deluxe room. It has that spanish feel to it and the location was very very convenient. It is near State St with a bunch of restaurants nearby and all the bars are down the street. The hotel was very clean and once we arrived, we turned on the TV and we had an issue with it. We were trying to watch the Laker playoff game. We called front desk and they knew how urgent the Laker game was (hahahah) and maintenance showed up within less than 5 minutes! Great customer service! We will definitely stay here again read more

I had a really great experience staying here about a year ago. This boutique is styled very cute and it's in such a beautiful and convenient location right next to the water on the road. It's within walking distance to a lot the breakfast stops and places for dinner. The rooms were really comfortable and it felt like a resort! I would definitely recommend staying here and would stay again. It is on the pricier side but that's kind of how it goes with all spots in Santa Barbara. read more

Great location and nice rooms! I had a great time with my family staying at harbor view. I only wish they had more snacks/water on hand besides the vending machine by the pool read more

Don't hesitate to book a room here. We were greeted by a friendly valet and shown to the reservation desk. I was hoping for an ocean front room but was apologetically told one was not available. We were given room 205E and it was perfect! Wonderful ocean view and equally great street view from our balcony. Great restaurants, sightseeing well within walking distance. This isn't a big resort, if you are interested in a friendly, clean, well equipped property surround by fantastic restaurants and sights, stay here! read more

If you are a bride and are looking for a bridal suite to get ready in, please do NOT book here. Apparently, they do not allow glam teams to park in their parking lot. I worked a wedding here and it was a nightmare to find parking. I had to park 5 blocks away because the nearest public parking was full. This is obviously inconvenient because we had to carry heavy equipment in the blazing sun. The bride called the front desk and tried to get them to accommodate, especially because we are there to get her ready & they blatantly said they would tow our car. I understand that the parking situation is crazy in Santa Barbara, but there should be an exception for vendors and people working for the bridal party. I will not be suggesting this place to any of my future brides & have mentioned this to many event planners in the area as well!!!! read more

Just very poor front office management and staff. Nothing warm or welcoming. Decent location but staff did nothing to assist with any element of my stay. Been to SB 20 times and this is the worst hotel experience and only poor one n over 25 years of visiting. They need to learn to actually care about their guests! read more

I stayed here August 10, 2024 in order to attend a wedding in SB. The room was large and clean. Missing was bottled water and an expected nearby ice machine. It was one floor up...not easy to find. My issue was with the front desk and the confusion there. From check in--not finding my name...to not receiving a requested wake up call...to being charged for parking a car when I had no car.....unacceptable. read more

We made reservations here a year ago. All I wanted was a chance to check in an hour early. I said I would pay extra. We had to be somewhere at 4:00. However, check in at this place is also at 4:00. I sent emails months ago leading up to the day of arrival. Guess what? No rooms ready. I think I got ripped off. I think the front desk employees were confused. I'm sorry. I just want people to be aware. read more

We evacuated to stay here during the 1/2025 LA fires and are so grateful for everyone being kind and accommodating. Thank you Barbara and Cameron for going above and beyond helping ensure a smooth visit and Timothy and Zack for helping us with our luggage. The property and rooms are very clean and our bed was comfortable. Cons: Could hear train noises and their lobby doesn't have breakfast food, snacks, or water which would be nice. Limited parking lot, one car per reservation. read more

This water front hotel is beautiful with clean, modern, recently remodeled rooms. It is unique because the rooms are wide instead of deep so we had a balcony the whole width of our room! We were in room S316. The room was very spacious with extra floor space for the kids to play games. Walking distance to great restaurants and the pier. We can't wait to come back? read more

I had a pleasant stay here for my anniversary weekend. You cannot beat the area, it IS LITERALLY BEACH FRONT. The pier is walking distance as well as state street restaurants and night life. Perfect hotel if you are planning on morning walks or riding your bicycle down the beach. The room was surprisingly large compared to the newer hotel rooms that are normally provided. Our room came with a balcony. I loved the esthetic throughout the entire hotel, it has a very vintage hacienda style. The hotel itself is large and has separate sections. The hotel has a pool and courtyard area. I also enjoyed receiving a discount at State Street Coffee for staying here. One star was deducted due to small amounts of ants in the restroom at night. (staff states that it's normal for the season). All in all, I would stay here again, if you are looking for a new hotel with all perfections this is probably not for you, if you like character I would definitely consider this hotel! read more

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The best hotel I've ever been too. Rooms were so nice, Nice pool area, and the best view ever at night at balcony. Also a parade in the beginning of august. read more

Harbor View Inn - Hotels Near Me - Santa Barbara, California

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