Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort

Calling this a resort is using the term “resort” very loosely. Many things you would expect in a resort, just are not there. There was a limited menu at the ONLY restaurant on July 4. Only 4 entrees to choose from and one dessert. There was a weird menu on July 5 which added braised short ribs, salmon, and RABBIT!!! No chicken dish. No steak. No shrimp. Breakfast was not even Hilton Garden Inn quality. They did have a made to order omelette bar, but there were only 3 choices for ingredients - spinach, bacon and one kind of cheese. The WiFi was awful and only worked spottily in certain parts of the hotel grounds. They charge $42 a night to park. Not sure why. There is ample parking. Seems just like a money grab. They had flyers at the front desk about 4th of July festivities portraying them as their own, but actually the fireworks were happening a mile away on West beach. The celebration consisted of a tent on the lawn with a barbecue and a cart selling cocktails. No complementary celebration. You could borrow beach chairs from the front of the resort or bring your own to watch fireworks on the lawn. If you plan to go to the beach, the complementary beach chairs are sitting in front of the hotel and you have to drag them across a busy street to the narrow beach. I saw no beach umbrellas if there were any. There was only one umbrella in the entire pool area. The only other shade was provided by 2 awnings over 2 of the open structures over some of the chairs. We arrived at noon. There were no pool chairs available. I went to get my swimsuit on. We found 2 chairs at 1230 when a family was getting ready to leave. They ran out of pool towels by 1230 when we found chairs. My husband had to ask them to refill the towel dispenser. We were given a room with a roll in shower which had a shower that was slanted for the water to leak out into the bathroom. We had to use all the towels to sop up the water and hang up the swimsuit that we had left on the floor. At the take out food stand serving the pool, my hubby asked about the shrimp nachos. The attendant asked, “you want them?” He was then charged an extra $10 above the nachos price for 5 sad looking small pieces of shrimp. They looked awful. I was afraid I’d get sick if I ate them. Luckily hubby didn’t get sick from them. They were soggy chips with a messy cheese sauce. They forgot the alcohol in my drink. It tasted like straight orange juice. Gave me 2 drinks for my trouble. These definitely had alcohol in them. Didn’t really want to drink 2 drinks. The next day there was a tequila and Mezcal tasting. The suggested special drink with the Mezcal was undrinkable. I took 2 sips and ended up just pouring it out. $18 down the drain. The only thing that saved our trip was the proximity of our room to the pool. When we made the reservation, only 2 Queen rooms were available. When we checked in, we told them, if there are any Kjng rooms available, we would gladly take one and leave the 2 Queen rooms for the families. She found one which was not quite ready. It was a ground floor pool room with a fire pit, so we had direct access to the pool and didn’t need to get pool chairs the 2nd day. I just lounged on the couch lounger on the patio outside our room. Beware though, the cushion fits the lounger weirdly. I knew I couldn’t stomach a second night at the restaurant, so we ate in the Funk zone. The food, drinks, and service were impeccable. Something I never found at the Hilton Santa Barbara “Resort” Read less

Like many others, I really wanted to give this property a fair chance despite the below-average reviews. Unfortunately, my stay left a lot to be desired—so much so that I found myself thinking about what I’d write in this review while tossing and turning through the night, thanks to the worst pillows. Pros: The hotel is in a great location and has impressive curb appeal. The exterior is beautiful, and the staff at The Set restaurant/bar were genuinely excellent—attentive, professional, and friendly. Bartender is outstanding! Cons: I arrived at 2:00 PM and was told I’d receive a notification once my room was ready—which was completely reasonable. However, no follow-up ever came, and I had to contact the hotel myself around 5:00 PM to finally check in. While my initial interaction at the front desk was pleasant, the actual check-in experience fell short. The staff member who assisted me was unprofessional and lacked the basic courtesy expected at a business. The room was generally clean and in decent condition, but the bathroom was another story. The tub/shower floor was in such poor shape that I had to lay down a towel just to feel comfortable using it—it simply didn’t feel sanitary. It also looked like a dog was clawing on the bathroom door frame. And then there were the pillows. I honestly don’t know how pillows can be this uncomfortable—they were so lumpy and worn, it felt like they hadn’t been replaced in years. They disrupted my sleep to the point that I found myself composing this review in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, I won’t be returning. Please, invest in new pillows. Bottom Line: This hotel appears to prioritize weddings and corporate events over providing a comfortable, high-quality experience for travelers. While it may look impressive from the outside, there’s little value here for couples or vacationing guests. I'd like to give this a 1-star review but the staff at The Set were great. I would not recommend staying here. Read less

My wife and I recently stayed at the resort so this was just the two of us. The property is in a prime location right across from the beach and close to a lot of restaurants, bars, and shops. I was hesitant to stay at this property due to the reviews. I reached out directly to the hotel before booking a reservation, to make sure that some of the issues that previous travelers described, had been resolved. I’m happy that I did that as well as made the reservation to stay at the property for 5 days. The room was spacious, with a balcony and ocean view. We found the room to be quite nice, with no issues whatsoever. The pool was open, however, with the beach right across the street we preferred beach over pool. The resort charge other reviewers mentioned does provide things like beach chairs, pickle ball, bottled water, and bikes, which were really nice to ride around the area. The bike rental shop personal were always very eager to help and provided locks for the bikes upon request. The bellman we encountered were helpful and quick with our luggage, both at check in and check out. At first, I was going to valet, however, I ended up self parking. The parking is not far from the main entrance and I found there to be plenty of spaces. The beach is right across the street which was perfect! We did dine at both restaurants and found the food to be good for the most part. There are so many dining options in the area so there really isn’t a need to feel stuck dining at the hotel. I am a Hilton Diamond member and have stayed at many properties worldwide. While certainly this is an older property, there was charm to it and we felt it was well-maintained. Both managers, Evelyn and Sophia, seem to manage the property and staff well. They both made me feel valued as a Diamond member. I would not hesitate to stay at this property again when traveling to the Santa Barbara area! Read less

Disappointing, and lacking value - in general, what stands out to me about the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort is how much time the resort consumed simply managing being there. Check in - Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort is a huge resort. However there are only two check in desks. Check-in took considerable time, and each subsequent time I passed by there were no less than three couples/travelers in line waiting. Why? My sense was even the team is aware of this issue, as I had challenges with and needed to move rooms, and the person assisting acknowledged coming to the desk would be time consuming. Right out of the gate it was clear something wasn't right. The initial room, upstairs above bar/restaurant, was a fine room, but the wifi didnt work consistently in the room, so I had to take business calls from the lobby area, which was not ideal and full of distractions and noise. This is after placing multiple calls to tech support for the wifi not working. Now, interestingly around 1030PM or so the wifi was fine in the room, so perhaps there is some device in kitchen which disrupts while kitchen is open, i don't know, but candidly spent way to much time on calls to wifi helpdesk and hotel challenges which did not need to be issues and interfered with enjoying the property. After moving rooms, had zero wifi issues. Wifi was good literally anywhere except in the room. 3 or 4 calls to wifi support and multiple tickets, hard to appreciate the really great location and sunsets when on the phone with IT support, especially when it extends your day due to not being able to complete work. Now considering all the time, impact and challenge, I was rewarded 25,000 points, which is 5% of what I used in points to reserve the room. That the experience impacted nearly half my stay does not encourage me to want to return. FWIW - have Lifetime Diamond status though in this instance there did not appear to be a factor. Will add, am a cybersecurity and networking professional, and it was an interesting exercise figuring out, or at least identifying the failure of coverage specifically while in room, though doing so while attempting to meet and work around existing commitments was simply too much to overlook. Its a fail at best at this property, and thats not even getting into the stale smell which understandably is there from being an older property. Candidly, the 25,000 points, given how watered down and little value the points provide, was more a condescending "we did something" vs true action of remediation. The restaurant/bar staff were consistently the silver lining blessing of this trip!!! Side effect of spending considerable time in the lobby/restaurant/bar is the staff were all really great people - friendly, funny, courteous and just a joy to be around. Food and drinks were consistently good to great, and timely! Restaurant/Bar team pulled this review from a Zero to a 2 Read less