Canary Hotel, Santa Barbara

It was a beautiful hotel. Loved the details. The room was very cute though not huge. Sun streamed in pleasantly in the morning. It felt very romantic. The rooftop deck/pool was especially nice. The hotel was very close to everything. We walked every where within the city. Only cons were that I felt for such a nice high class hotel we should get some perks. We had to pay $20/night for parking and for the wireless service. I would expect that to be included in the price of a hotel that has a sign which says its on the leading small hotels of the world (something like that). Overall, the hotel had a lovely romantic and tranquil feeling and we really enjoyed it.

My boyfriend and I made a reservation for 3 nights at the canary hotel, reserving a deluxe room. When we got to the hotel(after an 8 hour drive), the hotel looked beautiful inside, the decor was well picked but the concierge..a disaster! We where told that our room was occupied by the previous guests who decided to extend they're visit and that the hotel would offer us a free room in a neighbouring hotel. We agreed assuming the hotel would be just as beautiful, but when we got there, the hotel looked terrible! The Upham Hotel and Country House, looks like an old abondend house, when we stepped in the smell was unbarable, most of the hotels where booked up so we decided to stay there for one night. The bed was very uncomfortable, the bathroom was tiny and the tub's paint was wearing off. The continetal breakfast consisted of a few bagels coffee and some fruit...with a broken toaster. I am defintly not returning to the Canary, I have stayed in the 4 seasons before and it is most definatly the best place to stay in Santa Barbara.

I travel to Santa Barbara from NYC monthly for work and usually have stayed at another hotel (4* hotel by the beach with an awesome reputation). My last few visits I decided to stay at Canary Hotel - AND IVE LOVED IT. It is in the BEST location and has the friendliest staff. I have never written a hotel review before, but I am happy to write one for this hotel.

I recently stayed at the Canary Hotel a few weekends ago with some girlfriends. I was delighted initially with the decor and location; however I was quickly disappointed with their thin walls. You could hear everything people were saying from down the hall even when they were speaking in conversational speaking tones. Then when I treid to sleep I could hear conversation from guests and television coming through the vents form floor sabove. or a second I thought I was hallucinating... but all the other girls in the room complained about the same thing! I woke up the next morning feeling horrible and completely dissatisfied as we had paid quite a bit of money for the stay. Lastly my friend was charged twice for parking I had already paid for before I left... the fron desk was completely disorganized. I would never stay at this hotel again. On a positive note, the resturaunt/events coordinater was very accomodating and helpful...

I made an appt with the assistant catering manager to discuss my future wedding at the hotel. I arrived and the young girls at the front desk had no record of an appt. Apparently, the lady I was supposed to meet with had broken her ankle the WEEK BEFORE and was in the hospital, and no one had bothered to reschedule her appointments nor let me know. The girls at the front desk were NOT apologetic (rude actually) but decided to call the manager at home. The manager did NOT decide to come in to help us - by the way, we had flown special from NY to meet with this lady to plan my wedding and were only staying for 2 days. We ended up being escorted through the place by the banquet manager who was quite friendly but could not answer any questions we had nor help us plan the wedding. HORRIBLE place - they just lost my business and $40,000!

First the positives. The hotel itself is beautiful, we had a deluxe room facing southwest with a decent view of the hills and a partial view of the sunset. The room has a very very comfortable bed with a fabulous bathroom that has a separate shower and bath; however the room itself is somewhat small. There is a rooftop pool that aesthetically works but is only 3 feet deep and really more for people to look at than actually enjoy. There is a jacuzzi but it is extremely small, no more than 4 people. The maid service is very good with a turndown service in addition to the daily cleaning service. And the location is amazing for dining and shopping, across the street is Saks and everything else is within walking distance. Now the negatives. First, if you are planning on using the pool, especially at night, you may want to call ahead to see if they booked a private party (occurred both nights we were there). Although they say it’s separated from the pool area, my girlfriend and I while in the jacuzzi were literally 6 feet from the rather loud and intoxicated group. The people running the hotel are basically all college students meaning they have little or no experience working in a hotel. They failed repeatedly to get my wireless working (which is not free) and left my car outside because their valet garage was full?! Also, you basically have to use the valet for $18 per day. Overall, the rooms are nice and it’s a great location, but the service is good for a $150/night hotel not a $300/night hotel. Recommendation: Go to the Four Seasons

We spent three days at this beautiful hotel during Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving dinner was out of this world. We also took advantage of the rooftop, which had spectacular views of the mountains and was a great place to relax and enjoy a glass of wine. The hotel is located in a fantastic area, just a minute walk to State Street which is full of shops and restaurants, a nice place to take a stroll in the evening with all of the trees lit up. Our room was nicely decorated and the bed was like sleeping in the clouds. Over all a great experience, we were sad to leave. By the way, my boyfriend proposed to me on the rooftop in front of the fireplace, very romantic.

Great location! Beautiful rooms and lobby! Great value for Santa Barbara also! The hotel recommended a Limo Service that does wine tours. That was great also. I would definitely stay here again!

Valet's very cordial, but upon checking in the desk staff was on the phone and did not even look-up to acknowledge we were standing there waiting. When we left the gentleman standing behind us was still waiting to break his twenty. When we got up to the room the key did not work and when we called down they suggested we come back down and swap the keys. After saying we just checked in and it would be nice if they came up to swap the keys, they did very quickly. The room was small for what we paid, but the bed was extremely soft with its great pillow top mattress. Bathroom doors were slatted, which does not leave much to the imagination when you are trying to use the w/c. Our view looked down onto the valet parking and up to the mountains. It was a beautiful day so we had a very clear breathtaking view. The drinks upstairs on the roof were very over priced $10 for a glass of wine, so we walked across the street to the Ralph’s and picked up our own bottle of wine and snacks to enjoy for the evening. Later we found out the drinks downstairs were a few dollars less. I guess you pay for the view on the roof on top of the $$$ for the room itself. During our stay we continued to receive very poor service from the front desk staff. Think they need to learn about the Fish Philosophy and Making the Customers Day. Next time I will stay at the Holiday Inn down the street, the beds are not as soft, but they make up for it in customer service by leaps and bounds.

Our wedding took place last Saturday (Memorial Weekend 2006). Our family members comprised nearly one-third of the hotel guests. We received no discounts for ourselves or any of our guests. The staff of Andalucia were amateurs. While I never felt that they were being malicious, the level of service was extraordinarily bad. It is hard to believe that Hotel Andalucia and Shutters On The Beach are related! Here are some of our complaints: Our Wedding Night Suite A month before, we booked the presidential suite and received a confirmation code. We wanted to entertain in our room and make sure that the hair and makeup crew had enough room to care for us and the bridal party. Only two weeks before the wedding, we were told that there was a mix-up and that that suite was taken. They accomodated us by giving us two adjoining rooms that didn't even equal the square footage of the presidential suite. The only thing that stayed the same was the price!!! "Complimentary Breakfast" In addition, they were to make it up to us by giving us a complimentary breakfast in our room for the bridal party and ourselves. However, the staff failed to make any arrangments. We invited the bridal party over at the prearranged time, but the food never arrived. After calling the lobby, some bread rolls and coffee arrived after 10am, but the damage had been done. We felt so embarrassed after many left the room to get breakfast. Lost Reservations On our wedding day, half of our registered family members were to arrive. Four of their reserved rooms were released. Upon passing through the lobby, all we could see was chaos. Everyone was coming to us to see about their reservations... adding even more stress to our wedding day. We had to ask our family members to share rooms since all the nearby hotels were booked for the Memorial Holiday. Baggage Mix-Up The following morning we found ourselves downstairs bidding farewell to friends and family that stayed at the hotel. While we were saying good bye to my sister, we found that her luggage had been loaded into a complete stranger's car by mistake. My sister was mortified! Luckily, she learned of the mistake before the other guest's car pulled off. What a fitting end to a horrible stay.