Ditto other reviews - bad motel experience, misleading website

Very thin walls, total motel experience - awful! Website definitely deceiving, a sure sign of a place to avoid. Of the 5 hotels we stayed in along the coast this was the worst and definitely overpriced. Stay in Carpinteria near the beach instead and drive to SB for the shops/dining.

Do not stay here

Do not stay here. Do not fall for their photos. This hotel doesn't even rate one star. It advertises new. It is anything but. This hotel is a redecorated collection of moter inns. It truly is shaming Santa Barbara! The mold smell in the bathroom was so bad, we had to run the exhaust fan and heat lamp all night. Needless to say you don't feel comfortable enough to fall asleep. (No a/c, flimsy screens, outside our door, courtyard areas with people smoking-not a plus for my son with asthma.) Cushions on the patio chairs covered in grey mildew. YUK.

Perfect Location

This hotel (looks like a motel) has lots of charater due to its age, and is well maintained. We had a large room with two queen beds overlooking a pool, and since we paid 1/2 price using Hotwire- we were pleased with the location directly across from the beach and by several nice restaurants. The hotel does not have air conditioning, but we requested a room with lots of windows, french doors and a ceiling fan.

We do feel for the price of the room it should offer free coffee and tea. Our stay at Hotel Oceana was very comfortable and we enjoyed our visit.

Pass on this over-priced "beach motel"

We had been warned that this "up-scale, designer, boutique beach hotel" was just 4 small run-down beach motels that had been painted the same with minor upgrades here and there. We should have listened. The rooms were very small and for a family (2 adults & 2 small kids) not comfortable. The lack of AC and screens on the windows made the summer nights very restless. The 2 pools were fine, but the outdoor furniture was soiled with bird droppings. There was not even a coffee maker for the morning! The property is sister to the Oceana in Santa Monica, but worlds apart. I would advise to keep on driving by!

A shame to great Santa Barbara

Firstly, the service was terrible and the people at the front desk were rude and just looked annoyed (probably because they get so many complaints from people). They didn't seem to want to change any of the pointed out flaws. They didn't care about our comfort. There was NO A/C, and when asked about it they just blew us off. The windows have no screens, there is no privacy and there are no balconies (as they lead you to believe when they say "ocean view". The website is very misleading, and should be revised to tell the truth about the place.

Great Location

Great location. Some rooms are small. No air conditioning. My wife really liked the Aveda bath products (so did I).The locaiton is right on Cabrillo Blvd about i block north of State St. The hotel is made up a aobut five buildings that are spread out along Cabrillo. we were there on a hot weekend in July and since that rooms lack air conditioning, it is important that you have a room configuaration that allows flow through ventilation. The only way I know to make certian of good air curculaiton is to make certain that the bathromm has a openable window. Rooms like 234, 235 236 do not have bathroom windows. We asked and were moved fomr 234 to 113. Room 113 got a good breeze and was more confortable. However it still was not air conditioned.The hotel is extremly cute and has numerous patios with talbe and chairs. There are two pools. Parking is kind of a hassle if you arrive late.I was under the impression that they had a complimentary continental breakfast in the morning and I'm sure I saw it on their web site, but when we arrived we noticed a sign at the front desk informaing of a $10 charge for it. Additonally there are no coffee pots in the rooms - at $300 a night, you'd think they'd be able to aford a to provide two cups of coffee!Anyhow we enjoyed the stay and earnd 6000 airline miles for a two night stay so I guess it was worth it. Hwoever, next time we will probably stay next door at the Harbor View Inn and enjoy the air conditioning.

Look for others

The waterfront location is good, but it is definitely over-priced. It is not much more than a motel with upgraded sheets. We paid $200 a night for a small room without A/C and the windows had no screens. We did not get much sleep since we can hear people next doors and there were two kids running around upstairs. I called the front desk at midnight, but nothing was done to reduce the noises.

Overpriced , misleading Website

Very disappointing and overpriced, considering what we paid: $180 a night and $300 per night for the weekend, plus $9.00 a day for self parking.

Absolutely relaxing!

My new husband & I stayed here for the first part of our honeymoon. We arrived at Hotel Oceana 2 days after our wedding, exhausted and tired...as soon as we were shown our door (extremely friendly staff on hand) we new our honeymoon began. The room was perfect, not too, not too small, right across the street from the beach, wonderful patio to eat on...and if we hadn't just bought a new bed, I would have purchased the bed they had. It was absolutely the best nights sleep we had in quite a while. We left Hotel Oceana completely relaxed, full of energy and ready to conquer Disneyland. Next time we are staying longer and have made plans to go back for a 6-month 'anniversary'. If you want to get away from the rush of the world, try Hotel Oceana!!!

Great location, but pricey

Just stayed at the Hotel Oceana in Santa Barbara...While it is a great

location (across from the beach, two blocks down from State Street),

this place was very overpriced. We paid $225 for a quasi-glorified

motel room. Our room was located in an alleyway that killed any

tropical mood and was two feet away from where the housekeeping staff

kept all their supplies. Each morning at 6, a delivery truck (towels,

etc.) set up camp right outside our window and we had to keep the

window open because of the incredibly poor ventilation system. No AC.

Someone at the visitor center said that the hotel had just combined

five separate hotels into one-- that would explain the cobbled together

feel of the place.