What a dump!

This place is a complete and total dump. Don't believe everything you read in the other reviews. Yes, the hotel "lobby" has been redecorated, but I think the rooms date back to the 70's. We looked at two rooms because the first room they put us in was disgusting. Old dark brown cabinetry in the bathroom and dressing area. It was very dirty looking. The sofa in the TV area looked like it had seen better days, and was filthy. I pulled back the sliding glass door drapes, only to find that we had a lovely view of the large concrete wall separating the rooms from the pool area. The second room that I looked at was on the other side of the hotel, same disgusting interior, only it had a view of a beautiful large electrical box. And the hotel is right on the freeway, so it's extremely noisy. On top of that they wanted $199 per night. Save your money and stay at the Royal Scandinavian Inn in Solvang. Much much better and cheaper. This place is a pithole. Get with the program, Marriott. Your redecorated lobby had us fooled, but only for a moment.

Best Place in the Valley

This hotel was perfect! Good price ~$100, good location near the wineries in Los Olivos and the Casino in Solvang. There is no restaurant, but we found a fantastic place in Los Olivos - Brother's restaurant. 5 star food with a casual atmosphere. They have great local Pinot Noir here! After dinner my finance and I enjoyed the hot-tub and heated outdoor pool. The valley gets cool at night so these were added treats! We passed by Fess Parker's in Los Olivos and were instantly glad that we changed our mind to go with the more economical Marriott. The service was awesome - and they weren't pool nazi's when it came to closing the pool at night. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only place to stay in the Santa Ynez area. I will be back!

Newly Renovated! Great Staff & Service!

After reading the reviews, we almost did not stay at the Marriott in Santa Ynez! Biy, am I glad we decided to stay there anyways! The rooms are VERY NICE, they said they had been recently renovated. No dark old wood,as another review stated. It is so close to all the vineyards, and the wine tours! We had a blast! The best thing about the hotel is the staff, great service. But the rooms were very comfortable, and standard Marriott hotel room.It is located off of Hwy 101, which was convenient for us. But we knew that, is that state it right on thier webpage. it may not be for you , if you want a secluded hotel. But for us it was a great retreat, and highly recommend it.

Nice!

We spent a wonderful 11th anniversary in S.B. wine country. The hotel was spacious and conveniently located for wine tasting. I really can't think of one complaint. We had a nice two night's stay here. I hope this area doesn't get too commercialized because of the movie Sideways. We still have to watch the movie to see what all the hype is all about!

Perfectly fine launching point for Wine Country

My wife and I didn't want to spend hours finding "the perfect hotel" for our overnight wine country adventure. Perhaps there are hotels out there that perfectly capture the essence of the place, but we planned on spending our two days outside of the hotel, wine tasting and sightseeing. So, it was a good value, like $100 or so, it was clean, the room was a nice size, the bed was SUPER comfortable, the staff was helpful and best of all, it was centrally located. (Several locations seen in Sideways are literally within walking distance.) So, overall, a satisfying stay and a good value.

Free Wi-fi too!

We stayed here for one night on the way to Wine Country.

Our room was away from the freeway, so we had very little freeway noise.

Contrary to the previous review, the pool is not in the parking lot but

behind the hotel adjacent to the parking lot. Being a techie, I was also

happy to have Marriott supplied free wireless internet access. This wasn't

advertised anywhere and was a real bonus.

Great Stay

We stayed 3 nights at the Marriott in a King suite and were very happy with the room and service.

The room was clean, spacious, room service was fast with good food and a helpful friendly staff. The pool was clean as the gym & racquetball courts were. We would stay again.

Big rooms, good value

We were just in Buellton overnight, stopping there to pick up horses at one of the breeding farms. We found our overnight stay at the Marriott to be very satisfactory. Nice big room, well sound proofed, very comfortable bed, well maintained bathroom. We also had the opportunity to eat in their restaurant, the Jockey CLub, and took advantage of their Lobster dinner. It was very good, with a reasonable wine list full of excellent local wines. We will definitely stay here again!

Old Howard Johnson

This was the worst hotel...I was shocked when we arrived (on an anniversary trip) to discover it was right next to the 101, the swimming pool was in the parking lot AND when we decided to go to the bar for a drink to ease our stay there, the bar was not open. The rooms were very old looking with dark wood. I swear this was an old Holiday Inn or Howard Johnson that Marriott bought out. We shortened our stay there to one night. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

Good Choice for a Hwy 101 Stop

Stopped at the Marriot on the way to Paso Robles wine country. Was pleasantly suprised. The front desk was friendly when we arrived at midnight. The room was quite even though it is near a major freeway. The bed was so comfortable I wanted to sleep there our entire trip. The gymn was spacious, clean and although the equipment is dated, it has everything needed for your workout. The pool was just a little short for laps. We would stay here again for a weekend getaway. Nearby wine tasting and golf. Enjoyed breakfast in Solvang. Close to Santa Barbara for dinner. If we arrived a little earlier I would have gone to the movies next door. Recommended stop for travelers on the 101.