Santa Barbara - Villa Rosa Inn
Mar 25th, 2003, 09:43 AM
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Santa Barbara - Villa Rosa Inn
I recently stayed at the Villa Rosa Inn in Santa Barbara based on some comments from this site. I was very unimpressed. The staff was clueless about the area, the room while large was dark and depressing and bathroom was similar to one in a Travelodge. If you are at all a hotel snob, I suggest you do not stay at this hotel.
I ended up moving to the Oceana Inn which was great and around the same price. Just some feedback!
I ended up moving to the Oceana Inn which was great and around the same price. Just some feedback!
Mar 25th, 2003, 09:51 AM
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I went to the Wine Cask which was great. I had appetizers and drinks on the deck at the Four Seasons - a must do at sunset! I spent a couple days in the wine country and had dinner at the Hitching Post - great steak if you like steak - nothing fancy but great food. People told me Citronelle is a great restaurant but I did not get around to going there.
I had a great trip to Santa Barbara and will go again. Definitely check out the Oceana Inn - it is right on the beach.
I had a great trip to Santa Barbara and will go again. Definitely check out the Oceana Inn - it is right on the beach.
Mar 25th, 2003, 11:49 AM
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In general, I would say that you need to be careful when booking any SB hotel. I visited almost all of them in research for guests of my wedding. I found some of the "nicest" hotels to have some really dank rooms. (and dont get me started on our junky wedding night suite at El Encanto!!)
Mar 25th, 2003, 12:00 PM
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JVS that cracked me up about El Encanto. I read a review (maybe on tripadvisor or something like it) that recommended this place only if you were hiding from someone. ; )
Sure would be great to hear your experience.
Sure would be great to hear your experience.
Oct 10th, 2013, 05:28 PM
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Let me preface this regarding all the other reviews, this place may be mothers milk to some, but the lies and dishonest business practices make this a deal breaker for me. This was one of several recommended places to stay for a wedding we were attending in Santa Barbara in July of 2013. I have stayed here once before over a year ago, so after our research, decided on the Villa Rosa. I was a little put off by the reviews on Yelp but took that with a grain of salt. We scheduled our arrival for July 5th for 2 nights. Got the standard 3PM checkin, 12PM checkout with our confirmation email. Price was a little steep at nearly $300 a night (with various taxes). I was concerned about AC due to the fact we had to dress for the wedding and didn't want to be a sweatpot while getting ready. We were "assured" that you wouldn't need it that there's a "sea breeze that keeps you cool".
We rented a car for the trip up and made our way north from Los Angeles (July 4th weekend, lots of traffic). We arrived at the Villa Rosa about 1PM and decided to see if we could drop our bags off and perhaps use the pool and also to inquire about an early checkin if available. We made our way to the front desk, passing by an office cubby with a worker who didn't even look up, so we rang the "town crier" bell and waited. The worker in the cubby came out (apparently the owner/manager) and as my wife attempted to say hello and convey our request - was cut off by this woman who proceeded to tell us - "you're too early, you can't check in. Come back later!". My wife tried again (she's a lot nicer than I am about rude people) to explain and again was cut off with, "you're too early, go away. You can't checkin now!". My wife tried to explain that this wasn't the way you greeted people and proceeded to demonstrate how the manager/owner should have started the conversation. The manager/owner (I use this because she NEVER introduced herself, she's just an older blondish, heavy set woman with a scowl) still was being testy and at that point, after fighting heavy traffic, I was in no mood to put up with lousy service for a place I was paying $300 a night. I loudly agreed with the manager/owner that "fine. We WILL go away" and we left.
We decided to go meet friends who were staying in SB as well. We had a bite at the Fish House and then met our friends at El Torito, both of which are just a couple blocks to the south of Villa Rosa. We hoped a cooling off period might change our minds but the whole incident left a bad reminder that we were paying someone $300 a night to be rude and nasty, I was in favor of just doing what she said which was "go way". We decided, rather than stay, to drive back to LA and drive back up the following day.
We learned later that month that they had marked us a "no show" and we opened a dispute with AmEx (July 9th) and stated the facts of the incident. The response from the manager/owner was that "another manager" had tried to repeatedly get ahold of us to find out if we were going to check in, no mention of the fact we had indeed shown up and were told to leave and the manager/owner was aware of that. Their statement to AmEx was that we never, ever showed up. Period. They even submitted handwritten notes to that effect. In response, we reopened the case and submitted again, our facts and recollection of our encounter with the manager/owner and submitted bank statements with a Google Map that showed without doubt we were in Santa Barbara on July 5th and in support of where exactly we were. We were informed on October 1st that the manager/owner responded with a complete change of story and instead of never having been there, supported that when we arrived on July 5th, she was nothing but sweetness and cream. Never once being agitated or rude. The tried to say we wanted to checkin knowing it was too early. Her statement is that everything we said was "pure fantasy". Obviously she read our rebuttal to her earlier response and backpedaled completely and changed her statement to better match what we had documentation of.
The lies and poor business practices has earned this establishment a permanent blacklist in our book. The amount of lost business by not addressing this truthfully will be far more than the $300 that was disputed and is customer care that will never be regained. I fully expect the Villa Rosa to post a rebuttal that will either change their story once again or just present fabrications in their defense of bad management decisions.
[There's a review from our friends who DID stay there and [see Nami S.] and they made it clear we probably made out by NOT staying there after all.]
We rented a car for the trip up and made our way north from Los Angeles (July 4th weekend, lots of traffic). We arrived at the Villa Rosa about 1PM and decided to see if we could drop our bags off and perhaps use the pool and also to inquire about an early checkin if available. We made our way to the front desk, passing by an office cubby with a worker who didn't even look up, so we rang the "town crier" bell and waited. The worker in the cubby came out (apparently the owner/manager) and as my wife attempted to say hello and convey our request - was cut off by this woman who proceeded to tell us - "you're too early, you can't check in. Come back later!". My wife tried again (she's a lot nicer than I am about rude people) to explain and again was cut off with, "you're too early, go away. You can't checkin now!". My wife tried to explain that this wasn't the way you greeted people and proceeded to demonstrate how the manager/owner should have started the conversation. The manager/owner (I use this because she NEVER introduced herself, she's just an older blondish, heavy set woman with a scowl) still was being testy and at that point, after fighting heavy traffic, I was in no mood to put up with lousy service for a place I was paying $300 a night. I loudly agreed with the manager/owner that "fine. We WILL go away" and we left.
We decided to go meet friends who were staying in SB as well. We had a bite at the Fish House and then met our friends at El Torito, both of which are just a couple blocks to the south of Villa Rosa. We hoped a cooling off period might change our minds but the whole incident left a bad reminder that we were paying someone $300 a night to be rude and nasty, I was in favor of just doing what she said which was "go way". We decided, rather than stay, to drive back to LA and drive back up the following day.
We learned later that month that they had marked us a "no show" and we opened a dispute with AmEx (July 9th) and stated the facts of the incident. The response from the manager/owner was that "another manager" had tried to repeatedly get ahold of us to find out if we were going to check in, no mention of the fact we had indeed shown up and were told to leave and the manager/owner was aware of that. Their statement to AmEx was that we never, ever showed up. Period. They even submitted handwritten notes to that effect. In response, we reopened the case and submitted again, our facts and recollection of our encounter with the manager/owner and submitted bank statements with a Google Map that showed without doubt we were in Santa Barbara on July 5th and in support of where exactly we were. We were informed on October 1st that the manager/owner responded with a complete change of story and instead of never having been there, supported that when we arrived on July 5th, she was nothing but sweetness and cream. Never once being agitated or rude. The tried to say we wanted to checkin knowing it was too early. Her statement is that everything we said was "pure fantasy". Obviously she read our rebuttal to her earlier response and backpedaled completely and changed her statement to better match what we had documentation of.
The lies and poor business practices has earned this establishment a permanent blacklist in our book. The amount of lost business by not addressing this truthfully will be far more than the $300 that was disputed and is customer care that will never be regained. I fully expect the Villa Rosa to post a rebuttal that will either change their story once again or just present fabrications in their defense of bad management decisions.
[There's a review from our friends who DID stay there and [see Nami S.] and they made it clear we probably made out by NOT staying there after all.]
Oct 10th, 2013, 05:49 PM
#8
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. It's styled as a B&B and has its B&B oddities. It is expensive, yes, but other "real" hotels in that location cost twice the amount over a weekend.
My "review" from a few years back stands. (See below). My mom and sister went there again last year and loved it. And if we went to SB again, we'd stay there. I do agree that the check in situation is a bit weird.
FWIW, you never said, per your post, that you were canceling, nor did you go back after trying to cool down, and say you were not going to stay based on their rude behavior. Or get the name of the person who turned you off. So, it seems that there was some comparative fault here. I know you don't want to hear that, and I get why you were mad, but had you just said, "We are the ____ and we cancel based on your rude behavior!" and walked out or come back at 3 and canceled, and gotten the name of the person you told, you would have had a better case.
Here's my report:
We stayed there a year ago and really liked it. I would read the tripadvisor report above, and my feeling was pretty much the same as the person from Oregon who wrote. The common rooms, the breakfast, and wine afternoon with the cheesy bits, as Rumpole would say, were all fabulous. The rooms need updating, but were very comfortable; bathroom very small. Also, no elevator and if you are upstairs and have bad legs or back and a big suitcase, you're way better off on the ground floor overlooking the courtyard.
Great location.
We'd definitely stay there again, but if you're the Ritz kind of people, you'd be better off elsewhere. We like quaint and quirky
My "review" from a few years back stands. (See below). My mom and sister went there again last year and loved it. And if we went to SB again, we'd stay there. I do agree that the check in situation is a bit weird.
FWIW, you never said, per your post, that you were canceling, nor did you go back after trying to cool down, and say you were not going to stay based on their rude behavior. Or get the name of the person who turned you off. So, it seems that there was some comparative fault here. I know you don't want to hear that, and I get why you were mad, but had you just said, "We are the ____ and we cancel based on your rude behavior!" and walked out or come back at 3 and canceled, and gotten the name of the person you told, you would have had a better case.
Here's my report:
We stayed there a year ago and really liked it. I would read the tripadvisor report above, and my feeling was pretty much the same as the person from Oregon who wrote. The common rooms, the breakfast, and wine afternoon with the cheesy bits, as Rumpole would say, were all fabulous. The rooms need updating, but were very comfortable; bathroom very small. Also, no elevator and if you are upstairs and have bad legs or back and a big suitcase, you're way better off on the ground floor overlooking the courtyard.
Great location.
We'd definitely stay there again, but if you're the Ritz kind of people, you'd be better off elsewhere. We like quaint and quirky
Oct 11th, 2013, 03:47 PM
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madcow, what a terrible experience. Thanks for sharing it. I think we stayed there (the pictures remind me of where we stayed) many years ago. I remember liking the architecture but it wasn't worth the higher end price as I recall.
Kate, the Oceana Inn sounds wonderful.
Kate, the Oceana Inn sounds wonderful.
