Topanga Canyon Inn Bed and Breakfast — Hotel in Calabasas

There will be two parts to this review the good and the bad. I'm honestly struggling on what the star rating should be because of the ordeal we endured but I've settled on 4 stars out of fairness and an abundance of kindness. The good: The B&B is as advertised, nestled in the foothills in Topanga Canyon. The drive up is through tight canyon roads and the parking is less than ideal but the instructions provided are abundant and once you arrive it is very clear where is acceptable and unacceptable to park. This is a traditional Bed & Breakfast with truly shared common areas. There should be no expectation of privacy in those common areas, even if your party has booked the entire house like we had. This was surprising since we were used to renting whole houses in airbnb and such and not even interacting with the owners at all. This is not a negative I am holding against them but I wanted to state it here explicitly because had we thought this through further we may have made a different choice. My wife and I picked this because we were getting married in the area and we wanted a place for some of our wedding party to stay with us and then for us to use the entire property to get ready on the wedding day. We did indeed book all 8 rooms with our party. Some were under our name and some under theirs. I spoke with Warren several times about this to clarify that we'd be able to have some of our family and the rest of the wedding party over to take photos and get ready and he was very clear that was something very common for them and wouldn't be a problem at all. We were very excited. Food was pretty good.

The bad: As I said we had both houses, all 8 rooms, fully booked so we could stay there the night before and the night of the wedding and also get ready on the wedding day. On the Saturday we were going to check in, in the middle of the day, all of the guests who were staying at one of the houses received calls from Warren that they would not be able to stay because there was a leaking pipe and the water had to be turned off. The day we were checking in, the day before the wedding, with plans that were essential, that Warren knew of, four of the rooms were cancelled. Full refunds were provided of course but Warren was of little help when trying to rectify this. We scrambled to find rooms for those displaced and possibly an entirely new place to use to get ready but almost everywhere we looked was fully booked and there were no other similar house situations or even hotels with large suites available in the area. After meeting Warren and his adult children who run the B&B when we stayed there the way he was on the phone made more sense. They all seemed simultaneously friendly and disinterested, like they didn't want to be talking to us at all. Calling Warren back after barely finding lodgings to replace the four cancelled rooms he reluctantly agreed to let us use the second house to get ready. We checked in late, because we had spent the last 2 hours of our spa time scrambling to rehome our wayward friends, and settled in to order some dinner. The biggest thing that is not said anywhere is there is ZERO CELL SERVICE WHATSOEVER. Extremely limited based on your provider if you can get a bar at all. There is wifi but that does no good for text messages and the wifi, like all hotel wifi, is slow with limited range. The day of we went over to the other house to check things out and get ready and all the doors were locked to the rooms. We had expected to have all of the rooms available since we had booked them but since they were cancelled they were all locked. After some surprising resistance we managed to get one room unlocked as long as we paid a cleaning fee. I didn't argue because I didn't have any energy for that as I was getting married that day but it's absurd that wasn't comped. And absurd that the rooms for a fully booked facility for a special event weren't checked days ahead when they were sitting empty. In the end our stay was fine. We got it done with some groaning and some pains. It is unlikely we...

We have stayed in many B & B but this time we had a very disappointing stay. First, the road to this B & B is very difficult to drive especially at night. The resort (8 rooms)cannot accommodate the number of vehicles that need to park at this B & B. If you park on the street (only 2 vehicles can fit) make sure you use your emergency brake, this is a must. The driveway can tightly fit 4 vehicles any other vehicles that are parked in the driveway, you are being blocked or blocking someone else.If you do not park exactly in the right spot in the driveway they will come out and admonish you and make you move your car. One morning, 2 guests had to search the entire B&B to find out who was blocking them to move there car so that they could get out. When we checked in we were told our breakfast seating was at 9:30 am , I said this was very late and why we were assigned this time, we were told this was based on our room selection. They have only 2 seatings 9:00 & 9:30am. Usually B &B has an open time usually 8-10am, not this one.The first day for breakfast , we arrived at 9:20am we never felt so uncomfortable at a B & B. We told the owner at the time of booking that my wife was allergic to onions and also told the young man who checked us in. Absolutely no mention about this at breakfast and they served potatoes with onions and everything else was cold from the 9:00am seating. We had some fruit and left. The next day we said lets try again, this time we arrived at 9:23 there was 2 opened seats we sat down and the young lady asked us our scheduled time," we said 9:30am" , she looked at her watch and said" your early, but I will allow you to stay. The food was the same cold and reheated from the 9:00am seating. Here is the best , there were 2 couples sitting with us who were from the 9:00am seating who was drinking coffee and enjoying each others company, when 9:30 came they were told they had to leave the table. Only 2 people joined us at 9:30am seating so there was plenty of room for them to stay. The host sat down with us we had a nice conversation, but it appears his 5 teenage children run the day to day operation of this B & B. In my limited dealings with them it is clear this is the last place they want to be based on how they interact with the adult guests. The next morning, I was sitting in the living room enjoying some reading with the french door opened enjoying the mountain view and the cool breeze off the mountains. This young teenager came in, closed the door, didn't ask me , didn't say anything to me , just closed the door and walked away. I said" I was enjoying the cool breeze" she said it was getting hot outside and just closed the door. I was not going to argue with her but again this was rude and had no consideration for a paid guest wishes. The room accommodations was adequate but not enough for us to ever come back to this B & B. This is my first review that I have ever wrote and I felt compelled to write this so others do not have to pay a very high nightly fee and be treated the way we were treated.We felt so unwelcome and they made you feel that they are doing you a favor. This also was a first for us, had to sign an agreement when we checked in that I would not smoke pot (medical marijuana) in the room. I think after this stay I...

Reserved a Saturday overnight for our anniversary. This is about the only interesting place I could find within a few hundred miles find that doesn't require a two-night minimum on the weekend, and the only thing I could find resembling a hotel in Topanga. It's a charming & quirky place, but not quite what we expected. First off, it's further out than you might expect, a good 10 minute drive outside Topanga village, perched on a hillside practically inside the state park. You won't enjoy the cool lushness of Topanga Canyon here—it was probably in the 90s up there in the afternoon—and the views are of the state park, which is to say some rocky, scrubby hills which aren't the most attractive in July. To get there, you have to find your way up a narrow public road that turns into a very steep and poorly maintained private road. Parking is quite limited and tight. This is a true B&B, and you feel like you're staying in a bedroom in someone's private home, which it probably once was. The rooms are very clean and nicely decorated but somewhat dated. We liked the vintage furniture and all the paintings by the owner's wife, and appreciated the dozen roses in the room that I had prearranged. The staff are the owner's children. They were courteous enough, but our only interactions with them where when we checked in and came down for breakfast, which is served specifically at 8:30 and 9:30. The owner, Warren, cooked us a nice meal, but ignored my several requests for vegan options, so all I got was some melon and coffee. Warren is a fascinating and colorful guy, and my wife enjoyed chatting with him for a good long while. We enjoyed being able to walk up the driveway and hike into the state park, for which they provided maps. One surprise was that we were forced to sign an statement that use of any drugs on the property, including cannabis, entirely legal in CA, would result in us being evicted without refund. Overall, it was a pleasant enough place to spend a night, and my wife seemed to enjoy it, but it sorta felt like we were staying at the home of a distant relative and couldn't quite...