Residence Inn by Marriott Santa Barbara Goleta — Hotel in Goleta

One-liner: Poor Service Negates the Positives of this Hotel

Location: Near Santa Barbara Airport. Good for those arriving through that airport and need a place close-by with accessibility to the airport

Parking: Self-parking around the facility. Daily parking fee, even though there was plenty of parking. I did not notice any security that is paid to help watch over the cars too.

View: Not much. Surrounded on three sides with factories. My particularly view was of a trash bin for a commercial building. One side facing the main road with a view of some trees that help hide the airport facilities. The rooms facing the courtyard is probably the best view.

Overall Room: Layout is not as good as other Residence Inn's that have the bedroom and living room divided by a door. It is much smaller than most Residence Inn's. I did appreciate the small details such as providing a small salt and pepper shaker for cooking. One time I visited a Residence Inn near San Diego and they did not provide salt and pepper.

Kitchen: Refrigerator with freezer. Stove that was electric. Enough plates and utensils and bowls for 3-4 people. Strainer and mixing bowl provided with cap.

Bathroom: big and easily accessible. Clean.

Bed: I reserved a room with a king size bed. It was on the firm side but comfortable

Amenities: Gym, small pool with Jacuzzi, oversized lawn chess board, very mini mini-golf, ping-pong table, two outdoor gas grills.

Service: The biggest failure of the whole stay. I was informed there would be a water issue during my stay about 1-2 days prior to my trip. This was for my wedding anniversary and I wanted it to be nice but to find a hotel last minute right before the trip was not possible so I decided to keep my reservation. I thought it would not be so bad but I later found it that there would be no water from 10pm-6am. That meant toilet use was limited to at most 1-2 flushes overnight. I thought I could survive but I realized quickly that I could not wash my hands when I used the bathroom overnight. They did provide complimentary 2 regular size water bottle for the inconvenience, but that does not easily solve the sanitary issue. I brought up the issue with the hotel staff and at most they were dismissive about my concern. That is what caused me to give a 2 star rating, when it could have been a 4-5 star rating. I did not expect 1-2 star, motel level, service from such an overall...

We stayed in room 308 (1 Bedroom Suite) the week of September 12, 2022. The hotel and room are in great condition. All of the employees that we had contact with were very nice. There was always lots of parking available in the hotel parking lot and it's very well lit. There isn't much in the immediate area of the hotel but it's perfectly safe and only a 15 minute drive to downtown Santa Barbara. However, the bathroom sink is in the bedroom. It's not actually inside the bathroom with the toilet and shower/tub. I personally really dislike this design because if one person is sleeping you can't use the bathroom sink without waking them up. But what's even worse about the design of the bathroom is that there isn't a single towel rack or hook anywhere near the bathroom sink or the toilet or the shower/tub or on either side of the bathroom door to hang a towel. In addition, I understand that the room that I'm assigned may not look exactly like the photos of the 1 Bedroom Suite on the hotel website but the front desk said that the 1 Bedroom Suite pictured on the hotel website (The bathroom sink is actually inside the bathroom with the toilet and the shower/tub. There are towel racks in the bathroom.) isn't available to anyone. In other words, none of the 1 Bedroom Suites actually look like the photos of the 1 Bedroom Suite on the hotel website. So we resorted to using the "closet" rods as a towel rack for all of our bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths. We also took a square freestanding storage unit from the "closet" area and placed it next to to the shower/tub to put our towels on so we can reach for them when getting out of the shower. This room is handicap accessible but that should have absolutely nothing to do with having towel racks or not. Everyone needs towel racks whether they're in a wheelchair or not. FYI the metal bars that you see in the photos that I posted are grab bars, not towel racks. I've stayed in hotels that don't have enough towel rack but I've never stayed in a hotel that doesn't have any towel racks at all. This seems like a major design flaw. Considering that we paid $366.00/night on average, this was extremely disappointing and...

We had stayed at this Residence Inn for a family event a couple of years ago. Sadly, the property has really gone downhill. As a lifetime Platinum elite, I figured it wasn't too much to ask for a room upgrade during our week-long stay, particularly since the hotel was not nearly full. But they just wouldn't do it. As a thank you for my Platinum loyalty, I was given a small paper bag with a 12-ounce bottle of water and an apple inside. I cherished that gift all through the week.||When we checked in, our small studio had dirty underwear in the drawers near the bed, with stained carpet, black mold in the shower, and scuffed up walls. Even more relaxing, our room faced the courtyard and was in close proximity to an oversize chess set on the lawn. We were awoken before 8AM on our Sunday morning by a bunch of unsupervised kids bopping the huge plastic pieces all around. Checkmate indeed. When I asked to move rooms the next morning, my only option was to pay another $75 a night or so for a larger room on the 3rd floor. ||Over a course of 6 nights, we were given exactly one Keurig pod for the in-room machine. Not one pod per night. Just one pod total. I mentioned this to the operations manager, even to the maid down the hall with pods in her cart, but they just couldn't spare a 2nd pod. Good grief. Breakfast ends promptly at 9AM downstairs, with the doors slamming shut like a bank vault. They left the coffee pot out for a bit but couldn't leave out the half-and-half. That was also taken away like it was some rare 20-year-old Scotch. ||The hotel charges $15 a night for parking in a non-secure mostly empty parking lot. On our previous stay, parking was free. Snacks from the little market area next to the front desk are silly expensive - $6 bag of chips, $5 candy bar and so on. ||The elevator broke on our last night, so we had to lug everything downstairs for check out. ||We weren't staying expecting some Ritz Carlton experience. But for $350 to $400 a night - and yes - I know it's Santa Barbara - this was a poor value. We need to find a better option for our next...