The Leta Santa Barbara Goleta, Tapestry Collection by Hilton — Hotel in Goleta

Mixed feelings - Great hotel stay - could be better with small tweaks. I would like to break this review in a few parts. Overall, the room was clean, the bed was great and the pool was great too. Service was great. I would say this hotel offers some luxurious things hidden behind a somewhat ghetto facade. The first impression. First off, when you park there are some shady characters roaming their parking lot with their shopping carts. Perhaps they should keep someone at the front parking lot to prevent homeless from walking around the parking lot. This made me feel unsafe, and that i needed to lock my car immediately and hide anything of value. after all, why was the homeless guy walking around the parking lot? Next, the doors of some of the rooms faced out to the parking lot, this felt like a motel and I thought oh no. Checking in was great and I discovered that they had smores that night in the patio, yoga that morning and several free activities. This felt more like a spa resort activity so I felt better. And it was family friendly.

The room. This was a little scary at first as basically the room is either in the parking lot and if your shade is drawn people can see you in bed. Not a great idea. If your room is facing the pool upstairs, like our room, then it's a nicer view, but sam problem. So we drew the shades and it made the room dark. Perhaps more lighting since you need to close the shades so as to not flash everyone walking by. The bathroom was great and there were robes for your use and wonderful beauty products in the shower for your use. Again, this is what you would find in a luxury hotel. Tall bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, and an after bath lotion. All good quality and available for purchase for $45. Nice touch.

The mini bar. Here is where it gets ghetto. Seriously. A plethora of alcohol in the fridge, lots of booze and some snacks. But here is the killer part.....ready for it? So I am traveling with my young daughter. In the tray of snacks is water, granola bars, m&ms, Pringles, Pirate Booty snacks, a small bottle of wine, trail mix and.....two cute boxes. One with a blue flower and one with a pink flower. My daughter picks it up and it says: "FOR HER LOVEKIT...." upon inspecting the box further because it was attractive to a girl with the bright pink flower, it says: " PERSONAL MASSAGER, LUBRICANT + CONDOMS" Nice. The instant image I got was a seedy motel for $35 a night where a hooker might go with some guy who just picked her up. Have sex and leave. Of course I had to answer to my daughter what that was. Why would you have things like that in the room? Maybe have them as an option if someone wants them delivered to their room. Or put it in a more inconspicuous spot. Not in the snack tray!!!!!! And not necessary. I am sure couples can bring their own! This brings the hotel down to a much lower level. So the hotel managers need to decide if this is to be a seedy hotel, or a middle of the road hotel with some luxuries. My suggestion is to eliminate the little boxes, put some curtains in the rooms and make it less ghetto. It's like the managers are trying to cover all bases with the mixed perks.

Overall, it was a safe, nice stay, but I had my concerns with the condoms being offered in the room. Seriously wouldn't you wonder if that is what you...

This is more of a hangout for locals, rather than a nice resort for out of town guests. We arrived at 2:30 and check-in wasn't until 4:00, so we thought we'd hang out at the pool while waiting for our room. The pool area was over packed... no chairs or lounges & the pool had a zilliion bodies in it, so we hung out on the patio bar. After talking to some of the people at the bar, we realized that many of them were not hotel guests, but came there as local residents, to enjoy the pool and the afternoon "pool party" (with loud DJ music). There was no card key access to the pool... it was just unlocked for anyone to enter. The front desk & bartender said they sell 10 tickets to locals for pool access, but it was obvious that many more were there without purchasing tickets. We even saw a couple of young pre-teen girls in their wet bathing suits out front (at 8PM) waiting for their ride to pick them up! They were apparently, dropped off at the hotel pool for the afternoon. Our room rate was exorbident at $350, and we couldn't even get a pool chaise lounge or chair since there were so many locals using the pool!

The outdoor patio dining and bar was pretty good, except we had a very unfriendly bartender. We thought we'd move to one of the couches under a sun umbrella on the patio near the bar, but 2 dogs were enjoying the shaded area, while tied up and left unattended while the owners were apparently in the pool. We are dog lovers, and they seemed friendly but I thought it was rude to give the dogs prime seating while hotel guests struggled to find shaded seating. Then there was a BIG dog fight between 3 large dogs (one of them got a pretty bad bite). The place was loaded with "large" dogs. Again, we are dog lovers, but owners should only take their dogs to hotels if they are well socialized with other dogs.

We finally got our room, but couldn't relax because the pool DJ music was so loud and was scheduled to play until 5:00. Couldn't take another hour of the noise, so we left and drove to the marina for appetizers and a cocktail. When we returned, we thought we'd sit on our patio, but there was only one patio chair! Seriously... at $350 a nite, there is only 1 patio chair for a large patio??? The hotel is actually an old 2 story motel that was remodeled in a retro, mid-century decor (interesting, and kinda cute, but not our style). There is a $25 resort fee, but trust me, this is NOT a resort. It's just an overpriced remodeled motel located on the outskirts of Santa Barbara in Goleta.

If management reads this review, I strongly suggest that you change your pool policy regarding usage for local residents. The pool is way too small for usage other than for registered hotel guests! You need to secure the pool gates with guest key access only and not make the pool a...

The Leta is a huge let(a)down!

I stayed for an entire week and each day was filled with issues. The hotel is very dated motel and the business model is to entice you with cheaper room nights but charge for everything. Do yourself a favor and stay next door or at several newer hotels nearby that are slightly more expensive but provide significantly better value.

Here’s a couple specifics; Bed and pillows were comfortable, there, I started with the one and only positive. Parking is $15 per night! It’s Goleta, not SB No free breakfast, I didn’t try their restaurant due to other bad reviews of slow service. Tap water smells of sulfur, but bottled water in room is $3 each! I bought a gallon jug at the Rite Aid down the street. No free coffee in lobby, Keurig in room, but they didn’t replace K-cups. When I asked they brought more decaf, I had to go to the housekeeping office and explain in Spanish what I needed. Speaking of housekeeping, there is no service culture at all, quick room turns is the only thing they care about. I walked by the staff over a dozen times and never a single hello. Rooms are very small, no desk, tiny table with one chair and a weird dirty beanbag. Noisy, I could hear my neighbors alarm like it was in my room, not because it was loud, because the walls are not insulated. My other neighbor showered at 4:45, I know because the water sound was like I was in the bathroom with them! Construction crews were actively working on renovating some rooms which were great, except dust and debris everywhere. Fire alarms, twice during my stay, once at midnight woke up all guests, the other earlier the same day while I was on the crapper… not sure which one was worst. There wasn’t a fire, not sure what happened… but shouldn’t have happened and no apologies. Windows open to walkway, motel style, so if you want privacy you don’t get sunlight. Shower design is horrible, the handle was on the back wall, so you couldn’t avoid getting blasted by cold water turning it on. There’s only a half glass wall with no curtain so any aggressive showing leads to a floor full of water… Shower was missing one of the 3 bottles, just not there, I had to request a replacement and again housekeeping was very difficult to communicate with… soap, not shampoo, I have that one. Iron had black goo on bottom, I wasn’t thrilled as I was on business and actually wanted to iron my shirts. They did bring a clean replacement, but it was one of 3 different housekeeping trips (k-cups, soap, iron…)

Okay, I think I covered it. I’m not trying to exaggerate, but I was never once asked by the staff how my stay was… not on any of the calls nor at checkout, after a week! So I guess that sums it all up, they really don’t care. If you don’t either maybe it will...