Avania Inn of Santa Barbara — Hotel in Santa Barbara

My rating of the Avania Inn of Santa Barbara would be zero if I could. I booked a room sometime in mid-August for one night in September. A few days before my stay my plans changed and I needed to cancel the reservation. I looked in all my email folders including spam, junk and trash and was unable to find a confirmation email. I couldn't even remember the name of the hotel I booked with until I scrolled through old texts messages with my friend where I told her where I would be staying. So, I called the hotel to cancel the reservation and they said they couldn't find a room reservation under my first or last name. I had them check under my husband's name and they still had nothing. I explained to them I couldn't find a confirmation email so maybe I hadn't gone through with the reservation. They agreed and the call was over. Fast forward to the night the reservation was for, and I got a call from them asking what my ETA is. I explained that I had called them to cancel, and they said I didn't have a reservation. He asked who I spoke with, but I didn't get a name, so I told them I wasn't sure, but it was a male. I looked at the call log on my phone and gave them the time and date. I was then put on a very long hold while I assumed he was speaking with managers. When he came back I was informed that because I had not gotten a person’s name and only two people were there that morning who did not recall the conversation I would be charged 50% of the room charge. I tried to plead my case with no luck. He gave me email addresses of managers and suggested I email them with my complaint which I did. After many emails going back and forth they informed me, I should have thought to get someone's name especially since I didn't have a confirmation email. I asked them to send me the confirmation email they sent me, and they said it is impossible because once they mark me as a cancelled reservation, they "are unable to resend a confirmation". They also wrote "I would not be sure why you did not receive an emailed confirmation as we do not have complaints from other guests", which is a direct insinuation I am making up the story. They also informed me the reservation had my first name but only a "Y" for my last name and "if a first name had been provided the reservation record would have been located." I can assure you when I called, I gave them every name possible that could have been on the reservation. Their first reason for not refunding me 100% was because I didn't have a name for them of who I spoke with. They wrote "it would be important to ask for a team member's name you are speaking with to be able to reference a conversation". Then it was because the reservation was wrong. They wrote, "if a first name had been provided the reservation record would have been located". Again, insinuating I am making it up. Who calls to cancel a reservation and doesn't give their first and last name? And I can go on and on about the back and forth emails that consisted of many things like, “I am a combat veteran of 3 deployments with the US Army and operate with full transparency" or "our GM lives by a code of conduct further instilled by his military background and that is 'integrity' this is taught to our team members as well". I had only asked for reimbursement of charges made to my card for services I did not render, and it went into their character. What poor business practices to bring up your wonderful qualities while making innuendos that I made a mistake or wasn't being honest. Not once did they acknowledge that they may have made a mistake or apologize for my situation. Whatever happened to taking care of the customers. I told them I will be disputing this charge with my credit card company. I'm not sure if I will get my money back or not but we will see. Lastly, I can almost guarantee you they will have some sort of rebuttal to this as they are the last word kind...

The price is low relative to nearby hotels, the beds are comfortable, and it's a short walk to the beach. Those are my only positive comments.

I have a number of issues that aren't so positive. The first is their covid safety. I've stayed at a fair number of hotels and I've rarely seen staff without masks on except here. One of the men who works the front desk never had a mask on any time I saw him. The other had one down below his nose each time. Come on now, is been a year, how hard is this? If even the front desk staff can't manage this imagine how well other safety protocols are handled. To be fair, the cleaning staff I saw in the halls seemed to comply better.

I don't know what the breakfast was like pre covid, but it's a sorry excuse now. A table laid out with juice, a few apples, sad looking packaged danishes and some nutrigrain bars is not a breakfast. That's just going through the motions so that you can put down on your profile that breakfast is offered. I wish I had taken a photo because my description actually makes it sound half okay. It isn't.

WiFi here is the worst of any hotel I've stayed at in years. I don't expect hotel WiFi to be good, but this is truly abysmal on every device I tried. If you plan to even check your email assume you'll need cellular data.

The walls are very thin and my upstairs neighbor sounded like an elephant. I think it was a family, so maybe noisier than average, but it was really loud for what seemed like just walking around.

Finally, I had only one real interaction with the staff and that was because the toilet in my room wasn't running properly when I arrived. It wouldn't flush right, so I went to the (nose out) front desk guy to ask for someone to come look. He asked if I'd be in the room and I said no, I'd be out all day. When I returned eight hours later the toilet was exactly the same, very clearly not visited by maintenance staff. They never did come to look, but eventually it started working on it's own.

I've stayed at a lot of places and rarely have I been so displeased. The beds are good though, so at least I slept well (until the people upstairs got out of bed at six and walked around, waking me up).

I won't stay here again. I don't think you...

Decent enough hotel overall. Front desk folks are great... very kind, professional and sympathetic. They wanted to make sure our stay was great. Nice touch to provide cookies upon checkin. The hotel is still being renovated though which leaves some unsightly areas. We stayed mid week in early January, so hardly peak season, but never saw more than one or two other cars in the parking lots (one on each side of the building). Sort of funny given how few people were here that there was another family right above us whose footsteps and banging around were pretty loud. We had a three queen room which was awesome for our family of 5 and the main reason we booked here. The room is right on the landing of the stairs though so frequently had loud footsteps climbing and descending the stairs. Our room was renovated very nicely so that was excellent but strangely enough, the baseboards were carpeted. Not sure if they didn't get redone or if that was by design, but looks a little strange. Also there are some touch up areas needed on the walls and in the bathroom, but I imagine those will get taken care of once the reno is totally complete. Bathroom was very clean and nice rain shower. Toilet is one of those 1 or 2 deals where you push the "1" button for a pee or the "2" button for a poo. I guess it saves water but I am personally not a fan of them. I did really like liquid hand soap at the sink though. Speaking of the sink, it's in the main room so you can't use the lights or get ready for bed if your kids are already asleep since it is essentially right there with them. The breakfast buffet was one of the best continental breakfasts we've ever had. They chopped up fresh strawberries and had fresh blueberries as well as eggs, sausage, waffles, cereal, toast, bagels, Danish and juice. Really nice touch having the fresh fruit! For the most subjective comment in the review, the beds and pillows were very comfortable and easy to get a great night's sleep in. There's a little grocery store right around the corner in case you forgot anything which, of course, we did. For the price and the location, it served our needs just fine as a family. I felt safe and slept...