Harbor View Inn — Hotel in Santa Barbara

On August 14, 2023 at 10 am, I called Expedia to cancel my upcoming stay at Harbor View Inn, as I thought I was within the 48 hour window. I have an autoimmune & was exposed to Covid & became very sick. It was a trip planned for my birthday for August 17th. Expedia called the hotel manager w/ me on the call to ask to make an exception to waive the fee which would have been the first night stay of 420.00. I listened to Expedia employee explain my health issues but they rudely said no. I hung up with Expedia & called the hotel directly to plead with them to waive the fee & to explain my emergency health issues & not wanting to infect other guests during my stay being sick. I spoke to Junior who was above Jason as a supervisor. Junior told me that he would not refund the full 420.00 but would refund half to the credit card & the other half towards a credit stay in the future so I didn’t lose the full 420.00. I had someone else listening on the call when he stated that. I agreed. He told me to call Expedia & have them cancel the reservation so his back office could credit the amount. I called Expedia back all while being really sick & again Expedia put me on hold & called Junior back directly to get his instructions & when the Expedia representative came back on the line she told me that Junior instructed her to write him an email requesting to cancel the reservation & that she wouldn’t cancel on her end because there would be an automatic 420 charge. I asked over & over if she was sure because Junior had asked me to have Expedia cancel the reservation. Calls were record. She insisted that she sent an email to the hotel asking for the waiver for the deposit of 420.00 not to be charged. Expedia explained I was within their 48 hour window & that they could credit all of the money back. Expedia explained that it’s not in their hands for charges because the hotel decides what to waive. I called Expedia back the next day & they confirmed they had sent the email to the hotel management but didn’t get a confirmation back. The day of check in, early morning I called yet again to Junior & asked what happened with the email exchanges & why I wasn’t credited. He said “we never got any email or cancelation” I insisted that they had sent it. He then admitted to receiving the email & stated “you were supposed to cancel this two days ago & you have until noon today to get this done and I’m only going to give you half back as a credit to stay in the future.” I insisted that he had offered half back on the card & half back to a future stay. He said no and would only give a hotel credit if half of one night’s stay. I was furious that he had changed his original promise to only half back & then not even back to the credit card. I told him I never wanted to go back under these circumstances & wanted a credit to my card. With an audience in his office, a woman whispering to him while speaking to me, he relented to have back on the card. He should have done what was right, ethical and for proper customer service given my emergency health problems knowing he burned a potential future client who comes to SB often looking for dog hotels who take our Akita. What a fool he was treating us this way, promising one thing then reneging on the original offer. We canceled the reservation & received an email confirming it was canceled at 11:15 am as he said we only had until noon now to get it done. Expedia said their calls were recorded & that this man in fact stated he would refund the full amount & to send that email over to his back office which they did. Expedia was shocked they they didn’t make an exception to waiving the first night stay being well over 48 hours on the first call to them to cancel. Junior was dismissive, rude, unprofessional, curt! UPDATE: Junior is lying below in comments-Expedia made it very clear the hotel could make a one time exception to waive the 420.00 fee & they were shocked he didn’t given my medical issues-that call was recorded! Also he promised 210 back on card & other 210 as a hotel credit. He reneged....

Let me start off by saying I booked a NON-REFUNDABLE rate and am fully 100% aware of that and acknowledging this. Also, I travel ALOT and understand things happen!

Now, I booked my reservation months in advance. Unfortunately, some health issues came up in my family unexpectedly and the doctors advised we could not travel for sometime. Also, out of respect for others we as a family thought it would be best not to travel either.

With that said, I called the hotel to advise of my situation and asked if it would be possible to just change our dates to a later time in the year (possibly a few months out) and I spoke to a Brenda, who then advised she didn't see any issue with this because they have done this before and I wasn't canceling, just adjusting the dates of our stay, but that I would need to speak with Mark the hotel manager. He of course was on vacation and not returning for some days. I left a VM.

I get a call a week later from the Director of Sales and Marketing Berenice Lara. She stated they couldn't work with me to adjust my dates and they wouldn't be willing to provide a voucher/credit so that I could rebook. Please keep in mind my stay was $1,500. For me it would have been absolutely impossible financially to rebook and pay an additional $1,500. This is a significant amount of money for any family especially during these times. I said ok and also asked why the manager didn't return my call. She didn't have an answer. I also asked why Brenda advised me it would be no problem to switch my dates. I was told she must have mistaken. OF COURSE!

A few days later I went online to cancel my reservation as Berenice didn't cancel it for me and the button to click advised "this reservation cannot be canceled at this time". So i called the hotel and guess what I got Brenda again. I told her I needed to cancel my reservation on the phone because it wouldn't let me online. She said ok, done and that I would receive an email confirming the cancellation (which I never received).

Fast forward to today 07/01/21 a lady calls me asking if I'm showing up for my reservation. At this point I'm beyond confused. I advised her no I canceled my reservation weeks ago with Brenda over the phone. She said oh well when you spoke to Mark on the phone he said you denied a cancellation. At this point Im laughing because these people at this hotel are ALL OVER THE PLACE. I NEVER spoke to Mark on the phone EVER because he didn't call me back. Berenice Lara called me because the hotel manager didn't have time to return my call.

A few things here to keep in mind if you plan to book at this hotel and lessons learned for me: The employees at this hotel lack communication skills terribly. I know what was told me and I truly believe they are trying to charge me a "no show fee". Keeping in mind they are keeping $1,500 already.

NEVER book a NON-REFUNDABLE rate anywhere at this time because even-though I wasn't asking for my money back and all I really wanted was to just adjust my dates which is completely harmless to the hotel/business, these people are NOT FLEXIBLE AT ALL especially during these times we are in.

Management will pass the buck to someone else and makes excuses if someone tells you something that they shouldn't have told you.

Lastly, I travel to SB several times a year and have always wanted to stay at tis hotel. Guess what, not anymore and I have definitely spread the word about my experience. The management at this hotel have ZERO sympathy for guests situations. They could have 100% easily changed the dates for me and not lost a single penny and actually possibly would have received a higher rate. DO...

I booked a stay at this hotel as part of a multi-leg trip planned down the Pacific Coast Highway for what was set to be a nice vacation for my girlfriend and I.

Unfortunately due to a death in the family we needed to reschedule the trip to change travel plans to attend the funeral. We had requested a refundable cancellation from the third party provider (SuperTravel) given the extenuating circumstances (we were 1 day outside of the standard window but deaths were a noted exception), and while they were not exactly easy to work with they offered to process a refund if the hotel simply provided a written note authorizing the cancellation.

This is where things became incredibly frustrating - I spoke with several members at the hotel who told me one after another that while they felt bad for my plight they were not authorized to approve the refund but could escalate my issue to another party. After spending an inordinate amount of time with the hotel staff, I was eventually told that no one on the staff was allowed to refund a single night's stay except for the General Manager himself, Mark Romasanta.

I found that I was unable to reach Mark directly and was ultimately unable to process a night's refund. It is still baffling to me that the management team of a hotel would not permit anyone but them selves to process refunds under exceptional circumstances.

While this experience is not a reflection on the quality of the rooms, location or amenities themselves - I think it speaks volumes to the customer service quality and the attitude of the hotel management which would rather retain a reservation fee that was already collected than treat traveler's with common decency. In hindsight I wish I had opted for a known brand with standardized customer service as I am sure this issue would not have occurred (unfortunate this was an expensive lesson in how poorly some boutique hotels can be managed).

Given my interactions I would not recommend that anyone stay here.

Edit: What a speedy response and SHOCKER this is in no way your fault...

Yes that is correct it was a 1 day reservation in August. I am posting now because as I revisited planning another trip to Santa Barbara I recalled how poorly my prior experience went.

I am not surprised that you cannot find any trace of my efforts to reach you several months ago given that I was not contacted back after leaving a message then. Also - I don't think that responding to a poor review quickly now proves that you would helped me promptly in the past.

With respect to the "no show" - I spoke with at least 3 of your staff about the fact that I would not be able to visit due to the circumstances so why I am listed as a surprise non-arrival is unclear.

Lastly, the response that "you should book directly with the hotel to avoid issues in the future" is an incredibly lame excuse. You should take responsibility for your hotel's policies and conduct regardless of how a room is booked. If the Harbor View Inn is incapable of providing the same level of service to customers when bookings are made through a third party then perhaps you should not put your inventory on third party sites...

All I needed was 1 person at your hotel to write an email to me saying they authorized SnapTravel to issue a refund but that was just too much to ask.

This response is another clear indication that you do not care about customers and any issues are their own fault. I would change my review to 0...