Mar Monte Hotel - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt — Hotel in Santa Barbara

Stayed midweek, 2 nights. Booked basic king room and was upgraded to corner king room. No balcony but great wraparound views of the ocean. Actually preferred this room over a balcony. Light and views much better. |I’m a Hyatt globalist and have been eyeing this property for a while but was reluctant to stay due to some bad reviews. |We went in with very low expectations and were very pleasantly surprised. Basic room pre tax was $300 night. With taxes and fees (and potential parking), that $300 can balloon. But it’s Santa Barbara, a unique hotel market. Your choices are either super high end or glorified motels (often for $300 night!) There are a handful of mid-high range properties in town but you’ll end up paying at least $500-600 night for a basic room and imo not worth it over Mar Monte.|Mar Monte actually fills a good middle ground price point with middle ground features and some nice extras. |Pros: |location. It’s right across from East Beach and it’s quiet (minus car noise in front). The vibe is pretty mellow, views are insanely good if you’re facing the beach. Feels very safe. |Character: the hotel is old and this can be a pro or con. There is charm to the corridors, almost in an old European way. The main building meanders a bit and is definitely not cookie cutter. The rooms have rough plaster walls and ceilings, old style windows. A renovation looks like it was done a few years ago and the designers worked with some of the quirks/character without making it feel generic. |The pool area is decent. Comfortable chairs for lounging and sitting by a large firepit. A welcoming vibe filled with families and couples and multi generations. No posing going on here. |A good bar area in the restaurant with great cocktails. No ‘scene’, it’s pretty mellow, but it’s relaxing. Attractive dining room with good breakfast (didn’t eat dinner)|Staff: this is a big plus- almost everyone was super friendly. Valet’s were great and would hustle to get your car, young ladies at the front desk were warm and helpful, bartender, waiters in Costa were excellent. Pool staff were pretty good. The guy who checked us in on arrival was a little stiff and the only person we encountered who seemed a bit lacking. ||Cons: the character of the hotel is a bit of a double edged sword. There is a little funkiness around. Our wraparound windows were old, single pane, from the 40s or 50s by the look of the frames. I actually didn’t mind them once I got used to them. They provided a 4ft high horizontal strip of unbelievable wall to wall ocean view, that continued into the bathroom too, but the frames were old and funky and the blinds, while functional, are getting pretty worn. There is definitely a tired feel to the decor, but not horribly so. It did not detract from the overall function of the room. |If we had a view facing away from the ocean it would have felt very different. We’d be staring at the parking lot or potentially a Mountain View- a very different experience. It might be fine if you’re planning on spending most of your time outside. There is a lot to do- pool, bikes, beach (beach chairs), a walking/jogging path towards the wharf. 5 minute drive into town. |Housekeeping: not sure whose fault this is but housekeeping is putting sheets on the bed that don’t fit. Our king was outfitted with sheets that were far too short for the mattress- top and bottom. They fixed it after the first night but that should never happen. Some of the towels could use replacing too. |Thankfully the front desk handled the sheet incident professionally so we felt taken care of. ||People might love the Mar Monte to upgrade everything to the next level and it might happen. But be careful what you wish for. This place is a gem with character (and a little funkiness) but that is what is keeping this place from charging even more to match its competitors. I’ll take the $300 a night...

Where do I start?

Well, I can start by stating that this is the 4-star Hyatt that never was!

I have no idea how and why the Hyatt hospitality brand allows this neglected, poorly run hotel to operate under their flagship name!

We stayed at this place for a total of 17 hours or so (we were booked for an "ocean view" room for a total of 4 nights, while my spouse was attending an academic event that takes place at this venue twice a year, organized by an established and reputable university-level institution), and then we found a better hotel 2 miles away and checked out early of this very neglected and outdated property.

When we walked to the Santa Cruz building, where the 'best rooms' with an 'ocean view' are supposed to be, we were struck by the dated and dilapidated look of the place. The hallway along reminded me of corridors I've seen in scenes of American Horror Story, the series. I kid you not!

I can deal with (and even appreciate and welcome) “old and quaint” as a first impression and as a niche brand.

What I’m not okay with is a musty smelling room, a hand towel that was already used when we arrived, wobbling lamp posts and broken lamp shades that have been deceitfully turned around, chipped soap dishes and water glasses, furniture scuffed not by the passing of time but by neglect and poor maintenance, and a carpet so stretched and filthy we keep on tripping when walking over certain areas and the bottom of my white sleeping socks is gray this morning!

All this, unacceptably, when, intuiting some of this fiasco, before coming, I paid for the best possible upgrade with an “ocean view”, at this place rated by the Hyatt brand as a “4-star” hotel (in someone's drunken stupor or nightmare, perhaps!).

The view itself was debatable!

Yes, from the balcony, there is East Beach and the Pacific Ocean right behind it, but before you get to see any of it, your gaze stumbles upon plucky palm trees, a chain link fence, and behind it, working personnel trailers at a site being excavated right on the beach!

I will be posting pictures to properly and objectively substantiate and corroborate this review.

Notice the filthy bathtub with a filthy shower curtain, and how stretched and dirty the carpet was. We kept tripping on the carpet ‘mounds’, and by morning my gleaming white sleeping socks were disgustingly dingy at the bottom!

I had to put a towel down on the tub for my spouse not to stand directly over the crud all over the tub, since he had to go into events and sessions all day taking place in the building next door.

I chose not to shower until I found and moved to the wonderful boutique hotel I booked for us while still at the Hyatt Centric, since the management did next to nothing to remediate or upgrade our accommodations.

Three bright spots for anybody brave enough to stay at this venue:

The people that work here are incredibly helpful, the food we tasted at dinner and for breakfast was fresh, well made and tasty, made with local produce, and the welcoming strawberries dipped in chocolate were an unexpected, appreciated and delicious touch.

If you want to experience a really nice, upscale and comfortable stay in beautiful Santa Barbara, do yourself a favor and shop around for another hotel that will give you much better accommodations and value for your money, and will be more responsive to your needs, standards and expectations as a consumer accustomed to and deserving a certain level of comfort, hygiene, quality and service.

Stay away from the Hyatt Centric...

I’ll start with the positives: the hotel is in an older building, which gives it charm, coziness and the rooms were comfortable. The patio was lovely to sit on with the fire pits, and the view of the ocean was great! It has beachfront access across the street, as well as a couple of restaurants/cafes, and a pool and fitness center. The hot tub was great. The people overall were extremely pleasant and helpful!

Some mid points: the food was delicious, but very expensive. The hotel is a little outside of downtown, about a 30 minute walk to the wharf (probably a little more to the shops), but we had a car so it wasn’t too bad to drive down further. However since it’s outside of downtown it wasn’t loud, it was very quiet even on the main road.

Now for the negatives (as I’m sure whoever has read this far is probably wondering why it’s 3/5 stars): the rooms did not have a microwave or coffeemaker. The only way to get coffee was in the morning in the lobby, which they sometimes ran out of around 8 or 9 (when it was supposed to be 7-11am). Also the coffee was mid. And since this is a resort hotel, not having a microwave was inconvenient when you want to bring food from the restaurant up to the room. Account for an extra $50 a day for valet parking, as that is the ONLY parking option at the hotel, unless you want to fight for a spot on the street with other hotels. The valet workers were fantastic (don’t get me wrong), but it would have been nice if that wasn’t the only option. The pool and pool area were small, and sometimes filled up by 10:00am, so unless you go and stake out a spot early and stay all day, it was hard to use (I understand this isn’t 100% their fault due to space, just something I wanted to point out). On the last day of our stay, the current guests staying there were not allowed to the patio or other common areas of the hotel because they were setting up for a wedding. I understand wanting to bring in all new furniture for an event like that, but not letting current guests use the amenities they’re already paying for is a huge negative. We had to make a noise complaint on our last night, due to new guests who had come in and were (maybe) partying above us, but it was nonstop. However the hotel didn’t do anything about the noise complaint, so we were disappointed to end the stay on a low note. The woman at the front desk was lovely the next morning however, and removed the $25 resort fee upon checkout (account for that cost too). Again, the people were lovely! Also, when booking the hotel the number does not take you to the front desk unfortunately. It takes you to a call center which is normally fine, but the representative was very pushy with certain features and it left a bad impression.

Overall it was a good stay, but there were definitely its moments.

Edit: I just remembered there was a Keurig...