Secret Garden Inn & Cottages — Hotel in Santa Barbara

New Review 2019 May

Secret Garden Inn & Cottages is one of the best places to heal your mind and body.

We feel very lucky to have found the wonderful Inn and Cottages in Santa Barbara, which we have been visiting again and again.

We stayed there in April and enjoyed every moment and have reservations in July and November. At the end of our recent stay in April we also made another reservation for next April.

We started staying at Secret Garden since 2009 and we love this place and the innkeeper, Ms. Dominique Hannaux.

I have been traveling to many countries for many years, and have many experiences with stays at many hotels and inns around the world. So I know which hotel or inn meets my standards and taste.

Secret Garden Inn & Cottages is one of our most favorite inns in Santa Barbara.

My husband says that Dominique has the mental and physical power to heal a tired person. I totally agree with his opinion. He looks so happy and alive when he is staying there.

Dominique is a very warm-hearted and generous human being. We enjoy talking with her about art, culture, and any subjects. She is a very intelligent and artistic person.

She prepares fresh breakfast every morning. It is so delicious that we can eat it every day. Each room has its own character and is decorated charmingly.

As soon as we leave the Inn each time, we are always talking about our next visit. We cannot wait for our next stay at Secret Garden Inn & Cottages in July.

The most charming innkeeper of the most charming inn in Santa Barbara

The first time when I visited Santa Barbara is more than 45 years ago. My friend who was the artist had a second house in the hillside in the Santa Barbara. She and her husband introduced me the beauty of the city of Santa Barbara.

After that, I visited there many times with my friends and my family from Japan. Every body loves this town. When we married, honeymoon trip was Santa Barbara.

Our adopted daughter attended UC Santa Barbara since 2009. After 2009, we visit this town regularly.

I have been traveling many countries and visiting many cities. But the Santa Barbara is one of my favorite cities in America.

The main reason why we like Santa Barbara so much is we found the most charming inn and stay there always.

The owner of Secret Garden, Ms. Dominique Hannaux, is a very interesting French woman. She is the most friendly, generous, kind person whom I have ever met.

She has very unique background. She was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and grew in Annecy, France, and worked in Paris. So she has many interesting stories to tell.

She is very intelligent woman as well as artistic. She is very original and genuine. We enjoy talking with her very much.

She is also the best cook. Every morning, she prepares the fresh cooked breakfast. Everything what she prepares is so good.

There are many charming points with this inn. We always meet interesting guests from all of the world. We share the breakfast table and we can exchange the worldview with them. We feel like we are traveling around world.

We have already made reservation for March 2018. Because, March is the month of my birthday.

Now, her daughter is helping Dominique. We are hoping that this inn will...

Poor customer service. Dominique was extremely rude, uncaring, and unkind. Not only that, but she turned out to be a liar and a thief.

My fiancé and I booked a weekend at the Secret Garden Inn to visit with his 90 year old mother. Our flights were canceled last minute due to a airline system wide glitch where hundreds of flights were canceled. No fault of our own.

We called the inn and explained the situation to her and she stated that "booking.com will not allow me to give you a refund, if I do I will be penalized a huge fee."

I called booking.com and they proceeded to tell me that if she approved the cancellation/refund on her side that she would NOT be charged a fee or penalty. They advised me to call her back and explain that to her and hopefully she would change her mind.

Well, we called her back and explained what booking.com had told us. She was very short and rude and stated that what we were saying was not true. We at this point were so desperate for even a little kindness and understanding that we told her we understood that she probably couldn't refund us all our money but if she could at least refund half of it. At that point she (in an almost yelling voice) stated "I'm very busy serving breakfast" and proceeded hung up on us while we were still talking.

We called booking.com back and explained to them what had happened. They then called her while we were on the line and they explained to her that she would NOT be penalized and she would still receive her commission (all fees would be waved) from booking.com. She STILL refused and charged us for the WHOLE stay. Booking.com apologized and stated they would see if she would at least put it towards another stay. She didn't even offer us that.

Bottom line, just know if you book with her and have an emergency or your plans have to change for any reason whether within your power or not she could care less. All she cares about is the money, not the people she is serving. A little basic kindness and understanding would have gone a long way. I understand that maybe she couldn't refund all the money, but at least be kind and at least offer something even a future stay. NOTE: Our daughters flight got canceled too and her hotel (also booked through booking.com) gave her a FULL refund!!! Just so disappointed, I truly was looking forward to staying there. But at this point I wash my hand of the...

READ THIS BEFORE BOOKING.

Hey friends! A few friendly tips you should read before booking this spot, as their website does not provide this information.

NOT PET FRIENDLY. I searched on Kayak for pet friendly stays in Santa Barbara, and this place popped up. Sometimes Kayak is wrong about that, so I double-checked online to confirm it was pet friendly, and indeed, it is advertised as such, so we booked. As we were settling in our room we were welcomed by the owner screaming through our door that we are not in a pet friendly room and that we cannot stay there because we did not advise her of the pets (no where on her website or on the booking did it say we needed to). As it turns out, only some rooms are pet-friendly. Not sure how we were supposed to know that.

BREAKFAST IS NOT INCLUDED. She had asked what time we want breakfast. No where on the website does it say that breakfast is not included or that we would be charged extra for breakfast. Rather, you have to opt-out of breakfast, otherwise it is automatically charged to your card.

BREAKFAST IS NOT SUITABLE FOR THOSE WITH DIETARY CONSTRAINTS. My friend cannot eat cheese, but we were not given any options/notice about what breakfast would even be. We did not eat breakfast. We were charged for it anyway.

DO NOT EXPECT A WARM WELCOME. I had tried to call the establishment twice to notify them we were coming, but no answer. When we arrived, a note on the door said that keys under the mailbox were in envelopes marked for guests checking in, but there was no key for us. We called the emergency number to be greeted with the owner who had a very poor attitude and tone with me, explaining that she was on her way. That, in addition to the rudeness she presented with the dog situation, in addition to the rudeness she presented when I raised the issue about the breakfast charges, made it clear that this is not a friendly place to stay. To prove my point, I predict she will actually write a snarky comment in response to this review, as she has done to several other reviewers.

I think this information would help a lot of people trying to book this place. None of this is on their website.

If you have no pets, just be warned that breakfast is not included. The rooms are outdated and atrociously decorated, but the space itself is cozy and good enough for a...