Villa Rosa Inn — Hotel in Santa Barbara

First the positive:|Pool, hot-tub, and the room in general appeared and felt clean. I checked the sheets as it said "European linen" but the labels were removed. Could be IKEA. ||Then the rest:|When checking the sheets we noticed a pretty large stain in the middle that looked like old body fluids.|We had booked a private patio, and it had a fence, but the gate was missing, just the hinges left, so anyone walking by on the sidewalk could have gone in. We brought two small dogs and wanted to keep the door open to the patio but could not. |The door handle on the door leading to the patio fell off when we moved it. The toilet paper holder fell apart when trying to get TP.||We had booked directly on the Villa Rosa Inn site, not through Expedia or other sites. The young guy at the front desk said that was the best way because if you book through Expedia they have to go through all kinds of steps to check you in and it takes time. The German couple in front of us that had booked through Expedia finally gave up on the guy and left as he was spending time talking to them about how Expedia operates as opposed to checking them in. |As we checked in, we asked if we could have a beach view, but the guys said that those rooms are cheaper than what we had booked and that they do not do "price match" so we would be paying more for those. |He asked for proof of our reservation and I showed him the confirmation on my phone. He said he needed to see my ID (which was in the car), and I told him it was all on my phone. He said he could not look at my phone as it "hurts his eyes". ||It was announced early afternoon wine etc., so we asked and at 4pm they still were waiting for the 'shipment'. We went to the hot-tub and the wine was eventually there; very cheap wine and cold cuts. The red wine came out of the fridge.||Our assessment is that this is a place that looks very nice in the pictures, but the pictures do not depict what we experienced. Yes, the style is correct and it had some very eclectic pieces of various art and statues from decades ago, but they are falling apart. The pictures depict healthy greenery, but what we saw was plants that did not appear to have been paid attention for weeks/months. Even the succulents were dying.||At one point I asked the young guy at the front for two things: Please provide one more pool towel (there was only one outside by the pool), and see if he could find a way to block where the gate of the terrace should have been so we could spend time there with our little dogs without having to leash them. A couple of hours later I checked in with him and he looked confused and asked me to remind him what those two items were.||Lastly: I was sent a text from a phone number to give our stay a rating, and I answered '1'. The person asked why it was such a low score. I asked whom I was giving my answer to, and received no response, even after a second request.||It would not take that much time, money, and effort to clean up this place and get rid of several items that makes it look old and cluttery as well as hire and train competent people at the front desk. Mind you we only had experience with one young guy, not anyone else, but he was far...

ABSOLUTE HORROR!! This is was our experience during our recent stay at the Villa Rosa Inn . My wife and I booked a last minute stay on Saturday July 20th for one night. We read the reviews prior to booking and I have to say they were not favorable. However, because we were dealing with a last minute event, and there were no hotels available, we decided to go ahead and book the room. I have to honestly say that our stay at the Villa Rosa Inn was the worst hotel experience we’ve ever had.

For starters, the day before our stay I received a phone call from a member of the hotel staff informing me that we would be placed in your newer property across the street . When we checked in, the woman working the front desk stated that it was a mistake and that we would be placed in the older building room #5. Since we had never stayed at the property we did not argue against it. Upon entering the room we immediately notice the smell of smoke even though this was a Non-Smoking room. The nightmare continued when we noticed that none of the windows had latches which created a fire hazard. I walked down to the front desk and informed the clerk regarding the window latch situation. He tried looking for latches but couldn’t find any. Needless to say we spent the entire night with windows we couldn’t open or close. The situation got worse when we began to inspect the room. We immediately noticed that the room was completely dilapidated with stains on the floor, missing lamp switches, holes on the walls, the bathroom sink detached from the wall, and a blackened area around the bathtub tiles and floor that appeared to be dirt coupled with mold. Needless to say our room was absolutely disgusting and the worst we had ever seen in our previous travels. By this time, we were limited on our lodging options and we had to endure the tragedy of staying at your property for the night. In addition, we opened one of the dresser drawers and discovered there was a pair of jeans left from the previous guests, suggesting the room had not been properly cleaned or inspected. We directed our complaints to the front desk clerk prior to checking out, and we were immediately told that she could not do anything and that we needed to send an email and contact the owner (Tia) with our complaints. In the end , we attempted to resolve the issue prior to checking out, but we were unsuccessful.

We gave the hotel an opportunity to respond to our request to credit our stay based on our terrible experience, but as of the date of this review we are yet to hear anything back from the owner. We contacted American Express and filed a complaint. American Express credited back our entire nights stay and they are currently investigating the matter. As I stated, this was the worst hotel experience of our lives, and it is a shame due to the fact that the hotel has so much potential. It is clear to us that it is not in the managements interest to ensure that guests have a favorable experience. Please see the...

DO NOT STAY HERE - COCKROACHES!!!!!! Listen to other recent reviews - this place is not worth it. This is absolutely the worst and nastiest hotel room I have ever been to in my life. Once they realized we were traveling with a pet, we were given a room that was extremely dated, filthy, and in some back building that looked more like a shady apartment complex (we don’t think it was even part of the hotel). Exhausted from traveling all day, we overlooked how run down the room was, picked up a pizza, and went to sleep on the stained bedsheets.

In the middle of the night, I felt something on my leg. Lo and behold there was a COCKROACH literally crawling on my leg. Disgusted, I didn’t sleep much the rest of the night and first thing in the morning went to the reception desk. They were of course, not there until 9am.

I went back to the room and started taking photos of all the nasty stuff in the room. A ledge in the bathroom that was rusted and mildew-y, so many scuffs and marks on the walls, plaster missing around the doorframe on the interior and exterior, rust on door hinges, stains in the sink and bathtub, a poorly “stocked” kitchen, and more. There was a giant bulging hole in the wall in the kitchen. It looked like somebody had tried to punch a hole through the wall from the other side. The sink had food residue left in it. One of the towels had a huge hole in the middle.

Then I decided to lift up a corner of the sheets on the bed, where we discovered an actual roach infestation. Cockroaches were crawling on the box spring and onto the floor. I was mortified that we had slept on that bed. See all photos and videos attached. I have stayed in many hotels and motels in my life, and this takes the cake for the worst and nastiest hotel room ever. After seeing the cockroach infestation we immediately packed up our belongings and left. It wasn’t worth waiting for the front desk person to show up, I figured it would be best to call once they were open. We paid almost $400 for this one night stay.

Once I was able to call the front desk person, she was extremely apologetic and said she would speak to the owner of the hotel. Now here’s the kicker. She called back and told me that the owner refused to provide a refund or any type of credit, claiming my husband and I had actually brought in the roaches. This was a one night stay. The owner claimed because we had pizza (they found a pizza box in the kitchen trash), and also because we had a pet, we had somehow caused a roach infestation in the bed/box springs in less than 12 hours. We were there for ONE NIGHT. That is simply not possible. They put us in a room with a kitchen, and then blamed us for a roach infestation in the BED because we left a pizza box in the kitchen trash. That’s absolutely wild! What’s the kitchen for then?

Absolutely a shame & so frustrating that this is an operational hotel in Santa Barbara. Save your money and sanity and...