Salt Cave Santa Barbara — Local services in Santa Barbara

Let me start by saying that this experience occurred 3 months ago on June 24, 2022 and now 3 months later I am finally able to put it into words. I have lived in Santa Barbara for most of my life and I am now living in Europe. For my very last day in Santa Barbara, I decided to spend it at the Salt Caves with my best friend. I booked a couples massage for us and a facial for myself. At the exact moment that I walked into the spa, I received several distressing text messages indicating that my 12 year old daughter was possibly in danger. Initially I called my husband to see if he could handle it and he said that he would. However, I was unable to relax as the treatment began and felt that I needed to check my phone to make sure that everything was resolved. I told the masseuse to stop for a moment while I checked my phone and to my horror, things had escalated and were much worse. I NEEDED TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. I apologized to the masseuse and told her that I would be back to pay and my friend would stay to continue her treatment. (They also had my credit card on file) My friend enjoyed her massage and waited for me to come back and pick her up. In that time, the facialist indicated to her that she could take my facial. The manager however stepped in and said that that would not be acceptable and that since I had been the one to book it, only I could have the facial. She then proceeded to trash talk me to my BEST FRIEND, that if I knew that there was going to be an emergency that I shouldn’t have booked a treatment. Dear reader, ask yourself when you have had the foresight to plan your EMERGENCIES one month in advance… I do not believe anyone plans for their house to burn down or to have a heart attack one month in advance and books a facial for that exact same moment. But maybe I am living in a different reality than this woman. When I arrived back at the Salt Caves, I went straight to the desk and asked to pay and they said it had been taken care of. I was very confused and said that no, I left without paying and need to pay now. She told me that the manager had already processed my card on file. The manager then, upon overhearing our conversation, came over and scolded me for the situation. Number one, A MOTHER WILL ALWAYS TAKE CARE OF HER CHILDREN BEFORE CONSIDERING OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES Number two, my card was on file Number three, my friend was still there receiving treatments. Imagine the exact same scenario in a restaurant setting. As long as one person is still at the table to pay the bill, the server does not care who ordered what or who ate what as long as there is still someone from the party to pay the tab. But beyond the lack of common sense applied here, it is the lack of compassion that has struck me so deeply and compelled me to leave this review. In the year 2022, that someone can be so cold and cruel towards a woman who on her last day in her hometown, who had every intention of making it a good day, had the terrible misfortune to suffer an emergency deserves to be treated so poorly and trash talked to her own friend is beyond me. No empathy. No compassion. And at the end of the day who suffered here? The business was paid. I made sure to tip the masseuse and let her know that it was not her fault. Why did the manager feel the need to kick me...

What a special surprise my friend gave me for my birthday…..a day in Santa Barbara with a meditation session at the Salt Cave!

The salt cave is a very cool looking place for sure. You take stairs down into a basement”cave” where there is a gift shop with all things salt, massage rooms, spa rooms and a large room where meditations and other activities like yoga take place.

We had an appointment for a meditation session on a Friday afternoon in October. I really didn’t know what to expect but I was excited to be there. We were asked to take off our shoes and the front desk lady escorted us into the large room where there were gravity free chairs for us to sit on. The ground was Himalayan salt/sand and the walls and ceilings were lined in Himalayan salt rocks. The lights were dimmed and it felt very peaceful in there. The lady told us she was waiting a few more minutes to see if anyone else would show up for the meditation and we were welcome to sit and get comfortable. After about 5 minutes she came back in to tell us we were the only ones for this session and she was going to start. She then walked out of the room. I was expecting that she was going to be the one to guide us into a meditation. I guess I was wrong. Lights dimmed a bit more and an introduction came across the speakers telling us about salt and the benefits, etc. After peaceful music started. I thought at this point a recording of someone guiding us in the mediation would start. Again, I was wrong. The “meditation” was simply a recording of relaxing music. OK….a little disappointed at this point but hey, it’s relaxing and I am detoxing with the salt air and salt all around me. I started my self-talk meditation and started to get more relaxed and then…BANG! BANG! People above us were banging things and what sounded like moving furniture. Our relaxing, peaceful time did not last long at all. It was so very disappointing. We stayed in the room, breathing in the air and experiencing the salt around us but that’s all it was. When our session was done my friend told the front desk about the loud noise and their response was something to the effect that they knew they were moving upstairs and was hoping it wouldn’t be loud. They didn’t offer to bring us back another time to experience a peaceful time there without any banging (after the moving upstairs ended) I am not sure how much my friend paid for this gift. It was supposed to be a very special birthday gift to me (and her) because we are in very stressful jobs. Unfortunately this gift didn’t live up to her very sweet intentions. I do not like writing reviews like this but I feel like people need to know about this and they should proceed at their own discretion. On a positive note, I did take some cute pics...

We came to visit my daughter at UCSB and chose this as one of our outings with her. She booked it online and was told that she needed a credit card to complete registration. She called back, left a message with no return phone call. Yes, the phone call is registered in her call log. She received a confirmation for our visit in the meantime, So of course, she assumed that everything was good to go.

We show up at the front desk this morning and a very rude woman with long hair and glasses announces from the other room that no services are scheduled for that morning. The very sweet front desk girl was trying to accommodate us, but the long haired woman kept barking at us from across the room that we had no reservation. She said we didn’t receive a confirmation and that my daughter was wrong. My daughter is a very responsible Econ major and showed the girl the confirmation. The long haired lady again from across the room said she was wrong and forcefully came towards us. At that point, I was not going to have someone talk to my daughter in that tone.

I am a registered nurse working with celebrity clientele for almost 30 years and I know the difference between good customer service and this nonsense. She could’ve had this discussion with her front desk girl behind closed doors and come out and asked how we could be accommodated and apologize for the confusion, but instead she kept barking at us and was very, very rude and inappropriate. Absolutely zero couth.

It was at this point that I let her know how rude she was being and then she argued with me telling me she wasn’t! This is the craziest interaction I’ve ever had at a day spa of any kind. My daughter even showed her the confirmation, and the woman was still arguing that we had no confirmation! If I was the owner, I would be embarrassed to have a staff member like this representing her company. There is a right way and a wrong way to approach customers, and this was definitely the wrong way! I have told the concierge where we are staying, as well as friends, family, and students that live in the area about this interaction.

The front desk girl tried to accommodate the three of us at 12:45, but the long-haired woman was still being argumentative and telling us as the customer that we were completely wrong. They lost out on at least $600 of services and products that day, and obviously this woman didn’t care one bit. I hope no one else has this experience there, completely embarrassed my daughter and...