Hotel Mar Monte Santa Barbara

, Santa Barbara, United States
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Hotel Mar Monte Santa Barbara

3 star

Rooms: 173

1111 East Cabrillo Boulevard - Santa Barbara - California - 93103 - United States Hotel Website | | 805 963 0744
97 Traveller

Reviews - Hotel Mar Monte Santa Barbara

Historical Traveller Reviews of Hotel Mar Monte Santa Barbara

Not bad....

from A TripAdvisor Member
I would rate this hotel as more of a 2 and 1/2 star lodging facility. The rooms are clean and OK. Bistro 1111 (the only restaurant on the premises) tries hard, but isn't up to the standards of more expensive hotels. Grounds need a bit more care than they get. The beach is close, clean, and easily accessible. Pool is kind of small and a bit cloudy for my liking.

Close to East Beach

from A TripAdvisor Member
The best part about this hotel is the location and yet it is a hike to State Street where most of the restaurants are. I think something drastic must have changed at the Bistro 1111 which made it impossible to sit down for breakfast but i am hoping it was a glitch. We were looking for quiet and we got it except for when the train goes by. I think it could have been more affordable for what we got.

SAVE your $252. Keep driving, ... do keep driving and do not stop!

from A TripAdvisor Member
Don't let the photograph that you find on the Internet sites, of the lovely hotel that opens up on to the beach of a gorgeous, small pristine bay, fool you. The photo is quite misleading. The actual hotel with the rooms that look onto the ocean can be found to the far left of the photo, and away in the background. See the small building to the rear? That's right! It is across the noisy Hi-way, and do I mean noisy Hi-way that divides you from the beach. I never did hear the ocean the entire time of my stay, you can't tell your anywhere near the ocean durring the night, save for its smell.

I was, though, fortunate enough to see the next day, the dredging barge, out in the large, and undefined bay, that is, after we leaned out over the balcony railing, so that we could see our way clear of the dead palm frons hanging from the tree. Of course, that was in the morning and after we had dressed, only to find that the railing had not been washed recently, and the remains of some sticky, syrupy beverage was now clinging to our clothes and arms. Not to mind though, we could just take another shower, and redress. ... Oh, yes, lovely shower, as we found out at 11:30pm the night before.

You see, we checked in late with our pre-paid reservations at about 10:30pm, and after waiting for thirty minutes for a car to vacate the hotel parking lot so that we might have a place to park our car, we toted our bags up to the third floor with-out the help of the non-existing bellboy in the same way we managed to park the car, ... without the help of the non-existing valet. Exhausted from our trip, my wife began to busy herself with the removal of her make-up, while I proceeded to un-pack, and make myself ready for a hot shower. The shower was indeed hot enough, and plenty of pressure, almost relaxing. Yes, it would have truly been relaxing had the water not started backing up from the drain! I let out a curse, my wife a long sigh, and we ended the night propping each other up at the bathroom sink so that we could wash and rinse our feet clean.

In the morning after, the sticky encounter with the balcony, I proceeded to march down to the front desk to vent my displeasure. I was greeted with a "Why didn't you call maintenance last night, they would have come over and unclogged your drain for you?"

I was stopped short. I immediately envisioned the scenario of the night before, of my wife and I having to get redressed, her scrambling to pack up her make-up box, and our waiting at the bed to the sound of the roter-routing machine, and plunger doing its work.

I calmly replied, "My drain? I am sorry, but this is your drain. Perhaps you should try washing the tub." "Oh but we do", said the young lady.

I again calmly replied, "Then perhaps when you wash the tub, and the water does not go down the drain, but rather backs-up, then you should call the maintenance people, and in this way you could say that you have stars attached to your hotel instead of a crescent shaped moon carved into the door." (I didn't even bother commenting on the other problems.)

She then steered me to the comment cards at the end of the front desk. I asked for an envelope, and she replied that I didn't need one, and that she would take the comment card. I again stated my desire for an envelope, and she said, with a short voice, "Then I will have to go get one." And I replied, ..."Good."

As we drove out of the driveway, we noticed a Motel 6 down at the end of the street, ... Had we but known.

Surprisingly great!

from CamileV
My husband had a conference to attend and the host hotel (Doubletree) was booked, so we stayed at the Hotel Mar Monte. Initially, I was disappointed, but we quickly realized how lucky we were! The hotel is right across the street from a lovely beach and not far away (walking distance) to shops, downtown cafes, etc. The rooms were clean and the staff was very friendly and approachable. Not to mention, a microwave and refrigerator came in handy for leftovers! The best surprise of all, however, was the restaurant. We travel quite a bit, and this ranks as one of the best restaurants we've ever visted. In fact, the food and service were so superb, that we looked forward to the next day and next meal. I'll have to admit, I never visited the pool. It looked nice, but why go to the pool when you can go to the beach! We were very happy with our 6 day stay and would definitely stay here again.

Relax and enjoy the ocean

from dankay
A great hotel with oceanview. Relax poolside with friends and family while enjoying a beverage and lunch. Our room was nicely decorated with comfortable beds and a patio to watch sunsets.

Choose another hotel

from A TripAdvisor Member
My husband and I went to SB for the weekend. The Double Tree was booked and we wanted a jacuzzi. The SB Hotel did not have one, so we stayed here. The room was very small, as was the bathroom. The room felt damp. The linens were old, the mattress hurt and the pillows quite frankly, s-----. The rooms were $250/night, which I don't mind paying if the rooms are decnt, comfortable and clean. Get this, we went to the jacuzzi (which again, is the reason we stayed here) and it was filthy! There was a layer of scum around the edge and by the time my husband picked the second foreign hair from my face, I had had enough! When we told the front desk, they swore it was cleaned daily. Yeah right. Don't stay here. The SB Hotel or Double Tree is much better and comparable in price! Good luck!
Management Response from HotelMarMonte
On behalf of the staff of the Hotel Mar Monte, we regret you were not completely satisfied with your stay at our hotel. In fairness, we do want to reassure you, and any prospective guest, about the facts regarding the cleanliness issues you mentioned. Our jacuzzi spa and outdoor heated pool are cleaned on a daily basis, and inspected by management several times throughout the course of each day.
Thank you.

Will never stay there again!

from CCRR
Horrible! We went through 4 rooms before finally settling (and I do mean settling!) on a room across the street further away from the ocean but still part of the hotel. The ocean front rooms are nice, but overpriced and the rooms on the ground floor are ripe for a robbery. The patios are covered by bushes and the door to the patio was not locked when we checked in. That room was nice but we felt too uncomfortable to stay in it. We asked for another room higher up but there were none available with an ocean view. The front desk clerk, although extremely nice, had no clue as to where the rooms were or what the views were. He asked a security guard about one of the rooms and the security guard had no clue about the location of the room either. (So much for the desk clerk's assurance that they have a very capable security staff. There was a rowdy party going on and the security guard was hanging out in the lobby area.) Of the 4 rooms we saw, 2 were extremely small and the smoking room smelled like the smoker was still in it. Although the room we ended up in was all right, it was nowhere near worth the $167 AAA rate we paid. The elevator wreaked of mold. The hallway had about 20 pillows stacked up and left there for over 24 hours. The hotel overall is tacky, shabby and overpriced.

Terrible

from A TripAdvisor Member
The room was dirty and had mold in the corners of the bathroom. The whole place is run down. I filled out their review form and mailed it in. I never heard from them.

This property is horrible!

from SOBEMiamiBeach
About the best thing I can say about this place is that the front desk staff and the restaurant server were friendly. That is all. Rooms are small, smelly and very cheap, worn and run down looking. I would stay at this hotel again - at about $39 per night, not the $150+ a night that I paid. I really do hate writing a negative review, especially if the staff was trying their best, but this property is just the pits.

terrible service

from A TripAdvisor Member
Truly awful. We were there for a family reunion for a couple of days in 9/04 with a large group of 30, and when we booked all the rooms, we specifically requested they all be in the same building, and when we arrived, the rooms were scattered around everywhere. I personally didn't think this was a big deal, but it mattered to the aunts and uncles. And when they tried to have this fixed, the hotel staff *argued* with them. They even ended up contradicting themselves when they said they never got any request but then later said they got a request to keep everything separate. What kind of customer service is that? You're supposed to fix what you can and apologize for the inconvenience.

And when they finally agreed to move some of us (although a couple rooms were still in a separate building), they told us we could move our stuff at our convenience, yet after dinner, my parents found their room locked, and after inquiring, discovered that their stuff had been packed up and moved for them! Worse, some of their things were missing, and after they called to ask, it turned out that they were at the front desk! That's totally unacceptable.

We moved our own stuff during dinner, so didn't run into that problem. However, our first room was a non-smoking room that reeked of smoke, and in our second room we found an old paper cup of soda in the refrigerator!

And the restaurant they have there (next to the pool) was ridiculously bad. They took an hour to take our orders, the food came very late and at different times and was badly prepared. My wife and a cousin's pasta had huge chunks that were stuck together and hard. And some of the children's sandwiches had moldy bread! At least they gave us free cheesecake to try and make up for it, but I don't think that was hardly enough (and my slice wasn't fully thawed).

Ridiculous. And that's just the stuff I heard about. I'm sure there were other complaints.

Top Local Tips for Santa Barbara

Reaching State Street If you want to go to State Street from the hotel, use shuttle. You'll get less of a headache by the end of the day!

Sunset Kidd Sunset Tour I highly recommend going on a sunset tour on the Sunset Kidd. Board the sailing yacht at the Harbor. Captain Dennis Longaberger and his crew were exceptionally accomadating to us. The cost of the trip is reasonable but the views of the sunset and memories were priceless. Check them out at www.sunsetkidd.com.

Tar on the beach; bring good shoes I was really disappointed that there was so much tar on the beach. It was like a disasterous oil spill! I could not get the tar off for days. Bring good shoes. Also, get to the nightlife early - everything closes around 9.

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Other names for Hotel Mar Monte Santa Barbara

  • mar monte santa barbara
  • mar monte hotel
  • hotel mar monte
  • Address: 1111 East Cabrillo Boulevard - Santa Barbara - California - 93103 - United States
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