The Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara

I was really looking forward to staying at the Ritz Carlton Santa Barbara, but unfortunately, my experience has been extremely disappointing. At check-in, I was given a completely different room than the one I booked. When I brought this up, the front desk staff, specifically Mira, seemed annoyed rather than helpful. After some back and forth, she eventually found the correct room. We were given keys and made the trek down the hill to our room—only to find it was the wrong one! Frustrated, I had to hike back up the hill to the front desk to resolve the issue again. Mira finally admitted they were having issues and gave us new keys for the correct room. By this point, I was over an hour and a half into this ordeal, but the saga continued. After walking back down to the new room, the keys didn’t work! At this point, I was beyond frustrated. Finally, after waiting even longer, security brought us new keys, and we were able to enter the room. While the room quality itself was solid, the issues didn’t stop there. My daughter wanted to take a shower after a long day of travel, but the privacy door was broken and completely off the rails. We had to wait for maintenance to fix it. As if that wasn’t enough, I went to grab some ice water to cool down, but there was no ice bucket in the room. I called the front desk, and they said they’d send one down. What they delivered was a lidless industrial-style ice bucket left outside the door, completely exposed to the elements—not the proper guest ice bucket. So now, I still don’t have a functional ice bucket in the room. And this is just day one. I can only imagine what’s in store for the rest of the stay. For a hotel of this caliber, these repeated inconveniences and lack of attention to detail are unacceptable. My experience so far has been more stressful than relaxing, and I’m extremely disappointed.

The Ritz Carlton Bacara is a beautiful resort with friendly customer focused employees. The food was excellent - the breakfast buffet was outstanding! The entire property was clean & very well maintained. We appreciated the complimentary E-bikes.

Can’t say enough wonderful things about our experience. From the start we were greeted by the friendly valet staff. Sam checked us in and he made us feel so welcomed and at home. Everyone was absolutely friendly and warm. We were here celebrating our anniversary and so glad we have been doing this now for the past few years. This lovely resort will remain an annual tradition. Their grounds are beautifully maintained and service is impeccable.

This year, we decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary with our two sons at the Ritz Santa Barbara. We came at the Ritz last year and our experience was average. Upon arrival I was not given the room type I expected. Mr Dante Gonzalez from the Ritz took care of me….WOW, he over exceeded our expectations. I wish every Ritz had someone like him, professional, polite and making you feel he cares and guess what….he does! Thank you Dante

Not worth the cost. When you check into a Ritz Carlton you expect at least a greeting and politeness. However, at check in all I got was show me your ID by someone who I could barely understand. Since I had 2 rooms I also gave her my husband’s ID but she said she didn’t need it and then 1 minute later asked me for the ID. Incompetence at the hotel check in.