San Ysidro Ranch

100% Outstanding. The grounds, the cottages, the food, the very fine staff and service... all 100%. Simply "heaven on earth" Yes indeed! Sounds like I own the place but not the case, just a traveler that respects what hard work and great management and staff are capable of.

Our 3rd stay at SYR and, as usual, we have no absolutely no complaints. Everything was perfect. Along with a beautiful cottage and stunning grounds, they have the best hotel restaurant we've ever dined at. The staff were all very friendly, competent and completely professional.

We have stayed at the San Ysidro Ranch many times and have always had an excellent experience. But our last stay was ruined. While in the Citrus Cottage (which is charming), the bathroom toilet handle fell off. Upon calling the desk we were told no maintenance was available and the only recourse was to use the front desk public restroom until the next morning when maintenance would arrive. After escorting my wife to the reception desk (in the middle of the night) and camping out in the library in the early hours of the morning, we were given the option to use the restroom facility at any adjacent unoccupied cottage. We then returned to our cottage for what was left of the night. We checked out the next morning. We were never offered an apology for our inconvenience, never discounted the full price for our stay, and never heard from management after documenting the customer satisfaction survey on our experience. This is unacceptable for a hotel that represents itself as a premium managed hotel. What a shame.

Tucked away in the hills above Montecito, SYR is a magical place for a special occasion. When the gentlemen who appeared at a guardhouse along the lane and ask our business we knew we were entering a different world. We were directed to our stunning seats overlooking a beautiful rose garden and began our birthday afternoon tea. We chose to begin with oysters and champagne then proceeded to order our choice of tea from a menu. A three tiered serving dish was later presented with finger sandwiches on one tier then two levels of sweet morsels. Pasquel and Luis were busy continuously bringing top up pots of hot water and checking on us. With an Australian as the birthday lady, the only suggestion for improving could be proper English scones with fresh whipped cream and raspberry preserves. The chef here has their own version of scones with a lemon curd. Very good but not authentic. Further the servers could really enhance the experience with a brief history of the property which we later researched. Grand story. A day to remember.

I don’t mind paying a fortune for a room in a hotel if it meets my standards, but there’s nothing that bothers me more than spending a fortune and expecting a fortune ‘s worth of amenities, service, food, and beauty and receiving service one would expect in a one star hotel. I booked to stay at San Ysidro Ranch where I held a large event 10 years ago. Everything about that event was perfect from the person that organized it in the hotel, to the hotel rooms, the private dinner, the guestrooms for all of my friends and family, and the general ambience, everything and everyone was great. I decided to return because I needed a break from a very sad situation with a friends illness and so I thought I would pamper myself and stay for two days in a beautiful suite and experience true service and luxury once again It was an extremely disappointing experience from the start. The staff seemed young and untrained at the front desk and on arrival they should have been in front of the desk to greet me but instead they were behind the desk talking. A nice young man did come outside to say hello and help me in, but that didn’t make up for the lack of greeting at the check-in desk. It seem to me that the front desk person spent more time having me sign release forms for the hotel, rather than asking me how my day had gone or if there was anything she could do for me. Upon arrival at my room, the nice young man who had driven us there, did not orient us to the room, or ask us if we wanted to be oriented. The first thing I noticed was how dark the lighting was in the bathroom and in the bedroom. I am a reader, so this was very disappointing because one of my favorite places to read is in the bathtub. I had to call maintenance because in order to watch movies on the TV they need to attach an apple TV device to it. I have no idea why they just don’t bite the bullet and attach the devices which cost nothing to everyone’s television so that Guests doesn’t have to sit there on the couch, while a maintenance person attempts to make your television connect to Apple TV. Frankly, it was ridiculous. I went to put on some slippers and found that they only had in the closet two pairs of huge cheap slippers that were the same kind that chain hotels carry. I realize that no one can be like the Mark Hotel and remember what your size is every time you stay and provide you with a pair of slippers that you could wear to lunch.! The worst problem about this hotel is they have a set up where they do not charge you for the food as it is included in the price of your room. If you have room service, they add on a service charge of 20%. The waiter does not tell you this. You have to find it out for yourself by reading the bill. if you eat in the dining room, the same thing will happen. They will present you with the bill which will show you how much the meal cost and then they expect you to leave a tip based on the cost of the meal even though you’re not paying for the meal. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure this one out. In fact, it was one of the most ridiculous systems I’ve ever experienced in any hotel anywhere. They should not expect guests to leave a tip after charging them so much money for the room, everything should be included except for alcohol. Expecting a guest to leave a tip on the basis of a dinner that was included in the price of the room is insanity. I get the feeling that this is another sad situation where the hotel can’t afford to stay alive and so what it’s doing is charging people like me insane amounts of money for rooms and then providing them with mediocre service because most of their employees have left. Their solution is to add on gratuities for the guest to pay because they can’t afford to pay their employees enough to keep them happy in their job. I just feel disappointed because I was hoping that everything here would be perfect but it goes to show that if you’re naïve enough to pay this much money for a room you may not get what you hoped for.