Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort

Alexx helped us check in early and helped us out with showing kindness and laughing at our jokes. Great customer service!

The property looks fairly nice. I wasnt wowed! $42 a night to self park is expensive

Selfpark is expensive. The spa doesn’t have a sauna nor steam room. You have to go by the pool to get in the jacuzzi

After all these years still a great location. Unfortunately, it out of season and very slow. Service was not up to its usually high standards. When our shower control broke we called the front several times before any one answered . When we got through ,they came to assist us immediately. Seasonal staffing seems to be the issue.

As always as a diamond member upgraded to a 1st floor too with a patio and ocean view in beautiful Santa Barbara Wonderful staff, especially Aidan at front desk.

My wife and I stayed at this resort in October of 2025 to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I booked the highest level suite the resort had available well in advance as a Hilton Honors member. Upon arrival, our check in took over 45 minutes, which was punctuated by the manager telling us that the air conditioning in our suite was broken and our options were to take a regular room or see if we could make do with the broken suite. They assured us the AC had only broken in that unit just the previous evening. I later learned from other staff that it was not a new problem or unique to our room but the entire building. We were offered a 50% discounted rate on the suite, so we attempted to stay the night. It was a miserable and hot experience. The doors are so small you can scarcely get a bit of breeze. The rooms are also listed as Oceanfront, but this suite was a partial ocean view at best. After our miserable night, we wasted much of the next day waiting to be moved to another suite. This finally happened in the early evening. Upon returning from dinner we were absolutely shocked to find that now this suite’s air conditioning was broken as well. Yet again, the staff insisted this had just transpired within the last few hours. Yet the suite was in a completely different building than the first one. Meaning at least two of the resort buildings had no air conditioning. We were finally shuffled around again, being sent to a 3rd room, in a building with no elevator, where they finally found a suite with a working AC. Unfortunately this room also had broken fixtures on the balcony with exposed wiring which one can only assume is a huge safety risk, especially in a resort where kids are present. We took photos of the wiring and alerted hotel management of this as well. The entire experience was a comical nightmare that ruined our trip. This resort is in a great location and has decent staff. Onsite food and drinks were ok. The real issue with this resort are the facilities themselves. While rooms and common areas seem to have been renovated not too long ago, the facilities themselves have seen much better days and are in serious need of major overhaul. During the comedy of errors on our trip, another staff member also mentioned that another building on the property also has major mechanical issues with its AC and HVAC. In the end, my wife and I were comped a brunch and our rooms were discounted, but it we no where near sufficient for the aggregation and total disruption to our trip it caused. Having to spend half our trip being moved from room to room to room because of broken mechanical issues in your most premium suites is just an overall bad sign for any resort. Which is shocking for a Hilton branded property. Overall this resort was a sad disappointment and I I would not recommend anyone stay here until this property has been totally renovated or rebuilt.

Kristen does an amazing job! Very welcoming! Hotel is perfectly located for a visit to Santa Barbara! Will come Back soon!

Awful stay! Great location

Room was nice but not as cleans as expected

stain on floors and bathroom did not have a fan

My daughter and I planned a trip to Santa Barbara for September. I’ve driven by Hilton Beachfront many times over the last 30 years, but have never stayed here (formerly Fess Parker Doubletree). I decided to go for it, pay for the cost of a partial ocean view room, but I was disappointed with the hotel experience for such a high-end price (each night was $600 plus resort fees and parking). There were skewers from the fire pits left outside a guest room from Friday night to Sunday morning. Other guests rooms had room service trays that were left outside at night, and still there the next morning. We rented bikes (with coupons, so actually no cost, but should have been part of the $42 resort fee), and they were very poor quality bikes. We used the pool (very clean and spacious). I noticed that the cabanas that can be rented (for an enormous fee) had stains on the cushions and did not look tidy. We wanted to order room service on our second night, and I looked at the costs - extra $25 to plate the food, PLUS the 22% service charges. We went downstairs and just ate at the restaurant to avoid the extra fees (both menu items of a pasta dish and the risotto were delicious). The room was clean, beds were comfortable, a/c worked fine, and the bathroom was clean, although I noticed that the bath faucet leaked, spraying water all over the floor. This should have been caught by the staff cleaning the room prior to our visit. The time spent with my daughter at the hotel was wonderful, none of the staff members were rude, but I expected more from the hotel in terms of clearing room service items out of the hallways, NOT charging so much for parking when there’s little to no security in the lots, and just the overall feeling of being in a high-end resort.