"Hotel Californian is billed as a 5-star hotel but this has to be the lowest 5-star hotel we have ever stayed at. We've stayed at several 5-star hotels including Fairmonts, Ritz-Carltons, Corinthia, and Rosewood Hotels all over the US, Canada and Europe. This hotel did not compare.
My husband and I had booked two nights at this hotel. We had two separate reservations for one night each. Before arrival, the hotel texted my husband asking if we had any requests. He asked if we could stay in the same room both nights, and they assured us we were "locked in" to the same room.
We arrived at 4:15pm and check in. While we are at the front desk, another couple walks up next to us and says, "We got a text that our room is ready." I then hear the woman explain that they had checked in earlier but the A/C wasn't working in their room, so they had to check back out while the hotel serviced their room and now they were checking in again to another room. I'm thinking, I hope the hotel isn't having widespread A/C problems, it is hot today. (foreshadowing here)
The front desk person tells us we have two $100 resort credits, one for each reservation, which we were unaware we were getting. We asked him if he was sure and he said yes, two credits for $100 each. A welcomed surprise!
He explains our room is in the building across the street. We take our luggage, cross the street with it, and go up to our room. When we open the door, first thing we notice is a big, bright yellow evaporative cooler sitting on the floor in our room. It looked like one of those units they put out after cleaning carpets to help it dry faster.
My husband calls down to the front desk to ask if they can pick it up. The man (the same one that checked us in - so he knew what room he was sending us to) apologizes and explains that the A/C wasn't working in our room, but it's fixed now, and maintenance just forgot to pick it back up. He said he'd send someone to come get it.
In the meantime, we notice the thermostat is set to 65° and it is anything but 65° in there. It's way hotter and super humid, likely from the cooler. The room was cute though and had a balcony with a courtyard view.
We had our 2 kids with us, so 4 people in the room, but there was only 1 single washcloth and 2 bath towels in the bathroom. My husband tracked down a housekeeping cart and picked up several more washcloths and two bath towels for us and brought them back to the room.
The maintenance guy then comes to pick up the cooler. He tests the A/C and it's still not working. He said he will go service the unit and come back in a few minutes. He offered to leave the evap cooler in our room if we were okay with that, we said no. It was still way too hot and humid in there and that thing was noisy.
Before he left, I asked him if the whole hotel was having A/C issues or just this room, and he said, "Just this room."
So apparently, we got the other couple's room that they had checked out of after complaining, and the hotel decided to put us into it next. Were they hoping we wouldn't notice?
What are the chances that I would hear that next to us while we're checking in and then we get the same room??
The maintenance man ended up saying the A/C could not be fixed and that he had contacted the front desk to "work with us on something."
We go back down to the Front Desk and they tell us they are giving us a new room that is an "upgraded class" from what we booked. Great! We had dinner reservations and were starving after driving all day to SB so we asked if we could move after we came back from dinner. They said yes. They also said someone was scheduled to check in to the new room the next day but they would do their best to keep us in the new room and move them somewhere else.
After dinner, we go back to our old room, gather all our stuff, cross the street with our luggage again as our new room was in the main building now, and go to our new room. It was slightly larger but had a smaller balcony with what I would call a partial ocean view.
The A/C worked great in this room and the room was nice. But I told my husband if we had paid extra for this "upgraded class" of a room which is stated on the hotel's website as having an ocean view, I would have been disappointed.
The "view" was marred by the ugly rooftop of a commercial building next door and the ocean was far and hard to see. See my photo of what the ocean view really looked like. Glad we didn't pay extra for that. The courtyard view in our previous room was prettier. Note that Hotel Californian doesn't show pictures of the "ocean view" on their website for their rooms - this is why.
We were told that because we had two separate one-night reservations, we had to stop by the Front Desk the next day to "check out and back in again" and get more new keys but it would be for the same room. Fair. We go back to the Front Desk the next day and a different girl tells us we have to actually check out now and leave the room again because it's a "higher class" room and someone else has booked it for the day.
My husband explains that the A/C wasn't working in our first room, we already had to move once to a second room, and we were told the day before that they were going to try their best to keep us in that room so we didn't have to move to a third room during our two night stay.
She said she would have her manager get back to us later that day. They did call us and said we could stay in the same room. That was nice but all this back and forth and time spent communicating with the Front Desk on a short stay was frustrating.
The new room again provided only 2 washcloths and 2 bath towels for 4 people. Luckily, we had snuck over the extras that my husband had picked up in the previous room. But I don't know why, if there are 4 people, they don't provide at least 4 washcloths and 4 bath towels.
Finally, we check out Sunday morning and there is no $100 resort credit applied to the second night. The girl tells me it was only for the first night. I say we were told it was for both nights and we had specifically confirmed with the man checking us in that it was for both nights and he said yes. She said he must have made a mistake but we do not get a credit. I tell her it's not our fault that he made a mistake and they should honor what they told us. My husband had ordered two drinks at the bar because we were told it was going to be covered by the credit. She finally said she would comp the two drinks my husband had ordered ~$50 but couldn't give me more than that, and I said that was fine.
Pros: the room was nice, exceptionally comfortable beds and pillows, and every employee we interacted with was friendly.
Cons: Knowingly giving us a room where the AC didn't work and hoping we would just take it. Could have had a much smoother experience for $1200 a night at a "5-star hotel" - too much time spent communicating with the Front Desk. Ocean view disappointing. Bath towel count did not consider guest count, had to track down our own towels. Ran out of towels on the 2nd night and my husband had to reuse a damp one. Tiny little bar soap given for hand soap which is immediately gross after 1 or 2 uses and sits in water in their rusted brass tray. All bathroom fixtures rusted and gross.
Also charged an exorbitantly high $312 incidental fee *per night.* The hotel mistakenly (intentionally?) charged both of my provided credit cards the $312 incidental fee for Saturday (so twice Sat), and one charge on Fri, for a total or three $312 incidental charges for two nights, tying up nearly $1000 on my credit cards unnecessarily. The Rosewood Hotel charges only $100 per night for incidentals, not sure why this hotel charges $312 per night!! It was nowhere near as nice!
I think if we had gotten our intended room that we booked, and not a broken room originally intended for another couple that we were put in to after they complained which necessitated us also moving, we could have had a good experience here.
Overall really disappointed. We spent over $2500 here for 2 nights and it was the worst "5-star hotel" we've ever experienced."
A Tripadvisor traveler review
Jul 20, 2026
