Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort Reviews
Reviews
4.6 out of 5 rating
4.6 out of 5 rating
28 Reviews
92% recommend it
Awards
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Derek Sent on 07/06/2023
Exquisite Wedding venue: Unforgettable Memories
Our experience at The Hilton was absolutely unforgettable. From the moment we arrived, we were captivated by its charm and beauty. The venue's stunning surroundings and impeccable attention to detail created a magical atmosphere that surpassed our expectations.
The staff at The Hilton were incredible to work with. Their professionalism and personalized approach made the planning process effortless. They took care of every detail, ensuring a seamless and stress-free wedding day. The culinary experience was exceptional, with a menu that delighted our guests and left a lasting impression. Special thanks to Teralyn, Jean, Amy and Tresa for always going the extra mile for us!
In summary, the Hilton is a truly remarkable wedding venue. Its elegance, dedicated staff, and exquisite culinary offerings make it the perfect choice for couples seeking an unforgettable celebration. We highly recommend it to anyone looking to create lasting memories on their special day. -
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Denise Sent on 08/21/2021Magical Wedding
When we first reached out to the Hilton SB Resort in January 2021, we were still in the middle of the pandemic and we were unsure if we could even have a wedding in July. We were so thankful that Amanda reached out to us and explained to us everything we needed to start our planning. I have never worked with someone so professional and yet so friendly and personable. She never once made us feel pressured to make decisions and only helped us decide what was best for us, our budget, our vision for our wedding. Our wedding was a destination wedding so we relied on Amanda for her recommendations from our wedding coordinators to our other vendors. We are so thankful she helped us pick our dream team led by Dulce Dia Events! Shawna and Amanda are the perfect team!! The wedding package the the Hilton SB Resort offered was simply the best and included everything imaginable!! We scheduled a menu tasting with Amanda and tried a few menu items which helped us select our menu options for our wedding. The food was so amazing!!! Everyone loved and enjoyed the food selections!!! We highly recommend the filet mignon and the salmon for the reception dinner options. My family and friends loved the food so much, they were still talking about it weeks later!!! :) Everyone complimented how the wedding was perfect and magical! We were so thrilled that we chose the ceremony location in front of the Hilton SB and the cocktail hour and reception at the Hilton ballroom! Amanda and her team were simply amazing!!!! I can't stress enough how happy we are that we chose the Hilton for our wedding venue. I have been to other weddings and have seen other wedding vendors and I can say with confidence that Amanda and her team along with the vendors I chose for our wedding was the best I have ever had the pleasure of working with. We love Amanda, Nina, Daisy, Lani and the rest of the amazing Hilton team!!! Thank you so much for making our wedding so magical and memorable!!! :) -
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Susana T. Sent on 02/26/2019Beachfront wedding
The Hilton has absolutely gorgeous gardens and beachfront options. The catering options were great as well. -
User899082 Sent on 08/14/2012One of the reasons we chose the Doubletree was because of the easy access to the beach and reception. We researched other locations, but found most venues lacking on beach access, or access would have been difficult on older guests. Plus,, with Doubletree providing all the food and tables, chairs, etc. it was one less separate vendor I needed to engage. Doubletree was definitely a winner for our beach wedding with around 100 guests. It was a gorgeous day at this beautiful location. The Reagan Room's (reception) large windows let in lots of light and gave us a gorgeous view of the beach. Our catering manager, Paige, was easy to work with, professional, knowledgeable and had good suggestions for my questions. I was impressed with how the serving staff seemed to move around almost invisibly. They were very professional and quick. The chicken was delicious! It was moist and had a great flavor to it. Definitely the best choice for us.
Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort's reply:
Thank you so much for the 5 Star Review! We recently underwent a hotel renovation and are now Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. Please come back and visit us and experience Hilton! -
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Ericka Sent on 01/21/2010We had our ceremony and reception at the Fess Parker Doubeltree Hotel. Paige, the coordinator, was very professional and responsive. They were completely accomodating and truly made our wedding day very special. -
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Dana Sent on 10/29/2008The first time we checked out the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort as a potential venue for our wedding, we fell in love with it. And we're still convinced we couldn't have picked a better location. The plaza outside was so beautiful for the ceremony, with the ocean view right across the street. We kept the ceremony decorations simple, with only a decorated arch, and a ton of rose petals to put down along the center aisle. But unfortunately we were struck with Santa Ana winds, so the rose petals were not used. We provided cocktail hour on the rotunda, which was beautiful - and windy (darn Santa Ana winds!) And we chose the Reagan Room for the reception, that was the best part of it all. It was perfect for the size of our wedding, and it was so warm and romantic. Everyone has told us the venue was so beautiful, and they haven't been to a better wedding. Our Catering Manager, Paige Reid, really went above and beyond to help us make our wedding special. And the food, it was spectacular! We had various appetizers for cocktail hour like coconut shrimp, egg rolls, lamb chops, and stuffed mushrooms with crab. Our dinner consisted of three courses, shrimp cocktail, mozzarella and heirloom tomato salad, and a choice of filet mignon, roasted chicken with salmon, or vegetarian. I had the filet mignon, it was perfect, cooked just right. It was better than most filets I've had in chop houses in Southern CA. My mouth is still watering thinking about that steak! We're so sad the wedding is over, we had such a great time, it was perfect in every way (minus the wind!) We would definitely recommend this location for your wedding! -
User1956386 Sent on 12/07/2014The Fess Parker is a stunning venue. It dazzled our guests from back east.
We loved working with Chuck Henderson and Aimie Lalas. Chuck helped us to find the perfect rooms for both our Wedding and Reception. He was very good at explaining all the intricate details, even multiple times. He's extremely patient and understand. Which helped take the stress out of planning such an important event. -
User2443083 Sent on 11/25/2015We are so glad we chose the Fess Parker as our wedding venue. They set up our beach ceremony beautifully and our guests all had amazing panoramic views of the ocean during our reception in the Reagan Room. We received many comments from our guests about the delicious food as well! We had envisioned a fairy tale beach wedding, and the Fess Parker fulfilled that vision beautifully.
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Shelby S. Sent on 06/16/2019
Beach Wedding
We booked this venue in March 2018. We scheduled an appointment with the coordinator- at the time it was Amy. The venue was the Fess Parker Doubletree, but about two months later it turned into the Hilton Santa Barbara. They were very upfront about the remodel and name change, and even allowed us to pick from their prior pricing (which was cheaper) when making decisions about food and lighting. We were given an estimate of room block rates around $299/night for our guests. That was a huge selling point for us because we’d have so many guests coming from out of town. Once finalizing our room block rate, the venue told us our guests would have $499/night. We were shocked and disappointed. We fought about this for a month or so and the hotel came down to $349/night, but could only offer us 10 rooms at that rate. Apparently the hotel had a conference already pre-determined for that weekend and was pretty booked up. The venue is popular and even we had a hard time securing a date 15 months out. Amy moved out of her role as the coordinator and a new woman came on to help us, Amanda. I don’t know if turnover is high for the events and marketing, but this was a change for us. We hadn’t done much work at that time with Amy, so we were totally good with having a new person. However, we were contacted about 7 months out regarding our second payment and told that we needed to pay, but my parents had already made this payment and the hotel was not keeping track. They told us they had the payment in a different account. It was really concerning and alarming for how much money the payment was for. They remedied this situation and we didn’t have any other payment issue. About 6 months out we scheduled our tasting and ended up changing the date we originally settled on, but Hilton wasn’t keeping track of the changed date and called us one day saying we hadn’t shown up for our tasting. This was also upsetting because they assumed we just flaked on our tasting. I think a better approach would have been, “we had you on the calendar, hope everything is alright. We don’t see you here.” Assuming we just didn’t show made it seem like we somehow did something wrong, but they had the wrong date for our tasting. I had to screenshot the email and send it to them showing we had picked a different date. Once having the tasting, it was incredible. We felt like royalty. The food was amazing and the presentation was spectacular. We were even able to pick out our napkin folding. We didn’t ask for a particular option to be at the tasting and Amanda offered to have it served at a meeting we would have with her a few weeks later. That was really nice. Getting closer to the date, we had a meeting with our wedding planner (venue requires you have a month-of planner, so prepare for that cost- I think it’s worth it because there is a lot to prepare for day of, though). The wedding planner, not at all associated with the hotel, shares that the venue booked another event the exact same day as ours, up until 2pm in the same space we would be using. Had the hotel of told us this and assured us they do it all the time, we wouldn’t have been concerned. Hearing it from our planner, though, was anxiety producing. We felt like the hotel was just keeping a secret and not being honest. However, day of there was nothing to worry about and none of our guests even knew another event had just taken place. The plaza del sol, where our wedding was at, is so beautiful. You have the beach setting without having to be on the sand. Our ceremony took place in the plaza and cocktail hour was just up from there on the rotunda, and the hotel flipped the ceremony space into our reception and guests went right back downstairs. It was so convenient. Our officiant did not have a microphone and our guests definitely had a hard time hearing us, which was upsetting because the venue should have suggested we rent a microphone from them. We had a microphone for our music player, so it would’ve been nice to have them point out how large the space is and encourage us to rent one. The venue recommended an umbrella for shade for our music player during the ceremony and cocktail hour, however they wouldn’t move the umbrella up on the rotunda for cocktail hour, so we had to rent two. That seemed silly and unnecessary. Having the food, linens, and tables/chairs all provided was great, because it’s one less thing you have to think about with vendors. We wanted string lights and because they were attached to the building, the venue required we use their lighting company. Be prepared, it’s astronomically expensive for the 5-6 hours it’s displayed. One of the lights was out during our event and this was upsetting because of how much we paid for them. However, the venue totally reimbursed some of the cost, after the fact, which was nice. They also reimbursed money for fewer meals having been served night of. Totally respect and appreciate them for doing that. I’m sure many venues wouldn’t. Upon arrival, our hotel room had wine and cheese/crackers waiting for us. Loved that touch. Then, day of, they had champagne and chocolate covered strawberries delivered to our hotel room, which was so sweet. Really nice touch. Amanda is really nice and definitely made us feel important. Her assistant, Shannon, is also great. We liked both of them and even though we had hiccups, they made up for it and acknowledged any mistakes. Couple notes- the venue requires each vendor to have day of liability insurance. One of our vendors required we pay for their day of policy. We also had to take out a million dollar insurance policy for day of. Those are costs we didn’t even think we’d need to consider. Also, the venue required everything be removed from the event space same night, so make sure you come up with a plan. Our wedding planner handled that, so it’s another good reason to have the planner. The venue doesn’t offer any fridge space night of, so make sure your dessert is good to be out for however long. -
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User1136583 Sent on 04/16/2013Highlights:
- the catering staff are amazing and pretty easy to work with. Chuck and Aimee were very good about responding to me via email, and I had a lot of questions. They were also very flexible with scheduling walk-throughs, tastings, and upfront about what would have otherwise been hidden costs.
- the food (salmon, prime rib, risotto, salads, veggies) were actually really good. It's hard to make good-tasting food for a large group, but the hotel did a great job
- we had a Sunday brunch the day after the wedding, which was Easter, and it poured down rain so we couldn't use the Los Arcos Patio as planned. The hotel moved us to another area and treated it like it was no problem.
- if you do the wedding package, the bridal suite is included. We had a ground floor room facing the ocean - beautiful. We also came in with a LOT of wedding decor/supplies. The gentlemen at the valet were so nice helping us unpack and then repack the car - especially since it poured down rain when we had to repack to leave.
- to my knowledge, my coordinator had no difficulties working and communicating with the catering staff and the hotel.
Lowlights:
- the reservation staff are terrible. TERRIBLE. One of the hardest things about planning the wedding was how terrible they were. We had multiple problems with our room block because they couldn't seem to put our information in right. At one point they told me I had a block for 30 rooms total, 12 rooms for Saturday night and 13 rooms for Friday night and I was like, not only was that wrong, but 12+13 DOES NOT EQUAL 30! Other friends who had hotel weddings told me they also had problems with reservation staff, so my feeling is that my experience was not unique, but it was so, SO frustrating. This is a Hilton property, after all.
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