The Presidio offers a unique blend of past and present in an overall excellent experience. I stayed for one night in room 14, which was quite spacious and comfortable with an updated bathroom. It had great natural lighting with a view of the mountains. The staff – Elizabeth and Lorenzo – were both exceptionally friendly and accommodating. I had to change my reservation from three nights to one and they were very reasonable. They also held my bags for most of the day when I checked out until I was able to get them that early evening. Lorenzo was also very responsive when I called a few weeks later to request a receipt by email. The only real downside of the room was people going up and down the back staircase right in front of the window. One thing to keep in mind about the location (and this applies to almost all of Santa Barbara) is that everything shuts down by 9 PM, so if you arrive late, there aren't many restaurant options within walking distance (I didn’t have a car). As far as I could tell there weren’t any vending machines at the location. However, I had no problem getting an Uber to a 24-hour Denny's just up the road and there is a 7-11 a few blocks away. Overall, a great value!

Very nice place to stay in Santa Barbara! The staff was very friendly and helpful! The location is amazing, very close to downtown Santa Barbara, within walking distance to many nice attractions. The rooms are spacious and there is also free parking at the property! We really enjoyed our stay there! Highly recommended!

We spent three nights here around Christmas-time 2022. My wife and I often stay in Santa Barbara, but it was our first time at The Presidio. I would go back -- it's clean, comfortable, reasonably priced (for Santa Barbara), has a prime location, and the staff was very friendly and helpful. Like all Santa Barbara hotels, The Presidio will seem expensive, but its prices are normal for the area, and the location is superb -- just three blocks down State Street to reach good restaurants, coffee, etc. We interacted at various times with three or four different people at the front desk and each of them was friendly and helpful. The room was clean and had A/C (not always found in Santa Barbara). The bed was comfortable, the towels were thick, the water pressure was good and there was hot water. The room featured a large, new-ish mini-refrigerator. Noteworthy are the benches in front of each room and a lovely sun-deck. Rooms do not include an iron, but they will lend you one at the front desk, just ask. Likewise, there is no in-room coffee or tea, but they will lend you an electric tea kettle. Second floor rooms have a cathedral ceiling. The A/C units on the outside of the rooms have interesting wooden covers. It's a nice aesthetic touch. There are a few things that could be improved: (1) in our room with two queen beds there was a table between the two, but no tables on the "outer" sides of the beds. This was very inconvenient. There is sufficient space and it could be easily remedied. (2) the shower head is in the ceiling in the middle of the shower stall, which seems like a great idea until you discover that you cannot get your head or body out of the stream for soaping up or getting water out of your eyes. The best solution I found was to simply turn the water off. Fortunately the handle is precise and it was not difficult to instantly return the flow to its former rate and temperature. One oddity: the smoke detector appeared to be missing. I mentioned this to the desk and was told that the new ones were generally installed elsewhere in the room, sometimes lower down. If so, it is well hidden because I never found it.

Woken up before 8am by unbelievably loud drilling, hammering, and shouting construction workers from both the room below and next to us. This continued without stopping until we checked out. No one offered us to switch rooms or warned us of construction. You claim it was due to an unexpected flood, but the rooms in construction were completely stripped and already midway through reconstruction. Was promised at least a partial refund but no one reached out to us, so that was an empty promise to get rid of us it seems.

The motel is incredibly clean, super friendly staff, and unbeatable location on State Street. Highly recommend for a value stay.

We spent two nights in the Presidio and loved it. The rooms are spacious and very clean. I loved the high ceiling and the bathroom was good too. The gentleman on reception was very cheery and welcoming. We were able to get ice from reception. Personally I loved the decking area which was great for a spot of reading or sunbathing. Location wise it's a fair walk into town but an interesting one. If you walk in the opposite direction there's a grocery outlet and Pasta Pronto. Santa Barbara is wonderful to explore, especially the bird sanctuary. It was a great place to stay.

Decent place to stay. Really near town and have free bikes to offer. Just that I don't quite like the rooms on first floor as it's very exposed and can hear things happening outside. But if u want a great location, this is it.

Very clean, fresh coat of paint, I loved the jaunty purple welcome mats. The second floor rooms have a lovely vaulted ceiling. On the down side, there's no coffee machine (but they will lend you a hot water pot), no fire alarm in the room, and no ventilation in the bathroom (even the window doesn't open). Definitely kid friendly!

You need to have a coffee machine in the room and it would be nice instead of getting a dispenser that pushes out soap shampoo and conditioner you need to do little trial sizes that's much better cuz that other thing was disgusting

I love staying at this motel. Even though it has its small issues like the out dated windows and weird thermostat. The bed was amazing and the staff was top notched. If I ever go back to Santa Barbara this is where I will be staying.

Lovely little hotel, nice clean room at a good price. A/C worked well and bed was very comfortable. Enjoyed the sun deck in the afternoon.

Nice staff (5 stars for them) but too old facilities for the price I paid, needing complete renovation immediately. Pictures look much more better than real world. Free parking.

So far so good. The room is atmospheric and cozy and smells nice.

Rooms: outlets that do not work, unreliable internet access, and thin walls with loud noises throughout the night and early in the morning. Service: incredibly poor. Location is okay, but still nearly a mile walk to the downtown area. Avoid this motel if you can – there are many other options with a similar price point.

Location was great, and the staff I talked to were very friendly, but that was about it… walls are paper thin and unfortunately our neighbors were screaming at each other at 1 am. The heat / air systems are very outdated, the shower curtain rod was super rusty, and the fridge was in the bathroom…? Wouldn’t recommend if you want to get a good night’s sleep and an up-to-date hotel room.

First time we stayed here, it was great. This was the second time we stayed and it was decent. The bed is comfortable but the windows are thin so you can hear everything outside. A woman was smoking weed next door and it leaked into our room at 7am and it woke us up as we breathed it in! Who smokes at 7am?! Then the cleaners start cleaning early in the morning so you don’t get a goodnight’s sleep. A man knocked on my door around 7am, asking whether I had a truck parked outside. He should have really checked with reception rather than knocking on random people’s doors. I was half asleep… and I’m on vacation. Other than that, the front desk team are lovely and the sun deck is pretty especially when the sun comes out. Great location as downtown is literally minutes away.

Stay literally anywhere else... Recently stayed here, as it was the most affordable option during the Summer Solstice weekend. I will not be returning. Pros: Complimentary beach cruisers. Property and rooms were clean. Cons: Upon check in, I was greeted by an incredibly unfriendly staff member. She advised that if I wanted to check in 2 hours early it'd be $20 .. Considering that the room type I booked was vacant the night before I felt like this was a money grab. But I paid it and tried to stay optimistic about my stay. The noise is UNBELIEVABLE. It's an old-school motel. All the rooms' windows face inward. And the windows cannot be shut. Think old school beach motel windows - with the shutters that never fully close. My first morning here, AT 7:00 AM, I awoke to a member of staff knocking on EVERY door (including mine, despite my DND being on). Following that disturbance, I listened to a huge family with run, scream and play up and down the hallway from 7:00AM-9:00AM. It literally sounded like they were in my room. For the amount of money that I paid for the weekend, I was so disappointed in my experience. I would not recommend this place.. Unless you are a huge unruly family with screaming children, then by all means this is your spot !!