After being on tour for over two months with my band, I came home to Santa Barbara looking for a great place to spend a night with my girlfriend. Being from Santa Barbara I know that the Presidio Motel is the hippest, most laid back, comfortable, and well designed place to stay. The owners have supported the arts in Santa Barbara for years and give the community an amazing place to sleep and they even sell home made crafts and goods at their very own "supply room" gift shop right in the lobby. The supply room has hand made leather goods, shirts, shoes, jewelry, and even vinyl records. I highly recommend this hotel if you're looking for a motel with charm with a modern artistic touch right in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. This is a Mom and Pop operation executed to perfection. Thanks Chris and Kenny!

Honestly, don't come here if you plan on sleeping. Hotel guests were partying all along the premises all hours of the night and despite notifying the hotel staff numerous times, they still didn't do anything to squash the noise. The hotel is a remodeled motel and has little in the way of soundproofing. Keep this in mind before you book.

My husband and I stayed at the Presidio Motel for 3 nights. We booked it after reading the great reviews, and the recommendation of a friend. We were not expecting a posh hotel, but sometimes budget means you give up things you find were important to you....
The great things about the Presidio:
First and foremost--the staff. Very very friendly and helpful. You could tell they loved their job.
Second: Bicycles. Our favorite day was spent riding the bikes all over the town. If we had to rent them, it would have cost us about $100 for the amount of time we used them. That was a great bonus.
Third: location. It's on the farther end of State Street from most of the shops and restaurants. But it was far enough away from the busy part of the street, but close enough to walk to everything.

Now, the not so good:
NOISE: Our room faced the street, and we heard EVERY car, every person walking by, every little noise. We also heard every motel guest walking on the 2nd floor, and every noise made by the room next to us. We expect some noise, but by the 2nd night it was a little much. We were awakened at night many times by all the above noises. Most of that stems from the very thin windows in our room. I hope the owners replace these--it would make a huge difference in the comfort of their guests.
The noise was our main disapointment. Overall, we did enjoy ourselves, but if we go back to Santa Barbara again, we would probably look for other lodging. Paying $50 more a night might have made for a better nights sleep.

We stayed here 2 nights, one of those as our wedding night. We are a young couple from the UK who got married on the beach. This motel was ideal for us, very relaxed and not pretentious. On our wedding morning my (now) husband and I used the free bike rentals and rode down to the beach and had breakfast which is one of our favourite memories.
The rooms are very arty and quirky, and have a real retro vibe. The owner kindly gave us a bottle of bubbly to celebrate our marriage too! Everything about this motel has a very cool vibe and was a perfect haven which matched our relaxed wedding stay! Thank you for making our night perfect!