This is a copy of an email I sent to the General Manager after our stay last week. It has yet to garner a response: Good morning Mr. Ide, Rather than write a review on Yelp, I wanted to first give you the courtesy of reaching out directly to you to express my and my wife's extreme displeasure with our recent stay at your hotel in Santa Barbara. The Four Seasons Biltomre always held a special place in our hearts as it goes back to the very beginning of our relationship over 15 years ago and continued through three children all the way up until last week. Unfortunately, I can’t say that we’ll be visiting again. Allow me to explain: We booked a three night stay from Tuesday to Friday in hopes of a much needed break from our kids and a highly stressful business we run. Upon arrival, it was clear that times had changed at the hotel, but we aren’t typically the types to complain about minor things such as the lack of being offered a bottle of water at the front desk. It happens. That said, we became increasingly frustrated, and eventually livid, with the lack of service and follow through from your establishment. The primary culprit- the pool area. Now we recognize that midweek in February is not exactly the high point of the season, but that doesn’t excuse a hotel like the Four Seasons from not having an attendant during pool hours, not having towels available at all, nobody to help set up chairs, no drink or food service, and most egregious, no attention paid to the pile up of dirty towels or trash that extended well into the evenings. Sitting in the hot tub on Wednesday morning, we were beside ourselves waiting to see what would happen. We noticed a phone saying that we could dial in-room service to get food at the pool. We called that number and told them there were no towels. Their reply, “That’s the spa’s responsibility". I am not exaggerating when I say that I would have expected better service at a Holiday Inn. Below I’ve attached a couple of photos for reference. Beyond frustrated, we toweled off and walked to the lobby of the hotel, where a clearly rattled employee excused herself after hearing our complaints to go “find a manager”. After having been gone for a good 3 or 4 minutes, she returned only to say that the manager was unavailable and that the Food and Beverage Manager is responsible for pool service. She also told us that the F&B Manager would be in touch in the afternoon to clear the air. As a courtesy, we were offered passes to the beach club across the street but nothing else. The kicker to the story is this. Over the next 2 days and up to today, we’ve never heard a peep from the F&B Manager nor anyone from the hotel. For what it’s worth, just one month earlier, we decided to spend one night at the Four Seasons Westlake Village just to relax a bit. During that mini-trip, construction was happening at the hotel. We asked to have our room changed to another wing of the hotel, and within 5 minutes of asking, the front desk girl who checked us in had personally come to our room with a bellhop in tow, moved us across the way with a room upgrade to a suite, and threw in a $100 in-room dining credit for us to enjoy breakfast the following day. And on top of that, she continued checking in with us throughout the stay and even a day or two later just to make sure we felt taken care of. I’d argue that such a level of service is what we are used to getting from a Four Seasons. And in that particular case, the offense was much less egregious than what I described here, yet the follow through was night and day. Needless to say, we plan to return to Westalke Village. I can’t say the same with Santa Barbara. We may not be the type of clientele who is spending $2,500 a night for some fancy suite. True, we only booked a pretty basic room. However, if you have the nerve to charge $600+ a night for your hotel, you really need to be able to deliver, and all evidence seems to be to the contrary. I certainly hope there’s a reason for this lapse in service. However, I’m worried that it’s a defined strategy to cut corners and if that’s the case, I don’t envy your position as a 5 star hotel manager in a part of the world with many options. I write this to you not with my hand out for a make-good of any kind. The truth is that I probably wouldn’t take you up on it anyhow. I just want you to know about the experience we had in hopes that you are able to right the ship before it sinks. Thank you,…