Name: Sandyland Reef Inn
Address: 4160 Via Real, Carpinteria, Carpinteria, Carpinteria, CA 93013, United States of America
Rating: 5

Air conditioning

24-hour reception

Smoke-free property

Heating

Outdoor furniture

General

Non-smoking rooms

Cable TV

Shower/Bathtub

Wardrobe/Closet

Toiletries

Rooms

Laundry

Wake-up service

Telephone

Services and amenities

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Spanish

English

French

Portuguese

Chinese

Languages Spoken

Picnic area

Recreation

Free Parking on Premises

Parking

Swimming pool

Spa tub

Pool and beach

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Tomol Interpretive Play Area

Friends of the Library Used Bookstore

Seaside Gardens

Carpinteria State Beach

Santa Barbara Municipal Airport

Oxnard Airport

Santa Ynez Airport

Sandyland Reef Inn

Carpinteria

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

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22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

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29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

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38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

Motel is clean and updated in bright colors. New bathroom counter and raised glass sink. Staff was kind and attentive. some HI way noise but otherwise quiet. Ice machine worked great. I would stay here again.

Clean Budget motel

Loved our stay at Sandyland Reef.  The beautiful hacienda style courtyard had us wondering if James Dean or Frankie Avalon stayed here.  I booked a room based only on price. I was very surprised at the low ratings on TripAdvisor.  This is a privately owned hotel, so don't compare to the chain hotels.  Breakfast was not included, but the savings on lodging more than made up for that.  Complimentary coffee provided in the office.  

Our room was very clean.  The only problem we had was parking.   Only one parking space per room.  My husband and his buddy rode motorcycles, and I was driving truck with a small trailer.   Finally configured all vehicles into 2 parking spaces.  Would definitely stay here again.

Great stay and wallet friendly!

We stayed for one night as a stopover before LA. The room was large and clean. It has jacuzzi and and pool - well maintained. Washer and dryer facilities were available to use. Staff were nice and check in was pleasant. Free parking on site is available.

Good stay

Cute place with upgraded bathrooms,clean and close to the beach.
Nice big screen TVs, mostly quiet.  Less than 5 minute drive to the beach and all the nice restaurants and shopping in Carpinteria.
I stayed there for a week, no complaints.

Nice little motel

We stopped here on our way to Santa Barbara. The front desk man was very nice.  I had called on our way because we weren’t planning on staying, they had late night check in and it was very easy. 
Free parking and it felt safe.
Beds were pretty comfy! Nice bathroom with amenities. 
Nice little pool and hot tub as well. 
Nice stay. 

Cute and well priced near Santa Barbara 

Sandyland Reef Inn is a throwback to the time of motor hotels. It’s two stories facing the parking lot. We had a king room with a pullout bed on the second floor. Overall the room is good but small. I liked the laminate floor as it feels cleaner in a beachy environment. There was a microwave and fridge but strangely no coffee pot. You had to go to the office to get coffee. The set up in the bathroom was nice with lots of counter space. I was also happy with the number of plugins available for our devices.

The problems with the room are the details. I liked having a couch to sit on, but it smelled very dusty to the point I threw a blanket over it. Motel couches should be vinyl so they can be cleaned easier. Then there was the soap and shampoo provided. The soap didn’t lather up, and the first time I tried to tear open the shampoo it took me three minutes at least. That along with skimpy towels and inconsistent water pressure make the place less appealing.

The above items were annoying but what really brought my rating down was the poor internet service. The service was very erratic. It would not load some sites, and then would drop out all together. I had hoped to do some tasks, but I couldn’t trust the internet to get them done.

The old adage is “You get what you pay for.” Since this is one of the lowest priced motels around, it will probably continue to draw customers. However, with just a bit more effort, they might well find loyal, returning customers rather than the one and done indicated by many reviewers.

Important Details Missing

We decided to stay here again for the first night of our mini vacation. Much better than the last time we were here. The rooms are updated and clean. Big TV but no cell service and the internet is very spotty. Water pressure in shower is terrible. I asked for late checkout, only 1 hour and they wanted to charge extra $10.00, which to me is ridiculous. Overall good enough place to stay for one night, I wouldn’t stay longer.

Updated rooms

We stayed at the Sandyland Reef Inn two nights (Thur. & Fri.)  the last week of Jan.  during a short excursion to Santa Barbara.  Not wanting to spend an "arm and a leg" on a motel (low priority for us), we flipped a coin to decide between the Sandland Reef or Motel 6 -just down the street.  Both had mixed reviews and similar rates (the Sandyland Reef being somewhat cheaper).  
We got a room at the far interior end of this older, brightly painted motel which was good because of the highway traffic noise.  The room/bathroom seemed cleaned upon a cursory inspection when checking in (after a long wait), but later, we noticed an unpleasant odor in the bathroom.  We minimized the smell by keeping the bathroom window open during the duration of our stay.  (And as there's no fan, the window needs to be opened for showers anyway.)
Our room was definitely one in need of both an upgrade and the addition of further amenities.  A bathroom towel rack would have been useful and the addition of a side table with table lamp would have been greatly appreciated.  As I am intolerant of bright overhead fluorescent or LED lights, I was forced to wear my shades with visor during the evening.   
On the plus side, the beds were comfortable and the coffee available in the office on Friday morning was actually fairly good.  But on Sat. morning, no coffee was provided except for instant coffee and hot water (and there's no microwave in room - so no ability to make one's own coffee).
In summary, on the plus side, this motel has good highway access and offers a relatively low nightly rate in comparison to Best Western, Holiday Inn or other similar higher priced motels. It also has a laundry room.  However, this reviewer thought that the negatives outweighed the facility's good points - lack of basic amenities, smell in bathroom, highway noise, lack of coffee one morning.  Hence the two stars.

Basic Budget Motel at North End of Carpinteria with easy Highway Access

Worst motel I’ve ever stayed at. The room was super musty no matter how long we left the windows open and had the AC on. Also, there seemed to be a leakage in our bathroom of some sort, we didn’t bother asking for a different room bc we weren’t there for the most part either way.  When I checked out and arrived home, I noticed a charge in my bank account of $5 from this motel. I called and asked as to why I was being charged $5 and the girl simply said because I did not return one of the keys and I told her I remember grabbing both keys and returning them so she said she’d check again, she then says “oh yeah it’s because of a damaged towel, that you were charged $5” lol what? If anything the towel was DIRTY and WET because of the stupid leak in room #107.  So how is that considered “damaged?” Just wash it?  Also those towels are waaaaay to short to fit on your body, unless you’d like your butt sticking out.

Disgusting

You can't miss the Sandilands - situated conveniently between the highway, rail line and police station.

If you pay cash, you are charged a $50 cash holding deposit that you can allegedly get back the following day. Don't forget to get the refund however as they won't refund it to you if you leave.

As for the Inn itself, it was basic but quite clean. My room had been recently refurbished and everything worked as it should. Pricing was reasonable, plenty of parking. My poor rating is purely due to the lack of willingness to refund the deposit. Poor form and no way to run a business.

Sandyland Reef Inn

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Location

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General

Rooms

Services and amenities

Internet

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Recreation

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Pool and beach

Pets

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