Stayed at Mason Beach Inn for Memorial Day Weekend in 2011. We arrived on Friday night and and went to bed right away. The next morning I woke up with 12 itchy bites on my left forearm, left wrist, left hip, right forearm, and right shoulder. The bite locations were in the typical bed bug pattern of 2-3 bites in a line. I tried not to worry right away (I've had an experience with bed bugs before and they are a NIGHTMARE) but as the day progressed, the bites got more and more prominent. The next day they were painful, swollen, and turned into large oozing boils. I am more sensitive than most to bug bites and can at times have strong allergic reactions to bug bites. So it's possible my husband and two small children (under 4) got bitten as well and they just don't have reactions to the bites like I do.

We were so busy with a wedding we were there for that I didn't get a chance to ask for a room change until Sunday morning. That Saturday night I didn't sleep at all but attempted to sleep in the bed my daughter slept in because it was as far away as possible from the spot I was sleeping in the night before.

On Sunday morning, the hotel staff was not helpful. They didn't even care to look at my bites, just whisked us upstairs for a room search with a couple members of the hotel cleaning staff. They didn't find anything that looked like bed bug evidence but they also weren't able to check behind a picture frame above my side of the bed or behind an outlet on that side. She did find two dead spiders in the bed (gross!), and seemed to think that was sufficient. I so wish the bites were from spiders because then I wouldn't have to worry about bringing bed bugs home with me. The hotel staff gave us a new room to stay in. Believe me, if there was vacancy elsewhere in town, we would have preferred to switch hotels but being Memorial Day weekend, a lot of hotels were booked up all three days.

This hotel was pretty pricey but the value for the money we spent was non-existent! The rooms were small and unattractive, internet service was VERY slow, the "heated" pool was cold, and the complimentary breakfast was lame. The one thing the hotel had going for it was the location. Two blocks from the beach. Also the downstairs lobby area was cute. For the price we paid at this hotel, you can find better accommodations.

Of course the biggest problem about Mason Beach Inn was that the hotel staff did not care about the bed bug issue. Therefore, we're never going back and absolutely do NOT recommend this hotel. Bed bugs can come home with you in your luggage so I have a lot of work ahead of me today (just got back last night) to inspect and very thoroughly clean everything. If it turns out we did bring the bugs home with us, it will be a very costly, lengthy, and traumatic process to get rid of them.

I feel for the hotel industry because of the bed bug epidemic. I understand it's hard to keep them out of your facilities what with the bed bug epidemic these days. However, I would expect the hotel staff to act like they care about their guests, take ownership of the problem, apologize, assure us they will take the necessary precautions (ie bed bug dog inspection, pest control visit, etc), and give us some or all of our money back. Because they didn't do any of these things, I strongly urge you avoid this hotel like the plague.

Nice room. Very nice shower. Free wifi and parking.

Stayed at the Mason Beach Inn for the wekend. Its a cute place but....BEWARE!! the bed was like sleeping on a board. The heat /AC unit was old and had to be operated manually. My husband and I got very little sleep. We will not stay there again.

The Mason is one block from the beach and about 3-4 blocks from State St (shops, restaurants). It has 45 rooms, free wifi, free breakfast, and a small pool area. Our room was very clean and looked like it was recently remodelled. The room itself was average sized and had most of the amenities I would expect (coffee maker, iron, hairdryer). For another $10 a night we could have added a microwave and fridge.

The staff was very good and the breakfast was slightly above average for a continental breakfast. We were there in January and as it's a block from the beach I thought the $150 we paid was a bit high but Santa Barbara is lovely and I didn't really regret paying it.