Hotels Merge to Form New Lodging in Santa Barbara

Four hotels along beachfront Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara are being linked and redecorated for debut this week as Hotel Oceana. The hotel is two blocks west of Stearns Wharf, a popular tourist site.

About half of the 122 rooms had been renovated as of last week; the rest are scheduled for completion by mid-January. Also to come: a spa and fitness room by the end of March, the owner says. Meanwhile, partial-ocean-view rooms are going for $99 weekdays and $150 weekends, subject to availability and a two-night minimum stay. On Feb. 1, regular rates, starting at $175 for garden or courtyard views and $225 for partial ocean view, kick in.

Although bed-and-breakfast inns and luxury resorts abound in the tony Santa Barbara area, “there are really very few boutique hotels,” says Jim Lippman, chairman and chief executive of Los Angeles-based JRK Asset Management, which also owns the 63-room Hotel Oceana in Santa Monica. The Santa Barbara hotel was created from the 34-room Beachcomber Inn and the 44-room Ocean Palms plus two smaller hotels, the Sandy Beach Inn and La Playa. It covers more than two acres and has two swimming pools.

The decor, described as “quintessential summer beach house,” represents the first hotel project by Santa Monica-based designer Kathryn Ireland, who has decorated homes for Steve Martin and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, among others.

The hotel’s address is 202 W. Cabrillo Blvd. (800) 965-9776, www .hoteloceana.com.