Maybe our stay was non representative, but we loved it.
We found the front desk staff very helpful & couteous, the room was fine, and a 10 minute walk to the harbour is really not that far - how anyone could feel uncomfortable about that walk at night I do not know.
The setting is lovely, and you get a lot less for more bucks at the big chains

We had trouble finding a hotel with 2 large beds and settled on this hotel despite some poor reviews. The price was very reasonable considering being located in Santa Barbara. We found the location excellent, the staff very friendly, and the room spotless. There was a very nice breakfast, wine and cheese service and cookies and milk (all complimentary). I don't know what some of the other reviewers were expecting for the money. It isn't the Ritz Carlton, but it doesn't pretend to be. We wound up staying an extra night!

Other reviews here are correct in saying that this place looks great from the website photo, but looks far worse on arrival.

Inn by the Harbour is not by the Harbour at all. It's more like 'Motel Ten Minutes Walk From the Habour'.

Our room was pretty basic. It was probably decorated in the mid eighties and hasn't been touched since. It was a good size, with two reasonable sized beds, but having stated we were on our honeymoon, we were annoyed that we were not given a room with one large bed as opposed to two smaller ones.

The rooms had a kitchen, but as we were planning on eating out every night (only there for 2 nights) it didn't get used. The bathroom was in very poor condition - the toilet came away from the wall slightly every time you sat on it, the bathroom-furniture was in terrible condition and the wall and shelf near the shower was covered in black mould.

But the worst part of this hotel came when we returned to our room late one afternoon to find the door wide open. We waited inside for 10 minutes to find out why but no one came. I went to complain at reception, and was told that it had been left open by the cleaners to clear the room of the bleach fumes - they insisted someone was looking over it. Bearing in mind that we had waited in the room for ten minutes and no-one showed after my complaint, I argued with them but they kept on repeating themselves. The employee who was supposed to be looking after the room was actually just surfing the web in reception - there was no way he could have been checking the room because it is not visible from reception! We were lucky that nothing was stolen from the room, and I found it absolutely unacceptable that the hotel were so blase about security and taking care of the contents of our room.

I was very disappointed with the rooms of this hotel. They were extremely old fashioned, bathrooms were small and outdated. They had plastic flowers hanging on the walls.

The parking was awful as we were there on a weekend. I suspect as did a previous poster that people from the apartment complex next door used the spots since the cars never seemed to move. So we had to park in non-parking spots.

There was no soundproofing of the rooms, and we heard every loud drunk coming in at all hours. I just didn't expect that for a nearly $200 a night room.

Decent features were the quiet, although very small, pool area. Wine and cheese in afternoon a nice touch.

I also was mislead by the photos of this place on their website and would NOT stay there again.