The Calabasas Hotels I know

I live in Calabasas and I've stayed at each of the three hotels in Calabasas: the Hilton Garden Inn Calabasas, the Good Nite Inn and the Carlson's Country Inn & Suites. If you're searching for a Calabasas hotel, this is a good place to start.

All of them have good location, so that's not really an issue. What are some of the things people say about them? What are their various features?

Stick around and learn. First of all, Calabasas, CA is a pretty cool town in west San Fernando Valley. There are some stars, good location to all of southern California attractions and it's clean and relatively crime free.

For this post, I'll round up some of the things people say about the various hotels:

Country Inn: From hotel-guides.com, people have said: "front desk staff was rude - don't recommend - Aug 2006" Clean, comfortable room - staff was friendly - great breakfast - Jun 2008" and "pleased with the exercise room - pools were clean and lovely - enjoyed the breakfast buffet - stay couldn't have been better - Dec 2007." Not terribly enlightening, actually.

Same web site about the Good Nite Inn, which is substantially the cheapest and best deal of the three hotels: "Close to Malibu State Park, stores, and grocery stores - fairly inexpensive - room smelled fresh - front desk clerks were considerate and helpful - appreciated the pass to a health club - Jul 2008" and "Low price - room was fine, but had to walk through mud to get to it - service was satisfactory - stay was all right - Jan 2008."

Sometimes I wonder about these review sites. It seems like every place has a good third of the peole who love the place, a third of the people who hate the place and a third of the people who had some bizarre complaint because they can't stand a down pillow or their kid didn't like the hotel french fries. The same holds true for these Calabasas hotels.

That said, more people dig the Hilton Garden Inn than either of the other two. It's not a fance hotel, but it's a pretty nice one.

I remember taking my wife to the Calabasas Hilton once for a break from the kids. Hell, it could have been the Chez Ritz, considering there was a very cool jacuzzi with a bay window type of thing that opened up to the room. The rooms were tasteful and the price wasn't that bad at all. The rest of the details will have to wait for another blog, not on hotels, but perhaps motels!

In any event, in California, you'll have a hard time finding a nicer place than Calabassas and they have a handful of hotels and motels that will fit your budget and your taste. You might find some other decent ones in Malibu (pricey, tho), Agoura Hills, Woodland Hills or even Canoga Park. Thousand Oaks is a little too far out of the way, I'd suspect though.

I'll write some later posts, in depth, about the various hotels here, because they each have their unique qualities.

Enjoy!