Kimpton’s Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara has welcomed Caroline Dyal as its new general manager.

Dyal comes to Canary, a 98-room boutique hotel in downtown Santa Barbara, from Kimpton’s Hotel La Jolla. She replaces Laura McIver, who in August took on the top job at El Encanto, the historic Santa Barbara resort that’s set to re-open in March 2013.

Dyal’s appointment caps a year of changes for Canary. San Francisco-based boutique hospitality operator Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants bought the hotel in March for an estimated $40 million. The previous owner was Edward Thomas Hospitality Corp., a Beverly Hills-based firm that owns Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica. Four months later, McIver made the move to El Encanto, sparking the search for a new general manager at the downtown hotel.