WARNING BED BUGS/FLEAS At first appearances the Howard Johnson Inn seemed to be an ok value hotel, but our family quickly learned how they are able to keep their rates low. Upon entering the bathroom we discovered a toilet with a broken toilet seat and yellow crusted bowl. We understand that overtime toilets may discolor but it was clear to us that the filth left behind in the toilet was due to a lack of attention by the cleaning crew. Again we understand that when we are paying 145$ for a hotel in Santa Cruz that we should not expect a 4-star hotel but when my fiancé woke me at 2am due to a rash she had developed, I noticed upon further inspection that she had small bites around her ankles and upper arms. After removing the blankets from the bed and inspecting the sheets I was able to pick out 3 small black dots crawling around. We did our research online and are not sure if the bugs we found were fleas or bed bugs but we immediately submitted a complaint wih the front office and were able to secure a room at another local hotel with vacancies. As a precaution we stopped by a laundromat the next day to run all of our clothes through the wash before returning home. Dirty bathrooms are one thing but when it comes to bugs that’s where we draw the line. The owner explained to us that it may have been fleas brought in from a past visitor (which is a horrible excuse to tell a customer). Either way we will not be staying here again and would not recommend that anyone do so after our experiences here.