Casablanca Inn — Hotel in Santa Cruz

Recently my family stayed at this hotel. This is a beautiful hotel on a very historical location. Look up the Sea Beach Hotel. The view from our view was fantastic. The staff was nice, they did send us a text message when traffic delayed us a few hours. We had a late check in around 7:30pm. They do require $100 per day incidentals. Thankfully we didnt have any issues getting our deposit back.

The location is amazing, its close to the beach and to the boardwalk, its maybe a 5 minute walk to the Boardwalk.

The neighbors were pretty quiet and we didnt really hear from either neighbor though the walls either. We didnt hear any noise from the beach (loud music) once the door and window was closed.

I have a non verbal autistic child, she's a runner. So we brought the hotel door locks from amazon to keep her indoors at night while we slept and if she woke up (like at 4am), we didnt want her escaping. Our issue was the deadbolt and the normal lock had one massive slot so the our extra hotel lock didnt work exactly right, it did keep my child indoors. There was no chain on the doors. We also warned our neighbors if they see her bolt to try to stop her. Thankfully when she tried to run, we rounded her up quick.

The room - it was roomy. The beds for us were soft how we liked it. I loved the showers when she realized there was TWO shower heads, the normal standard one and the rain shower one, and BOTH can run. My child LOVED it. The water gets hot and lasts forever. Only issue we had, the stall is narrow, so for some people will have issues. And if the standard shower head hits the glass wall it will leak under and get the floor wet.

Security for parking lot - WARNING even with the mellow vibe of the location, one of the kids life the car unlocked while we loaded up the cars to leave in the early morning. Someone snuck in and nabbed my brother's portable speaker and my beaded necklace that I had bought the previous day. We didnt notice till we got home. DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO LOSE. (Luckily everything is replaceable, glad they didnt take the stroller.)

House Keeping - They will come if requested. Otherwise they leave you alone. They clean up the grounds each day but otherwise you wont see housekeeping because theyll be cleaning up the room after you leave.

Personally I would recommend this hotel. Its very pretty and...

The only benefit was the location and it is at the expense of sleeping in a disgusting room.

We checked into Room #317 on Saturday, 04/20/2024. I instantly noticed that the condition of the room was so bad that I felt the need to check for bed bugs before we settled in. I was not comfortable letting my kids settle in until we checked. You can look at the pictures I've attached, they speak for themselves.

We came in to what was supposed to be a clean and ready room and found that it was dusty and disgusting. We communicated with staff. They happily said they would send house keeping to re-clean. As we were about to head out to the board walk so they could clean, they claimed the gunk on the bathroom floor was glue from when it was installed and could not be cleared up.

We got back to our room at about 10pm when the board walk fully closed down.

The floor panels were hollow and bowing under my 18 month old baby, indicating that it was a floating floor. There is no glue involved with a floating floor as this. They lied and upon further inspecting, my husband was actually able to remove the gunk with his finger. This indicates that it was not glue, but dirt, bacteria and mold from neglected moisture damage.

It was disgusting and I'm glad I didn't let my baby crawl around in there as she wanted. You could tell the floors hadn't been mopped in quite some time, the walls were disgusting, the ac had a layer of dust and dead bugs, the inside of barn style door to the bathroom had a layer of dust that made us question the last time the room was truly cleaned.

My husband communicated these issues with staff and showed pictures. They sent someone to "clean it." The employee that came to clean the room communicate to me that he couldn't get the stuff off the floor because it was glue from the floor installation (a lie my husband soon discovered as pictured).

They made no attempt to clean the walls or floors. Due to the filthy condition of the rooms and the fact that you can't get breakfast there, the location is absolutely not worth $450 for a Saturday night....

We have stayed here twice now and there is one main point the negative reviewers keep forgetting to mention: affordable views. That, and kind/competent staff, is what brought us back to the Casablanca.

The Casablanca has the absolute best location and views on the beach. If you don't believe me, ask them to take a look at room 15A, which is where we spent the better part of last week (3/23/15-3/26/15). From our room, we could see everything from Lighthouse Field State Beach, to the Municipal Wharf, to the Boardwalk, and all beaches, volleyball courts and palm trees in-between. We actually went to the grocery store every day so we could have dinner in our room and watch the sunset every night because we couldn't think of anywhere in town we would have such a panoramic view. Plus, we didn't have to take a second mortgage on our house to be able to stay here and do this.

This mansion is over 100 years old, and we personally witnessed all the upgrades the new owners are currently doing. We originally requested the room we had last summer (#5, which is right above the beach and was absolutely fabulous), but the whole string of rooms along Beach Street, plus all the bungalows along Main Street, have been gutted and are at the end stages of a complete remodel. Knowing we definitely wanted another view room, we were offered a few different choices, in a few different price ranges, and we were amazed at the room we received for a price that was about $30 more a night than a comparable room down the road that would've been facing the freeway.

The old saying, "You get what you pay for" doesn't apply at the Casablanca, because you get so much more. For a very comfortable price, we had a clean room with a lovely kitchen, a fireplace nook and breathtaking views.

We will never stay anywhere else in Santa Cruz. The Casablanca has become our home away from home.

My husband and I only have one regret about this place - we...