Continental Inn — Hotel in Santa Cruz

I don't usually write reviews like this, nor am I usually picky about hotels - I knew what type of room to expect and I am not taking away for this not being perfectly clean or comfortable. However, the service we had at this hotel was horrendous so I felt like I owed it to others to write this.

We arrived at 1pm (checkin is at 3) and figured we would see if there was a chance we could check in early. The man behind the counter said to come back at 2 and he could check us in then. When we got back at 2, there was a different woman at the desk who said we could check in early for a fee. We told her that the man had said earlier and she said she couldn't do anything about it. This may have been a simple miscommunication but it felt like they were being deliberately misleading in order to get us to pay this early fee.

Once we finally were checking in, the real problem came up. I booked directly through the hotel website, however, when she looked, they did not have my reservation. Even after I showed them the confirmation email that clearly stated that it was reserved for this date, and they acknowledged that it should be there, they told me "yeah our website has this problem sometimes". So it seems to me like this is a recurring issue that they haven't really bothered to fix.

They had only one room left available in the whole hotel (luckily) but it was a 1-Queen bed, and I had reserved a King. Not a huge deal, and nothing I could do about it, but they also were not willing to budge about any sort of compensation for this beyond the normal rate of the queen. They also did not automatically apply the 15% "book early" discount that I had on my original reservation until I pressed them on it, so originally they were going to charge me more for this room than my reservation of a better room.

I was doing an event the morning of check-out that ended around 2pm. I noticed that they had an option to purchase late check-out, which would allow for a 3pm checkout for $25. This seemed like a pretty good deal for me. I asked them about this when we checked in and they confirmed that it would be on our reservation (and they refused to comp this fee even after the room mix-up above...). I then confirmed with them again the night before to make sure there would be no problems leaving our stuff in the room and doing the late check out, and they again confirmed. However, they neglected to tell me either of these times that at noon your keycard gets deactivated and you need to go to the front desk after 12pm and pay the $25 fee then, and only then are you allowed back into your room for the "late checkout". I got back at like 2:45 and was hoping to pack up quickly and take a quick shower, and was locked out of the room until we could go to the front desk and get it added. They originally weren't going to let me stay, since at this point it was 2:55, but the manager finally stepped in and waived the fee and said I could have 30 more minutes.

If they had informed us about how the late checkout works either of the times we asked about it, I would have made sure to budget the right amount of time. I have no idea why they didn't mention it at all.

I would not stay here again, mostly because of the missed reservation but also the staff just seemed to be either confused about their rules/policies, or deliberately misleading. They did not do much to even indicate they were sorry about the mixup, they kind of just laughed it off as a...

This is the single worst place I have ever stayed. Specifically because of the stupidity of the management. If you love wasting your time and money this is the place for you and here is why. First of all, they know of an ongoing problem with their refrigerators and are too lazy and inept to fix it. The problem is that the light switch as you enter automatically shuts off one single plug in the outlet where the refrigerator is located whether you hit the switch or not. It is on a motion sensor. Since the maids are known to leave the light and fridge unplugged for some reason, I plugged both into the outlet. Management admitted they never give anyone a damn heads up on this so the outlet was not powered even though the fridge was plugged in, which spoiled $50 worth of food we just bought. Then we look a day later and are hit with a rotten food smell. The management offered us basically $15 compensation, or a percentage of a single day discount. WHY? This moron owes us $50, what kind of moron knows this is a problem and doesn't just put up a laminated card or simply tell guests, OR have your dumb maids stop leaving things unplugged so that unsuspecting guests have to deal with this mix up. He even offered to let us use their fridge in the lobby because he stated that's what people have do at their garbage hotel. WHAT GOOD IS THAT WITH SPOILED FOOD, and why have a fridge in the room AT ALL if that is how negligent you are? After vehemently arguing with us and stating that they know it's a problem and it keeps happening but its "No one's fault" this jerk offered us late check out which makes no difference at all since we have plans to leave. We got a total "value" discount of roughly $5 and an extended stay we didn't want, after arguing to cover our spoiled food, time wasted arguing with management, and cost of eating out even more since we had no food. The Hotel costs $615 for 5 nights. He couldn't possibly adjust the rate any more than $5 insulting dollars, so I guess all you need is to simply be located in Santa Cruz and not to give a damn about guests to make money because somehow the moron who owns the place owns prime real estate. I just hope this helps people either A) avoid this dump, or B) receive the simple warning we wish we had from the idiots who manage this place that the refrigerator will shut off when you hit the light switch. Would have been nice to know before we wasted $50 in food. Up front I wasn't met with an apology for the major inconvenience, or an understanding attitude, or even a real solution! Just combative ultimatums and no concern or guarantee that they are even considering telling guests ahead of time because "they wouldn't read it anyway". Well thanks for giving us a chance to read it, hopefully he's right, people can't read and they won't read this review! He said all he can offer us is a little discount off of one day or a late check out and that is it. Your dump of a hotel is not the only hotel available in Santa...

If you don't read this review, PLEASE VIEW THE PICTURE BELOW. MUST WATCH BEFORE YOU BOOK. I ALSO HAVE VIDEO

Negligent negligent negligent! Let me start by saying I have really low expectations about hotels, especially if they're 2-3 stars; you get what you pay for. That being said; I would NOT be writing this review if I hadn't been ignored so harshly during my stay. The staff did NOTHING to remedy this situation and make me a return customer. They could have offered another room, or another nights stay after this horrific experience and they did NOTHING.

FORTUNATELY I have pictures and videos of what went wrong, so you can judge for yourself. Ask yourself if you think it's right that I wasn't given a free stay after this (mind you, I have never written a review on anything in my LIFE; this experience was THIS BAD).

During our stay of 3 nights we were first faced with a shower that didn't work. The shower head wasn't working. At all. No showers. I called the front desk and was told something would be done about it. Needless to say, after calling and reminding them of the problem 3 times, NOTHING was done about it until the next day. After that nightmare, the front desk gave us two towels on arrival, and that's all we got. The whole trip!!! We asked several times for new towels and general room service like emptying the trash, to which NOTHING was done. Garbage overflowing, no towels to shower, and at first no running shower.

To top it all off, and this is the WORST PART. PLEASE READ. Our mini fridge in the room didn't, work. During the first night, the fridge starting oozing some kind of white fluid. The fridge smelt SO BAD. I immediately called the front desk and told them there's some sort of potential health hazard coming from the fridge. NOTHING was done. We slept with it for 2 nights after notifying the front desk 4-5 times. They offered no refund, they offered no help during our stay, and they offered no free stay at a later date to make up for this...