Fireside Inn Santa Cruz — Hotel in Santa Cruz

I was skeptical when we first arrived and management poorly communicated exactly how parking spaces worked leading to an uncomfortable and unnecessary interaction with another guest, but I was willing to ignore it. My trip took a massive turn when my guests and I were locked out of our room at 2am due to faulty room keys. After multiple attempts, I was unable to contact anyone from the property to get the issue corrected so we could access our property leaving us both literally and figuratively out in the cold. Luckily we were in town to visit a friend who was able to put us up for the night because my car keys were locked inside the room so my guests and I would have literally been on the street under other circumstances. It only added insult to injury when we returned to the office after they were scheduled to open and there was still no one available to assist us. When speaking to other patrons while trying to figure out how we were going to get our property, it became clear that multiple key cards had failed the night before though they were all able to get back into their rooms before management evidently fell asleep. I almost called the police, until another patron suggested I knock on the private door the manager apparently stays in. I had to knock twice at increasing volumes before someone finally came to remedy the situation. I did not have access to my room again until 9am, just 2 hours before checkout time. I was further insulted when I did not even recieve an apology from management after they were finally made aware of their mistake. If anything he avoided all contact with us after the fact while again patrolling the parking lot. Management clearly prioritizes micromanaging their parking rather than ensuring their customers get what they literally paid for. At this point I consider this location to have offered me nothing but the most expensive shower of my life and a headache. I am still awaiting a full refund considering we never even got an opportunity to get into the beds much less spend the limited time I had in Santa Cruz to enjoy the benefits of this properties location. (Edit: After again attempting to contact the hotel for a refund, I was informed that management was going to be gone for a week, but they evidently had the time to respond to my complaint on Expedia that I cannot respond to rather than the private message I sent. At this point I expect I will have to contact the Better Businesses Bureau to get any resolution.) (Edit 2: After reporting this business to the Better Business Bureau, they have failed to respond in the timeline requested by the Bureau. I am still awaiting any resolution, but I would greatly caution anyone from giving any money to...

Overall this motel was fine, especially for the price. It was fairly clean (nothing popped out as obviously dirty like I've seen in other rooms in the past, although after crawling around for a while the tops of my baby's feet were pretty dirty). The staff was very friendly. The shower was hot with good water pressure. The mirror in the bathroom had lighting options that made applying makeup easier. The TV had HDMI inputs so we could use our own devices to stream shows. It was a super fast and easy walk to the boardwalk and the beach. Not having to pay for boardwalk parking was a huge plus.

The not so great stuff - the property is built on a hill and you have to park at a pretty steep angle. Good to know if your car's brakes aren't in the best condition. If you're on the second floor, you have a set of stairs to get up and then another 4 stairs every 2 rooms so if you're in the middle of the 2nd floor, it makes packing and unpacking your car quite a workout. Had I known that, especially traveling with kids, I would have called ahead to try to get a 1st floor room.

Their are two air freshener packets hanging in every room - if you're sensitive to scents like I am, you might want to call ahead to request they don't put any in there, but even once removing them our room smelled like air freshener.

Something that might not bother most people but was very bothersome to us - there are no lamps or dimmable lights in the room. Just three extremely bright overhead lights. The rooms could definitely benefit from even just one lamp so you can have a little light without being flooded in light.

Overall, I would probably stay here again just because of the location and convenience but I would try to get a ground floor room if...

Based on the review here, we figured this place was a little older but well kept and worth the price based on the location. Wrong. We were in town for a scout event at the boardwalk and just needed a place to stay for one night. I booked the room a few months back and it seemed like a pretty good deal. Now I've stayed in a lot of hotel rooms in my life, and I think I'm pretty understanding on what I'm getting for price/location/reviews. I'm not saying this was the worst hotel I've stayed in, but I'd say probably in the top (bottom?) 10. Check in staff was very nice, but room was very lacking. The floor was a weird combination of sandy and slippery from cleaning residue, and the cleaner smell was pretty overwhelming. Seemed like they did a quick sweep job, then went over it with a mop soaked in cleaner and called it a day. Walked around in white socks, bottoms were quickly turned black. Bathroom was pretty gnarly, just beat to hell and fairly dirty. Towels and sheets were clean, but had stains as others had mentioned. Parking was a huge pain, and if you're in anything larger than a small SUV or car, good luck. Our car was in the body shop so we had to bring our full size truck on this trip, there was one spot available in the lot and there was no way I was fitting the truck in there. Asked front desk if there was anywhere else I could park, she said I could use the handicap spot, but luckily as I was moving, someone left in a spot I could fit.

As others have mentioned, location is pretty nice and the boardwalk and wharf are in easy walking distance, however we've stayed in other hotels in the area that are just as close with much better accommodations. We had high hopes for this place, but won't...