Hyatt Place Santa Cruz — Hotel in Santa Cruz

I'm used to staying at higher end hotels, but there simply aren't any in Santa Cruz proper. I was told by a few locals that this hotel is the "nice" hotel in the area and people were impressed we were staying there. Me? not so much.||||I'll start with the cons. I don't understand why, when you book two rooms, you are not asked on the Hyatt app or at least when you get to the hotel, if you would like those rooms to be located next to each other. This was never asked, and we were allocated two rooms that were not next to each other. I really didn't care whether they were or not, so we just went with it.||||However, the primary room we were given was on the ground floor in a dank corner with ZERO light, and was very claustrophobic feeling! The second room was also on the ground floor facing the pool, and was filled with light!||||I went back to the front desk and asked if they could move us to a room that wasn't so dark and constrictive. The front desk staff were a little meek, but after she hummed and hawed for a couple minutes, she found us another room.||||Ironically, the room was next door to the second room they had allocated us! That just makes me wonder more why they wouldn't have asked if we wanted rooms together, and they would have to know the first room they gave us was dark and dank, so why not offer us the better room to begin with, and two rooms next door to each other?||||Anyway, we got it sorted out. However, I also have listed very clearly in my profile that I prefer "high floor" rooms. This property only has 4 floors, but putting us on the ground floor seems like a serious slap in the face, like "we are going to do the exact opposite of your request." I first asked if they could move us to a higher floor and was told they were completely sold out. I'm fairly sure they weren't completely sold out, as the hotel wasn't that busy during our stay. Normally, I try to book additional rooms on the day to see if they are telling the truth, but I didn't want to make a federal case out of it, so I didn't. ||||However, Hyatt needs to take a look at whether or not they actually take into consideration the preferences in their customers' profiles, because this particular hotel certainly didn't! Giving us both first floor rooms AND a dank room in a corner to boot was really not OK.||||So... normally I would have given them a pretty bad review for those things listed above. However, I have to say that the property was well-located and in good shape. The public spaces and pool area were very nice. Despite being valet parking, valet staff were friendly, prompt, courteous, and overall did a great job. The room decor was nice and fairly modern. The only thing I would say is that the lights in the room were very amber, and not very bright, that could use some help.||||Water pressure in the shower was only OK, and the mattress was acceptable, though not great. Pillows were OK.||||I usually have a big problem with under-window climate control, which this was. It is usually noisy and blows on you while you are in bed. However, this was quiet and didn't do that.||||Despite facing the pool area, there were two separate shades, one that obscured people being able to look in your window, but still let light in, and a light-blocking shade for sleeping.||||My husband is celiac, so eating a free hotel breakfast isn't going to really happen for him. I think all the food at those free breakfasts is pretty crappy, though the choices at this one weren't too bad. Though I did have a piece of pineapple that I had to spit out because it tasted like fish.... so I didn't really eat much there, because I was concerned that it wasn't fresh. ||||I know it's the norm these days, but I'd really love to see them stop the free breakfast stuff, and lower the room price a bit as a result. It would take a big burden off hotel staff not to have to service that amenity, and it would mean we don't feel like we are getting ripped off for preferring to go down the road to Starbucks for some quick coffee and breakfast sandwiches, rather than eating cheap stuff we don't like in a crowded lobby room.||||As I said, I'm a bit hoity toity when it comes to the lower end chain hotels. I prefer the higher end brands, and would have stayed elsewhere if there had been ANY choices at all, but there weren't. ||||So, for what it was, I'd give it a 4 out of 5, and if we needed to stay centrally in Santa Cruz again, I'd definitely consider it. Well located and modern.||||I'd just ask Hyatt to review their policies on guest profile preferences and not put someone in a ground floor who has requested specifically "high floor". This should be paid...

For those, like me, who often practice TLDR, here is a quick summary:||Facility is at-par with other Hyatt Place but front desk staff are unfriendly to rude. Don’t expect to sleep well here with all the doors slamming and beds shaking from people just walking through the hallway and room upstairs. The building itself shakes. Close proximity to the broadwalk and some friendly valet staff are really the only positives. You have been warned. Life is too short to stay at a place like this no matter how cheap their rates are. Do yourself and your family a favor and look elsewhere.||Positives: |Location is about a 15-min walk to the Broadwalk.|Facility is generally well maintained and sufficient for a typical Hyatt Place|Valet parking if that is what you prefer|Valet staff are often cordial, friendly, and efficient |Pool size is decent and fitness room is adequate for a short stay||Negatives:||Rude and extremely unfriendly front desk staff, Clearly, they lack even the most basic hospitality training for front desk staff. Out of the 6 front desk personnel I have interacted with, only one (a taller young lady) smiled to me and seems friendly. You know, as in “welcome to our hotel” feel. The rest of the staff were either emotionless to one being even rude. This other young lady (the shorter of the two that was working around 3:30pm on 6/20/25) was literally rude. She clearly hates her job and people for staying here. I was standing in line. The taller lady was helping other guests but the shorter lady pretends she does not see me. Then the taller lady asked her to help me and, with a totally annoyed look, she asked “do you have questions?” I have never interacted with her before so I see no reason for her to be so rude. I still kept my cool and asked for a room change due to the excessive noise that had kept me and my wife up the night before. Her immediate response was “we have no room available” without even taking a look at the availability. It was 3pm so check in time had just begun. In any case, after she went and got her supervisor, I am then told I need to pay $20 for a room change because housekeeping would need to clean the room, negating the fact that housekeeping needs to clean the room everyday anyway. At that point, it was not about the $20 but I will not give in to being nickel-and-dime. They refuse to change the room and I didn’t want to continue arguing with them. They clearly don’t care to do what is right.||The Room - garbage truck comes around 5am to empty the trash outside the window. People walking through the hallway upstairs or inside the above unit will shake the beds in my room and you will hear every step they take. All the doors slams shut so you will hear every single person entering and exiting their rooms around you. Unless you are a super heavy sleeper, don’t expect to sleep at all. Being able to have a good night sleep should be the most basic thing a hotel should offer its guests. This hotel clearly fails that and tells us “we don’t give a xxxx”||The Breakfast- one coffee pot serves the entire building of 1000 guests so get ready to line up like a soup kitchen. If that’s what you like, you have found the place.||The shower - as many others have noted, water pressure is very low. But this is trivial to me compared to the two bigger issues above ||Oh, and I should mention that i am a Globalist member who stays over 100 nights at Hyatt properties each year. If this is how they treat the most loyal members, just imagine how you will be treated! ||But if you do stay at this hotel, demand a top floor room so you will not hear every step people take. The slamming of doors and floors shaking is likely throughout...

Overall, a pretty "good enough" stay here. Used points, and still a category 4, so can even use the free night certs that you might get from the credit card.

Arriving, the location is fine - basically in a somewhat urban "neighborhood" might be considered "walking distance" to downtown or the boardwalk, but...at least a several block hike on winding and twisting roads.

On that note, if you're new to Santa Cruz, I found it, by far, the least car-friendly city in California - and I've driven in all the cities all over the state. Some might describe it as a "nightmare" to drive around town - bike lanes everywhere, one way streets, hills, parked cars, winding roads, roads that are randomly "blocked" in the middle and closed to "through traffic" - where they used to be open to through traffic and now they just put some barriers in the middle for no apparent reason, roundabouts, you name it... you make one wrong turn and your stuck driving halfway around town on one-way roads to try and get back to where you want to go.

Their parking situation seems overly complicated with a tight driveway and a steep hill and "valet only" - we opted to just find street parking and save the money & hassle - which is definitely possible, but sometimes it might be hard to find a street spot. If you can snag a good spot, though, it's honestly probably more convenient than waiting on their valet to fetch your vehicle from the covered and gated "garage". I was able to make several trips to the car in the time it took some guests to wait in the lobby on their vehicle to be retrieved.

The overall quality of the property is also adequate, rooms are spacious and the heat/AC worked well. Our shower/tub didn't drain well, though...? So....? Not sure what was up with that, but I didn't care enough to complain or try some DIY in-room maintenance. The pool was open - although their hours are a bit odd - doesn't open till 1000 in the AM, so if you're checking out, pretty much don't bank on having any time in the pool or jacuzzi, if you wanted to get in a morning dip or soak in the jacuzzi. Also, there's a fair amount of kids around the property, which could be a pro or con depending on your family situation - during our stay most of the kids were well-enough behaved, so that was good, but, I could see this getting out of hand...

The breakfast was at least edible, I'd say a step up from a typical Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn. Some hot items, but scrambled eggs looked not real - didn't chance them and they don't even have decent name-brand ketchup (i.e. no Heinz), but they do have real hard boiled eggs, some tortillas, potatoes & bacon bits, so you could make a little breakfast taco or burrito. They also had oatmeal with "all the fixin's" - raisins, nuts, granola, brown sugar.... The coffee was pretty decent, as well.

I would stay again if redeeming points or a certificate, but they're paid rates of $250 - $450 a night and up are definitely outrageous. I'd say $100 - $150 is more fair and in line with the quality of...