Motel Santa Cruz — Hotel in Santa Cruz

If I could give this place a 0, I would. Let's start with this, we booked through a third party website, like people from the 21st century do, and we picked this place SPECIFICALLY because it does not advertise a deposit. I called 2 days before to confirm the lack of a deposit and was promptly informed of a $100 deposit. Ok we were ticked off, but whatever, nothing we could do to change it. So we get here and the check in time I was told over the phone was the wrong one. So we left and came back and checked in at the "proper time". We were met with a cold reception by the gentleman behind the counter and checked in mostly quickly. We were given our room keys and number and we had to ask for directions to our room. We drove around the the side of the building, walked up the staircase, open our door and were promptly greeted with the most haphazard room either of us has ever seen. Let me set the scene for you, the room is far to small for the king sized bed that was in it, the TV is huge and old style boob tube(for lack of a better descriptor), there is a mini-fridge and a microwave(though neither of us would ever use the microwave as we both lack the desire to catch the plague, trust me its gross.) and the fridge wasn't even plugged in. The bathroom "area" is small and at an odd level and the trash cans didn't have liners, which seemed odd to my husband and I. I promptly jumped in the shower to rinse off the sweat from the drive only to be faced with the terrifying prospect that I may fall through the shower floor at any moment. No seriously, the floor was sagging at the slightest touch, and there were no washcloths offered at all. There is only one hand towel(frayed and stained) and apparently it is accounted for very strictly. So we showered dried off and started getting ready to venture out when I notice an odd sign on the door. It says "If you would like to keep stuff from this hotel please let the front desk know and we will charge you accordingly" and then it lists prices for everything from the bed spread to the remote. When we returned to the horror hotel my husband venture out to get ice(no liner for the bucket) for us, re:the fridge did not work, and came back empty handed. The reason? The ice was .50. The topper to all of this for me is that the closest plug to the bed is no where near close enough were there an emergency, unless you count the one without an outlet cover cleverly hidden behind the bed, there is no coffee maker and the screen on our room is broken. That's ok though. It seems to be a common theme here. Either the screen on the window is broken or the screen is just missing. Oh and the ac didn't work.

TL;DR: Spend the extra money to stay...

We stayed at Motel Santa Cruz when we evacuated from our home due to CZU Lightning Complex fire in August 2020. We arrived at 1:30AM, along with a number of other CZU Fire evacuees. When checking in somehow the rate given AND listed online of $90 / night had magically increased to $365 / night. Others checking in reported the same sort of price gouging. At 1:30AM what are you going to do in the midst of a mass evacuation and all the other hotels / motels being fully filled due to emergency fire evacuations?||||Room was sad, with broken bedside lights. It reminded me of a poorly maintained military barracks. The bathroom did not look like it had been cleaned since last occupant. It was bad enough that my spouse refused to use the shower. Towels were very worn and thin. ||||The bed was made up with only top sheets, no fitted bottom sheet. Both sheets were well worn from use. Noise came through from rooms on both sides and above.||||When we asked about the cleanliness issues with the bathroom, the lady behind the desk had a prolonged rant about how "you don't understand about how hard it is to get good housekeeping staff. And being Mexican they don't understand what you are saying to them half the time anyway." This said by a Desi person from Southeastern Asia. ||||We left at 7:30AM, having used the room for just 6 hours = $60 / hour. We both said it reminded us of one of those sad, decrepit hotels on the TV show "Hotel Impossible". Unfortunately, the pictures provided by the hotel management / owners on the website do not represent reality.||||Yes, this hotel is pet friendly, however after our stay, I wouldn't ever put any animal there, let alone a human. You would be better off to sleep...

By FAR the worst experience at a motel in our life. Please listen to the reviews!!! Where do I begin? The staff with the exception of the maintenance man is horrible.....their attitudes are terrible. Drunk people hollering in the parking lost at close to 1 am....upon check-in we noticed stains all over our bed sheets, stains all over the one chair that's in the room...a horrible odor, an overall dirty feeling...the TV is ancient. No clocks or blow dryer, the fridge and microwave were disgusting...and here is the best part....MOLD all over the shower curtain!!! I have pictures in case anyone is interested. I had to tell the front desk lady and she made no apologies whatsoever and called the poor maintenance guy at home to come back to give us a new bedspread and a shower curtain. Let's see....cigarette smell when I turn on the exhaust fan in the bathroom. The bed is horrible. Hard as a rock, I woke up with a backache not to mention my husband and myself itching all night (and we slept ABOVE the covers)... Its literally just past 6 am and ,, my head itches and i cant sleep, so what better way to occupy my time then write this review. We literally went to CVS to buy two blankets and a towel to put on top of the pillow because it's that gross. I honestly would have slept in my car but with all the homeless around, it didn't feel safe. YEA.....if I could give negative...