National 9 Motel — Hotel in Santa Cruz

Worst Experience of my life! They stole $700-$800 from our room!! Filed a police report and everything. My girlfriend and I took a last minute trip to Santa Cruz and this was only place vacant and not over $200 a night. I love Santa Cruz until this last Sunday 02/21/16 when someone who worked there (cleaning lady or staff) stole over $700-$800 cash our room. They claim the only person who has access to the room is the cleaning lady (only one female) and nobody else entered the room. BUT the cleaning lady's husband who doesn't even work there was also there helping her clean the rooms. Victor the owner claims he was just there to drop off food and pick her up but while my girlfriend and I were crying in the parking lot we saw the cleaning lady and the husband entering in and out of rooms. So they are paying people under the table illegally and expect things to not get stolen?!?!! First of all We paid $150 for a very very low quality room which I never paid more then $65 anywhere else. Secondly I believe they have cameras in there because of the way our money was taken. On top of that they accused us of losing it while we are sitting in the Parking lot crying our hearts out because our trip was ruined. Then all of a sudden the manager leaves with his wife without saying anything and a new employee shows up with no idea on what's going on. So basically the owners conveniently took off and left us over $900 down the drain. They didn't offer to do anything and just made me feel like I was going crazy and living in a horrible nightmare. No refund for room and not even a call back when he promised to check again and speak to his maid for the second time. This place is independently owned so they do shady things here!! Victor the owner didn't want to help solve the problem and insisted his cleaning lady was very honest. Very SHADY Business and I know karma will come back to haunt this place. I insisted on him to check who exactly entered in the room and he replied only the maid. Still haven't received a call back and no remorse after our entire trip was ruined by horrible thieves! Don't ever come here please! I'm a good hard working person and these people...

I rarely leave 5 stars across the board, but this place deserves it. I’m currently staying here for the 4th time after spending 2 nights here last weekend, and 1 night here for Mother’s Day. For a budget motel it is INCREDIBLY clean, as soon as you enter the rooms you can tell housekeeping is on it. I used to work at a big name hotel and compared to the rooms we had this place is absolutely top notch as far as cleanliness is concerned. The owners are very kind and even remembered us from previous visits, which is hands down awesome customer service. My only critique is that the parking lot is pretty small and gets filled up at night, however there’s nothing the owners can do about that and they’re incredibly accommodating with 2 extra spots near the overhang. It’s a safe place to stay with your family and the owners seem to be diligent at monitoring the security cameras. We’ve never utilized the pool, but have frequently seen families splashing around in there when we visit. I love this place, it’s quiet and tucked back off Ocean St close to the freeway. It will continue to be our go to spot to stay when we come to visit Santa Cruz, it’s rare to find a gem...

Here's one for the books. I first called this place on April 9th, 2022 at 9:44 p.m. to see if I could get a parking pass to park my car there overnight (easy to do in WA) Instantly gets an attitude and says no we have a list of license plates down, and security checks every hour to see who's here and continuously says the car will be towed if we were to park there. I politely told him I understood and thank you for his time, he just said okay and hung up. Fast forward to 10:42 p.m. I get another call and missed it because I'm directing my husband to another hotel, we pull over at 10:45 p.m. my husband calls back and the guy just starts to gloat because he thinks he was towing our car. (He was towing someone else's truck) The joy in his voice that he had by thinking it was us he was towing was very sad. Definitely an awful worker, and shouldn't be trusted. Also have a voicemail from him where he just sounds so happy that he thinks he is towing us. Haven't even stayed at the hotel but because of him we never will and I wish I could give zero stars. Oh well. I hope whoever's vehicle he is trying to tow is able to...