Fireside Inn

My kids and I are in between moving and rented a nice room for a week. We can not be happier. Its very nice, comfortable and clean and the Manager is beyond nice and helpful. I now have a solid place to recomend when my family comes to visit.

So we are 6 people (adults) staying in a family room with a king bed and two queen beds.
Pros: The location is fantastic. Right next to the boardwalk the beach the wharf the arcade etc. and it’s a short walk to downtown Santa Cruz. The staff has been helpful so far though we are fairly low maintenance guests. The beds are comfortable and the tv and channel selection is great.
Cons:The room is tiny! I know with six people I a room it’s going to fee right but it is sooooo small. There is no exhaust fan in the bathroom don’t gets super humid and stays wet all day if you shower… oh! If you shower… plan to use your ninja skills to figure out how to get hot water. The window in the bathroom opens up to like an alley or something and it had a constant water dropping sound all night and day which isn’t the hotels fault but I’m on a roll. The towels were old and they didn’t even really fold them nicely. The fridge doesn’t work… or the freezer part doesn’t. I lost my favorite ice remain that freezer :(.

Comfortable beds and close to the boardwalk. Friendly staff it just feels dirty but is not. Just the feeling I got.

Our stay last weekend was great. We frequent Santa Cruz often and have stayed at many different hotels/​motels. We enjoy the experience we have at each. We booked this stay through
With that said, the customer services was great. The lady at the front desk was very helpful. The location was great and the room was clean and comfortable.

THe couple who owns this place is very nice. It is an inexpensive little motel. Not at all fancy but it is really close to the boardwalk. And, it’s clean. You can smell the ‘clean’ when you open the door. When I go to santa cruz, I use the motel room for a place to lay down and close my eyes at midnight and I’m out the door by 8, so I don’t need fancy, just clean and cheap. This fits the bill.

Fireside Inn is all over the board if you’re trying to rate it on a five-​star scale. Location gets a strong five stars: just across the street from Boardwalk Bowl which itself is across the street from Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Casino arcade.
Four stars for providing a luxurious king bed; a brand-​new air cooler that synergizes with a centrally situated oscillating fan; a decent low-​flow shower and adequate flat-​screen TV.
Three stars for being built on a steep hill: an admission-​free attraction that simulates walking up (and driving down) San Francisco hills. You didn’t think a one-​block walk to your $ 125/​night room would be effortless, did you? Location makes the room rate tolerable for the summer peak season. The managers are pleasant and helpful.
Two stars for having a sofabed between the front wall and the bed. The configuration results in an uncomfortably narrow path leading to the bathroom between the bed frame and a dresser. Gaps were noticed in the lower-​left quadrant of the room’s door and in the blackout curtain next to the door. The office offers coffee and tea in the early a.m. Was I too late for continental breakfast? You can work around no free motel breakfast in this town.
The super-​picky could certainly find some fault about Fireside Inn worthy of a lone-​star rating, but who spends enough time in a Santa Cruz motel room to meticulously inspect it, then lets it gnaw at them? Its proximity to beachside streetlife is obvious, but was never an issue. A security camera was mounted on a second-​floor fascia, for what that’s worth.
I’ve been everywhere, man, when it comes to Santa Cruz motels, but because the Beach Boardwalk is my usual destination, they are plotted in a tight radius. With this and Howard Johnson Inn I have reviewed only my two favorites.

Close to the boardwalk. One of the cheaper hotels in the area. There is no morning breakfast but the convince alone was worth another night stay. Really enjoyed my staff

I would give this place 1 star. The staff was nice but the place is falling apart and dirty. We stayed there 3 nights and if you had one item on the bed they won’t touch it. Nothing gets wiped down each day. The towels are like sandpaper. You would think with the amount they charge for being so close to the boardwalk it would be kept cleaner. We stayed in their family suite, six people would be a nightmare, we had only three adults and a four year old, very tight quarters. The office does not open till 8:30 so if you want coffee before your out of luck, none in the room either. The parking is a challenge so be prepared. I read other reviews before we went and would say I’m disappointed. It’s not cheap to stay and it’s falling apart

Good location by its close to the pier and within walking distance to downtown. Lady who checked me in was very friendly and filled me in on the area and attractions. I knew it was one of the cheaper places and was probably a little run down. I stayed in a non-​smoking room but it smelled like mold BAD. Kept windows open and bought air freshener… Still didn’t help much though. Parking is a bit rough because it’s on a hill.

My boyfriend and I needed a last minute place to stay for two nights for spring break. It’s NOT a bad place!
Pros: THERES NO BED BUGS! There’s a mini fridge, microwave and good quality tv. The beds are super comfy. Across the street from the boardwalk.
Cons: a view of 3 different parking lots. The bathroom is the worst. The walls are pretty thin. There isn’t an iron. There’s a slight odor.
Eh: There’s no a/​c but there’s two fans. There’s a small heater. There’s a long stick for the window that doesn’t really lock. There’s not that many easy accessible outlets. The maids leave at a certain time. So if you’re staying more than one night. They won’t change the sheets or give you more towels.
Warning: It can get a little scary at night. Watch your cars in the parking lot every now and then.

The staff is very friendly and helpful. The location is their best quality. The rooms are old, dirty and need to be remodeled. Our mattresses were too small for the bed. The tub and toilet are stained and just look ready to fall apart. We planned our trip last minute and had to take what was available. Do yourself a favor and plan ahead and pay a lil more for a better quality room.
A man came to our door at 1:10 in the morning. He knocked twice, and I refused to open the door. I couldn’t understand him. I told him to leave us alone. I saw him again through the peephole walking around. I’m alone traveling with my kids, not feeling safe. Strange thing, he only knocked on my door.

Gross.
Just gross.
I’m not normally picky about hotels but this place is nasty. It’s the first time I ever feared taking home bed bugs. Everything was dirty. Housekeeping didn’t bother cleaning. It smelled musty. We had to keep a window open at all times. Hubs refused to let the kids take a bath, it was that bad.
No breakfast. Had a microwave, fridge and hair dryer.
A nice fresh coat of paint would go a long way.
I give two stars because management was friendly and attentive. The location was only two blocks from the boardwalk. It was nice to have a separate room for the kids.
I wouldn’t stay here again.

Excellent customer service! To clarify, I never actually stayed at the Fireside Inn because car troubles prevented my boyfriend and I from making it to Santa Cruz during our road trip. However, my experience with the Fireside Inn was great nonetheless. I first booked a king room via
for a rate of $ 119, but upon looking at Unilocal reviews, I saw that discounts were offered for calling Fireside Inn directly.
I didn’t think that I would be offered a discount since I had already booked the room, but I thought I’d give them a direct call to see if I could get a price adjustment because I didn’t have anything to lose at that point. I called Fireside Inn and to my surprise after I explained my situation, the front-​desk woman offered me a rate of $ 109, and told me to cancel my
booking and that she would book the room for me at the new rate. I know $ 10 isn’t a lot, but she didn’t have to do any price adjustment at all since I had already booked the room anyway.
When my boyfriend’s car broke down 2 hours outside of Santa Cruz the evening we were supposed to stay at the Fireside Inn, I begrudgingly called the Fireside Inn to cancel our reservation. The front-​desk woman again was extremely kind, and she only charged us $ 79.99 for the room instead of the full price since we couldn’t stay there. She even offered to let us stay «for free» on a different night later that week to compensate for the $ 79.99 charge, but we were not going to be in Santa Cruz on the days that she offered us. Additionally, she told me to call in the future if we ever wanted to book a room with them again and that I would receive a discounted room rate. If I’m ever in Santa Cruz, I’ll definitely take her up on that offer!
It’s obvious that the Fireside Inn really cares for their customers, and though I can’t speak to the quality of their rooms, I give them five stars for their fantastic customer service!

It’s a cheap motel by the boardwalk, what more do you need? Decent sized rooms and bedrooms, could use updating but we didn’t really care for our one night stay in the heart of Santa Cruz’s tourist traps. Quirky outdoor patio for continental breakfast was a nice touch, at least added some personality.

I stayed here on the Monday night of Labor Day 2014. The location was just one block away from the beach and boardwalk. the location was great.
The room was dated, but the bed was clean and comfortable.
There was a moldy musty odor in the shower. Black mold was in the window sill.
There was no A/​C, but an oscillating fan was mounted on the wall. This was fine with me because it wasn’t too hot outside. I did have to unplug the fan in order to watch TV with Dish. I found a power strip on the other side of the room and moved it to the TV area. I was then able to plug in the Dish, TV, and fan.
The front desk people were friendly and kind.

Friendly staff … I saw other reviews but I don’t why people are saying negative comments about most friendly staff
Aaawwesome location best beach view over boardwalk and very close to nice restaurants
I suggest don’t book online via any website, call them directly to get best rates (I saved $ 30 by doing that) also you don’t have to pay to boardwalk parking ($ 15) so it’s a great deal to live in this motel
They have nice patio.

The only reason to stay here would be its has a good location. Very close to downtown, Broadwalk, the wharf Metro station and public bus pickup points.
Key points (Negative points)
1. The first things I saw outside my room is piles of dirty towels around my door. But the inside of the room wasn’t bad. (I checked in around 4pm so no excuse that housekeeping was underway). Even after I came back from my walk to UCSC (around 7pm) some of the towels were still there.
2. Air conditioner was broken. I wasn’t informed about this I found out after I checked in and can’t turn out the AC. Went back to the counter then they tell me it’s broken. no compensation was provided. Refund denied, basically they don’t even care anymore.
3. Breakfast was terrible. Self service toast bread with orange juice. The bread look several days old and the juice wasn’t that great either.
4. During check out, the Indian couple in the morning is quite hard to understand and wasn’t too friendly. They seem to only care if you were paying them money. His eyes brighten up the moment I asked if I could extend my stay (I wasn’t sure whether I could get another place, really wanted to just get out).
The new management is terrible (Not that I know the old one). I booked it online by Agoda, wasn’t expensive, it was about 85 (including tax).

Nice, Clean, simple and super convinient is the best way to describe it.
The appearance and feel of the hotel is that its definately an older hotel. The rooms have no AC, just wall mounted fans. And the rooms may feel a bit small. BUT!
The biggest perk to this place is the price and how close it is to the boardwalk. Me and my girlfriend timed our walk from the corner of the hotel property to the boardwalk arcade. It takes us 2:30 minutes to get to the boardwalk.
Proximity to the boardwalk plus the price for a room makes it totally worth it. Especially for us, since we enjoy drinking on the boardwalk/​wharf.

Cute motel, great location, clean, very nice staff/​owners. Simple, very affordable and pleasant.

This motel is very cute and just what my boyfriend and I were looking for. Something simple and not too expensive, and it’s in a prime location right next to the boardwalk. The room was fine, no major faults.
The receptionist was very nice, and the complementary continental breakfast was very nice. It was perfect! Will most definitely be staying here for our next visit.