Howard Johnson Inn Santa Cruz

The only thing i can say good was that we could see the water from our room other than that I would never return they do not clean there sheets The shower water was luke warm. the noise from AC or Heater was loud… there breakfast is just waffles do not offer breakfast if you consider waffles breakfast
Never will I let my husband choose a hotel again

Before even stepping into the inn i knew it was gonna be horrid. I’ve been in some pretty ruddy hotels but this one is the icing on the cake i think. From the annoying noise coming from the fridge or heater whatever it was, to the holey blankets that looked like someone got shot in bed lol to the window with a sheer curtain that allows no privacy at night, to the peeling paint, cobwebs, dirty, old décor etc… seriously, the whole time i felt i was in a haunted crime scene.
This place just wasn’t worth 4 or 5 stars let alone 1. Buuuut i guess it’s fine for its location. We had a room with a view of the boardwalk pier so that was nice. They serve breakfast in the morning which i heard is a poor selection of only waffles. Also the room had a funny smell. I think this place is fine if you have nowhere to stay within your price range or something but if you are willing to splurge, try somewhere less stinky and motel 6 looking. Though, I haven’t really seen any nice looking hotels in the area… i wanted to be nice and give 2 stars but i have to leave an honest review and this is my honest rating, sorry!

My friends booked a 2 night stay for only 2 people but there was 4 of us. Which I understand isn’t allowed. He offered us to just pay 20 dollars a night extra because of the other 2 people, which is a crazy good deal. Although the dude kinda scares us, we appreciate the deal he made. There was a lot of breakfast options as well, and that was cool.

Me and my family had recently stayed their for a couple of days we enjoyed our whole time their. They were friendly and their rooms where clean. And anytime we needed something they were their. I would highly recommend this hotel and we will be back soon.

Horrible hotel owners! Our room reeked of marijuana, the owner was very rude and unprofessional., They gave us another room and had the audacity to charge us more because the other room had two beds! So if you like your room to reek of marijuana, this is the place for you, otherwise i would STAY AWAY! The owners are very rude

The worst place I have ever stayed at. At $ 179 per night, it was dumpy, dirty and poorly maintained. Toilet clogged and when I called the front desk she said that the maintenance person was in San Jose, so she could give me a plunder if I wanted. (Not gloves, not bleach, not glasses) just a plunger. I asked if I could change rooms, she said no, I asked if I could get a refund, she said no, and that it was not her problem.
After a lot of huffing and puffing, it turned out they did have another room, someone else’s hair in the shower but at least the toilet worked!
Do yourself a favor, stay a bit further away at a nicer place. This place gives hojo brand a very bad name…

First the refrigerator was broken. They came to fix it with pliers since the knob was removed. Hey said it wasn’t their fault that their broken refrigerator spoiled my babies almond milk. I had to make a trip to the Trader Joes to buy it in the first place because no place else carried any lactose free milk. So I was stuck with no milk for my baby for the night and not even an apology. Then there was pubic hair on the towels. While eating breakfast water started to drip on me from the leaking roof and then into the food. WOW! When we were checking out my friend left his $ 50 phone case on the floor by the bed and we came back and hour later and they claimed it wasn’t there. I expected more from a Howard Johnson. I always stayed at the Howard Johnson in Eugene Organ on my way to Vancouver BC and it is lovely there. This was anything but that.

The room was not very clean. The view was ok but blocked by buildings. The price was too high for the stay. No swimming pool and the air conditioning did not cool the room as needed. The breakfast was ok but not great.

This was the dirtiest room I have ever stayed in and I’m very well-​traveled.
The hotel is not along the ocean as advertised, nor does it offer oceanview.
The only view there is of a parking lot and a freeway.
The owner and the online booking company both stand firm on their claim that it is both an oceanfront an ocean view property. Let me assure you, as I’m standing here staring at the parking lot, it is not either.

Rooms are extremely small as well as the bathroom. Parking only for compact vehicles, not larger family vehicles. Too top it off, we had to print some tickets for an excursion, and they charged us $ 1.50 a sheet. Outrageous. I will never come back here again. I suggest you don’t either.

Hey it’s a Howard johnsons motel. I’m realistic and not naïve. I hate picky people that write whining reviews about getting bad service because they are too cheap to pay for good service. And this is a motel. I’m in Santa Cruz to do things and just park, sleep, shower and leave the motel. The room was clean, the bed cozy, staff was fine, would’ve given them actually a solid 4 stars until I came out of the room this morning to my car. (And no it wasn’t broken into)
My car along with everyone in this half of the parking lot was absolutely covered… COVERED. in bird sh**, with feathers stuck to the car that had fallen and adhered via said poop. It looks like I came to town to exact avian revenge and commit genocide by driving through an estuary. I couldn’t see out of parts of the windshield. (Picture in gallery)
Obviously it’s the beautiful trees that overhang this part of the lot that makes it a sort of Area 51 of feces. Area 51 because they act as though it doesn’t exist.
And no, I don’t expect the motel to pay for it, no I don’t expect them to cut down trees. What I do expect is for them to mention it. A simple «hey don’t park in the left half of the lot unless you have a big bird scat fetish» would have been fine. I wouldn’t have left a bad review, I wouldn’t have left the motel. This isn’t a new issue based on the age of the trees. It’s nature. Natures fine. I don’t want to mess with nature. But I do want people with knowledge to just give a heads up. That’s the decent and responsible thing to do.

Almost ruined my children’s and my vacation.
The rug for the shower had blood on it, when I opened it. I had been at the hotel less than 2 hours and the manager refused to give me my money back or even move me to a different room. He accused me. After telling me the maids are very good and picky the following day I realized my daughter left her stuffed animal in the room. The manager says they don’t have it, so we knocked on the door of the room we left it in and sure enough it was still in the room. How well can they really clean the rooms, if they didn’t find her stuffed animal. I wish I could post a picture here to show the bloody rug but it won’t let me upload anything. Negative starts here (lawsuits coming, actually) but the thing makes me do at least one star. The manager is the biggest a** I have ever dealt with the manager refused to give me a higher up number and limited the view of pictures he allowed us to take to build our case. He seriously, didn’t even have gloves on when he came to get the bloody rug from my room.

Room was clean, a bit outdated, but very clean. Got a room with a view and balcony. Spa is very nice and huge! Free WiFi and Continental breakfast. We will definitely be coming back!

We checked in but didn’t realize there was a family reunion going on. The noise was so loud we couldn’t sleep. The management said they would ask them to be quite. An hour later I explained that the family isn’t to blame but the check in clerk should have been upfront about what was going on. At 11pm I asked if we could have a refund and go to another hotel. The guy (this guy was an unreasonable jerk) at the front desk said No! and that there was nothing he could do.
We also paid extra for a view. But there was a big building blocking it.
Be patient and look around. There are several hotels to choose from. Pass on this one.

I just checked out of Howard Johnson. What a rude disrespectful prick the owner is. We checked out of the hotel, and I received a phone call half an hour later threatening to have our vehicle towed if we didn’t move it within 15 minutes. I tried to reason with this a%%hole, and explain that we were about to move it (sitting IN THE TRUCK), and he still threatened to have the vehicle towed. I am completely shocked as to how rude this man was; he wouldn’t give me his name (for complaint), and he hung up on me. I have stayed at Howard Johnson many times with no problems, but this last time will be my last because of this angry, threatening, disrespectful a%%hole

Me and my girlfriend lived here for a week while we were moving to Santa Cruz and looking for an apartment. Paid 400 cash for a weekly room. Woke up every day to rats in the bathroom crapping all over the floor and EVEN HAVE THE PICTURES TO PROVE IT! When confronted the manager asking just to be moved to a building that didnt have rats, they screamed that I was a liar, and asked that I leave right away. After that the manager stood outside with a baseball bat waiting for me to pack my car. Due to me being very uncomfortable I needed to call the Police to make sure I was not assulted. ALL OF THIS BECAUSE I JUST WANTED A DIFFERENT ROOM WITHOUT RATS.

stayed in a room with an in-​room jacuzzi. it was really just an over-​sized bath tub, so that was a bit of a disappointment. the hotel is fine, clean rooms and the size was pretty decent. the room i stayed in was tucked away in a corner, so it was very quiet, which was nice. walking distance to the wharf, arcade, boardwalk & bowling. probably walking distance to downtown, but decided to drive there. there enough restaurants & bars around though — you don’t neeeeeeed to go downtown for food & drink.
the property is really cute & i wish they would spruce it up just a little. the room did have a decent TV along with a fridge & microwave. the walls were painted a nice color, just the bedding looked way too outdated.
if i decided to have another weekend in santa cruz, i’d look into other hotels before booking this one. it was ok, but that’s it… it was just ok. i do thank them for being nice & helpful & appreciate them having me for the weekend.

This place is mediocre at best… customer service at the front desk was poor as well!
Extremely inhospitable in a hospitality environment the complete opposite of what this place should be … A True paradox!

I give this place 3 stars mostly for the location. The hotel is tucked away on a hill and is a short walking distance from both downtown and the boardwalk.
Minus one star because we found think long black hairs stuck to our bathroom door. Seriously? Ew.
Also minus one star for customer service. Upon arriving we asked about late check out since we noticed check out was at 11am. The girl at the desk told us we could stay until noon and that it would be no problem. We called the front desk the next morning to let them know we would be staying the extra hour and the lady at the desk said that we couldn’t and that we would have to pay an extra ten dollars if we wanted to stay any longer. I’ve never heard of a hotel doing that. Greedy and sleezy!

Location is on top of a hill and within walking distance to the beach. But parking was iffy and by the morning my car was covered in bird poop!
Me and my boyfriend were in a room with a jacuzzi tub, at first glance the room was clean, but upon further inspection it was lacking simple maintenance.
First off, why is the wallpaper peeling and bubbling off? It makes the room look nasty. Second, when walking around the room the floor felt uneven and in random spots there are 1inch deep holes?!
The bathroom was awful, yellow stains in the jacuzzi in drain, hard water stains on tub faucet, the drain plug was missing a screw so it moves around a lot and it too had hard water stains (it makes the tub look like it wasn’t cleaned and has been used). Wallpaper in bathroom is also bubbling and peeling, fixtures were loose and rusty, what made me laugh was the bathroom door knobs they were different colors and types (one was silver and the other brass).
The toilet was even gross!, there was a portion of the toilet that was melted and it looked liked semen! Gross! But it was only a melted toilet seat, the toilet seat also wobbles.
The jacuzzi tub wasn’t half bad expect for the yellow stain on the drain, the timer for the jets was across from the tub near the sink wall, you had to get up out of the tub and walk to reset it (very dangerous, if someone were to slip they can bang their head on the sink, toilet or fall back and hit their head on the tub). The corner of the tub was cracked and you can see black moldy stuff, which is just plain dhisgusting.
Surprisingly the bed and couch were clean! And the ac and fridge worked fine (didn’t have a chance to try microwave) our only window wouldn’t open, it got stuck! I would’ve loved to open the window as get fresh air in the room but had to use the ac instead.
Breakfast was subpar, had better breakfast at other places, there is a spa/​hot tub but never used it.
The stay would be better (better Unilocal rating) if all the things I listed were fixed, like I said these were all simple fixes. It’s either the maintenance person doesn’t exist or they just don’t care.
Sorry, but Overall will not return, this place was way to pricey for what is offered, wished I were the one to book the hotel and not my boyfriend. I found closer hotels with better reviews much closer to the boardwalk that is cleaner and cheaper.