Here is what happened:
My son and I flew into San Jose from Portland, Oregon with the plan of staying one night in Santa Cruz...then driving Big Sur.... and staying in Santa Barbara for a few nights. My son is 8 years old and thinks every motel room is the most exciting thing ever..but even he was ready to get out of there after this mostly sleepless night.
The first thing I noticed was that the room was incredibly warm. I quickly discovered that the heat was on and there was no A/C. Just a fan. I called the office and was told that because Santa Cruz gets very cold at night, we would want the heat on and wouldn't need the a/c (even though it was hot when we arrived.). By the way, we are from the NW and never use the heat at night and I felt it couldn't possibly get THAT cold in SC at night. It was sunny and very warm outside at 5 pm. So, I turned the heat off (so I thought) and we went out for dinner and the arcade. When we returned a few hours later, the room was scorching hot. Apparently the "off" button failed to turn off the heat. I called the manager and was told the pilot light had to be turned off and only they could do that. So..a very nice man showed up at our door and turned it off for us. No problem, I figured. All seemed better....till about 6 am the next morning. My son woke up complaining of being "itchy" and apparently had been up many times throughout the night. I turned on the light and he had little bites on his back and legs. Oh crap!! I didn't have any kind of medication for him, so I first suggested he take a warm bath to perhaps get some relief. But..oh yes...I almost forgot..NO HEAT at 6 am in the morning on the central coast. Yes..she was right. It WAS cold and we had no way of getting any heat without tracking down someone from the office. My son decided to make it quick and deal with it. But then....the next problem was the tub drain. The drain plug didn't fit, so there was no way to keep the water in....so no bath. He ended up taking a shower and then froze when he got out. I was so cold, I skipped my much needed shower and just wanted to get packed up and leave.
When we checked out (which turned out to be quite early because we could not wait to get out of there), I told the woman at the desk about our bite ordeal. She quickly and defensively denied that it could have possibly been bed bugs. She said it must have come from somewhere else. I told her I just wanted her to be aware..but she became clearly upset and left us standing there!! We had already returned the key and paid or $53, so we left, vowing never to return.
I saw so many positive reviews, but they must have stayed in a different room....or just caught this place on a good night...or something. Obviously, I won't stay again.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
