My family and I booked a room at the Howard Johnson Santa Cruz through our "TRUSTED" insurance company AAA we thought that it would be a nice clean place to stay while we visited the Board Walk. Only to find out that the bathroom had a real funky odor that smelled like mold or a sour mop. We asked the lady in the office to clean it, she told my husband that they did not have maid service and she was not going to get on her hands and knee to do it! So we did it ourselves only to find that odor got worst to the point of me vomiting when I had to go into the bathroom. I called AAA on Saturday morning and the in turn called the office, the owners told AAA that we could not have another room, and if we left they would not credit us. The walls are very thin so we could here people talking, arguing, hair dryers, water running and having sex until about 3:30 in the morning. Me myself personally could never stay here again, if you like luxury this is not the place for you, but if you don't care and like smelly rooms and bad service this will be perfect. It is not for me and my family.

We had stayed at this hotel many times as well as many other Howard Johnson Inn's or Expresses. This experience now has made me no longer use their services along with many other asscoiates that would use it for both leisure and business. We checked in 7/9/10 and checked out 7/11/10, and during our stay we had requested for a NON-SMOKING room king room ocean view room. Which just my luck they had one available for my last minute trip. Had a great time, except for the last day when I was walking to breakfast I stepped on broken glass in the court yard which had been there from the day before, but didnt make a big deal out of it. The day after I made it home Monday, I received a letter from the management office stating that they had charged my card and additional $200.00 for a smoking charge! When I called the lady to clear up this misunderstanding, she had stated how dirty it was, and smelt like smoke so bad... so as I started to give her my information she said very rudely "I know who you are.. room 210, I checked you in myself"... so I nicely stated, "mam... I was in room 201, I beleive there is a mix up". She got real quiet and told me I would have to call back in the morning and handle it with management. So I did, and he was even worse. Stating they dont make mistakes like this and they have proof! There was an empty box of ciggerettes outside on the balcony. Hmmmm. No ash trays, ciggerette butts, nothing! An empty box of ciggerettes on the balcony so I was charges $200.00 additional to already paying $250 a night for a room that my closet at home is bigger than the bathroom, the bed squeeked so bad just to sit on, and the room smelt like vommitt, but i knew we wouldnt be in it due to plans the we had already arranged. We calculated that in the 2 and a half days that we stayed there we were in the room a max of 12 hours. It was just used for a storage for our items, shower, and a little shut eye... Take my Advice... Never stay here save yourself a lot of money on better service, cleaner property and rooms, and money on "extra" charges. For $350.00 a night there is a lot more out there!

Selected this hotel for the prime location, and it did not disappoint on that front. It is literally steps away from the Santa Cruz Pier and the Boardwalk. Beautiful West Cliff Drive is right outside your front door, offering 2.5 miles of walking/biking paths right on the ocean cliffs.

Aside from location, there is nothing special about this hotel. It is a Howard Johnson...not a Hilton, so if you come with Howard Johnson expectations you won't be disappointed. The rooms were small, but adequate. Our room had a microwave and fridge which was a nice bonus. Room was clean and had simple, basic furnishings. I thought the free "breakfast" was a little mis-leading. It was literally packaged danish and Corn Flakes. I thought it was actually a little humorous that there is a whole "breakfast room" dedicated to serving up this "meal". Why not save space and have the maid leave a packaged danish in each room? So, if you want an inexpensive place to stay close to the Boardwalk, this is a fair deal. Nothing fancy....clean and adequate.

We've never been to Santa Cruz, CA before and wanted to visit the famous Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf which were both in front of this Inn. We were using a discount coupon and was told they weren't available anymore. I asked were they so out and she said they weren't available. The hotel had very few guests. We were tired from our drive through Bib Sur and decided to take the room anyway with a partial view of the wharf and ocean. It is within walking distance to the boardwalk and wharf. We were there on a weekday and the Boardwalk is only open on the weekends from the Fall through Spring. That's why this hotel and surrounding hotels were empty.

We took a walk on the wharf in the evening and had dinner at one of the local restaurants there. The Boardwalk was dark so there were no colorful lights which we had hope to see and photograph.

The room was vary narrow with a queen bed and it was clean and had a partial view out the front window and door, unfortunately of the fog during this time of year. It also had a porch with a small table and two chairs. The room is so cramped that the room table and chairs had to be pulled out to be used which blocked the door. Everything was working and had a nice flat screen TV, microwave, refrigerator, hair dryer packed into the room, and the wifi internet connection was good. The free breakfast is not worth mentioning. The jacuzzi was not working. Okay for one night but we won't come back.