I considered myself a well-experienced traveler. I love to travel and am flexible. I have stayed in hotels from Motel 6 all the way to presidential suites with in-room sauna. This is my very first time to stay at the Best Western Chain of hotels and at the beginning I was very excited to about this trip.

This is also my first time visiting Santa Cruz after about 18 years, and my very first time to stay overnight here. I read the reviews and found this hotel to be very attractive. It has nice reviews, nice features (hot tub in room, fireplace, all suites, etc), convenient location, etc. I therefore, booked the king suites with fireplace and hot tub (the highest room rate available).

I arrived at 3:30pm for check-in. The standard check-in time was 3pm. However, the hotel manger Teddy said the room was not yet ready. He paged the housekeeping several times and got no response. I stood and waited for almost 20 minutes. During this time, there were many phone calls calling to inquire about the hotel, and Teddy said rooms were available at the walk-in rate of $111. After waiting for so long, finally he gave me the room, # 333. This was actually different from what I signed on the agreement upon check-in... but ok?

It is a room on the 3rd floor. The hallway was very stuffy. There are several A/C but they are all turned off. I have never experienced a hotel like this.

Upon arriving to the room, it was very stuffy. We immediately turned on the A/C and hope to have the air circulate a bit. The decorations are very 80s - white tile sink counter and bathroom wall, the sink is outside of the tub and toilet... layout looks like a model 6. We went back down and asked for Teddy if there is any other room available. He looked at the computer briefly and said, "this is the only room available now. What you book is a very popular suite". Why bothering asking me if I like my room when there is no other option available??? No other options offered?

Since we had already spent a long time waiting to get a room, so immediately after check in we went out to see the city... as it was cloudy and almost started to rain. We came back around 9pm and there were some weirdos hanging around in the garage. Later we found out from our hotel window that actually the Cheveron station across the street was a gathering place for these weirdos...

We came back to the room it was very stuffy again. The AC had turned off again, despite the "Hi Cool" button was still pressed down. We were unable to make it work anymore. We called front desk and Teddy came and look at it, and he can only get the "fan" feature working. He said "sorry about that. You are checking out tomorrow, right? Tell front desk that Teddy will take something off your room rate." Huh? what is that "'something?" Why didn't he just made a note in the computer if he were serious about it??

Then we tried to use the free Internet. Maybe it was free, it was not working. We tried to connect to all Best Westerns WiFi we could find... not working. Finally we had to call front desk and Teddy claimed he just restarted the modem... huh? More like we notify him to restart the modem.I wasted all my time trying to see how I can tether my 4G Android phone for computer internet usage...Finally after an hour, the hotel internet worked... but more like the speed of a 56k dial up modem.......

As I was attracted to here by the hot tub, I started o use this feature. First, the water down sprout has pipe exposed. There was no water stopper. We ended up have to use a hand towel to block the drain. Then after using the hot tub, we found out the water doesn't drain! It has been overnight and it's still almost full. Maybe I didn't need to block the drain in the first place?

The hair dryer is hanging on the wall loosely and I can see the wires behind it... the ceiling has cobwebs that are not cleaned...even the tissue holder fell off by itself......Then I was waken up at night due to the stuffiness in the room AGAIN - even the fan feature of the AC has turned off! I have to manually go to restart it. Every light switch in this room is motion sensor, but I don't think AC should also be using a motion senor feature?

This is the first time I stay at Best Western and my experienced is HORRIFIED! I stayed at Motel 6, Sheraton group, Inter-continental group, Hyatt group, Hiton group, even Travelodge and Howard Johnsons before... and I have never experience such an overrated hotel room.

I am actually typing this at 5am in the hotel room, because I cannot sleep due to stuffiness. I don't care how much discount they would give me at check out because I already expected to pay the price of the room. Giving me a discount or even a free stay will NEVER save a client when everything is broken and this experience has ruined my whole trip. I should just go back to book Hilton and where I am a gold member of... maybe I'll get better treatment.

great location,close safe walk to downtown,clean rooms, great hotel.

I found this hotel online while looking for a place for me and the hubby to escape to for the night. After reading the online reviews I decided to contact the hotel directly for some additonal information. I am so happy I did. Teddy, at the front desk is awesome. He was able to answer my questions and help me with my reservation. We booked a two room King Suite with a two person Jaccuzi and a firelace. Upon arrival, parking was super easy and their parking lot is well lit and safe. The room was fantastic! Spacious, clean and perfect for our little weekend getaway. The bathroom is amazing with his and her sinks, jaccuzzi bath tub (That really does fit two people confortably) seperate shower and seperate toliet. There is even a half bath off the living room so it would be perfect if you had kids or additional guest staying with you. The room had everything we needed and included free Wi-Fi as well as a GREAT breakfast in the morning that included eggs, sausage, waffles along with dry cereals, yogurt and a bread station. They served Seattles Best Coffee and had juices to choose from too. Between the location, staff and overall cleaniness and space of the rooms this will be our first choice anytime we come back to Santa Cruz. I even booked 3 nights in June for the entire family to come back. HIGHLY RECOMMEND this hotel!

We had a rather spacious room on the second floor. Everything was clean, king size bed was comfy, bathroom included a spa bath which came in handy after a long, long day of walking.
Staff were very friendly and helpful with directions and advising on places to check out during the winter.
Complimentary breakfast covered all the basics - juices, tea, coffee, cereal, waffles, oatmeal, fruit, toast, yogurt and pastries. It set us up well for the day as we had an early start heading out to whale watch.
I thought the value was superb as we had spent the night previous in a Best Western in San Jose and paid an extra $50 for a lower standard hotel.
I would definitely stay here again and will look it up if we are ever in Santa Cruz again. Great value, great customer service and only a short distance to all the local attractions.