Continental Inn, Santa Cruz

We just spent three days In Santa Cruz...and stayed here at the Continental Inn...booked our room over the phone after finding it on line....Im hate staying away from home just for the same reasons most people do ...not knowing what shape the Hotel is going to be in...But the Gentleman the helped me book the room assured me the the owners were very picky about everything being as clean as could be...so we took a chance.. Not only was the price great and the room clean(does need new carpet) but everyone that helped us there was great ...Sure the pool is on one side of the street and hot tub on the other...poor babys have to walk or drive across the street...we did with two kids...Great breakfast no noise and clean...cant beat that ,and would stay there again we we go back...

The non-smoking room we reserved had clearly been smoked in recently, so right after check-in the desk clerk offered us a discount on the room. Fine, but when we checked out, the discount was not on the bill for the second night. We politely asked the manager on-duty about the charges, and she immediately became combative, yelling at us and saying that "we don't give discounts here." She continued to yell, refused to discuss the matter with us, and refused to work with us to resolve the situation. The manager told us the only way to resolve the matter was to wait for the owner to call us, and she never did. Additionally, we had to park across a busy street because of a lack of parking, never saw the pool they advertise, and the hot tub looked filthy. Very disappointing experience. Santa Cruz has many hotel options - don't waste your time or money here.

This place is a dump. Our room was tiny and was not clean. There were some very shady people hanging out in the parking lot drinking. I told the freak at the front desk that the room was not what we expected and we weren't going to stay there. She said they had to charge us the full price for the room regardless. After much haggling (I.E. I slipped her a Jelly Donut)I finally talked her down to charging us only $50. We stayed a few blocks closer to the boardwalk for the same price at a much better place. As far as I am concerned It was well worth $50 to get out of staying there.

The hotel is separated into two locations, one on the east side of Ocean Street and the main one on the west side. The part that bothered me is that the pool was in the east location, so we needed to walk across Ocean Street with our kids to get to it (need to walk about 100 ft to stop light to cross or try your luck crossing Ocean Street). The continental breakfast is in the west location, so you will need to decide which option is more important � pool or breakfast. The breakfast consisted of waffles, oatmeal, fruit, OJ and coffee, so that�s better than some that offer just pastries. It looks like they have renovated the bathroom(s), which they did a good job on. They need to consider getting new curtains due to the ones they have don�t fully block out the light (more of a problem if you are near the flood light for the hotel, which we ended up being in that room). Overall, a pretty ok value, but think the hotel does better for non-family patrons.

The Continential is a very comfortable place to stay for almost any length of time. The well-furnished rooms provide ample room and the amenities that make travel much better. It is very convenient to both downtown and boardwalk and to variety of restaurants. A good choice for family and business travelers.

I stay here everytime I come to Santa Cruz. The staff is always very friendly. It is in a great location next to town and just far away enough from the boardwalk to get away from the craziness and noise.
Just lately they switched to DirecTV. With the new line up they were missing one of my favorite stations. I told them and low and behold the next time I stayed there they had added it. Talk about service!!