Seaway Inn

Amazing little hotel !!
The husband decided to take me away for a night and decided on this little jewel. The beds were comfy and the room was just right. Had a fridge and microwave!
We brought our little scooter and decided to park it right in front of our room. Very safe & secure environment.
Went out for a ride at night and the next day. The staff allowed us to keep our Tahoe parked for an extra 4 hours while we rode our scooter around town. That was super cool.
The continental breakfast was way better than most hotels. Very clean and a huge variety! Was even able to take it to room when most hotels don’t like it when you do.
Walkable distance to Boardwalk! Will definitely stay here again!

Ok so we walk into our room and I walk into bathroom to wash my hands. So far so good, then I go to dry my hands and towel bar completely falls off wall after barely even touching it. First warning sign. They have one male cleaning person who paces back and forth all day past your room. Terribly annoying considering all you have is one sliding glass door, which is next to your bed. What’s really funny is they try and enforce checkout time, even though you have to agonizingly endure the suffer of his slow cleaning habits during your stay. Maybe not even slow, just not efficient or respectful of guests time and space. The sheets reek of bleach. All you smell your whole stay in the room is bleach. Which I guess beats the worse alternative, but really sucks for a nice beach getaway. Also, they literally served black rotten bananas at the continental breakfast. Like who made that decision as acceptable? Lol. Last and far from least, they attempted to say our room smelled like marijuana when no one had smoked anywhere near the room, or brought anything anywhere near the room. I noticed the front desk people eyeing me up and talking about me as I packed my luggage in my car prior to checking out. I even mentioned it to my friend that they might try something slick because of my looks. I look totally like a stereotypical stoner, but I am far from one in the way I act. I had a really weird feeling. Sure enough, when they went to check the room before giving me my deposit, they said it smelled like marijuana. I told her to call the police and have them come and ask if it smelled like marijuana. Her disgusting attitude immediately changed at this response and she hurried to get my deposit money. They attempted to hustle me. Literally. Terrible terrible business. I would never stay here. Ever.

Stayed here since we had a wedding to attend. It was the first weekend of spring break but we booked months in advance and received a much better rate. The room was clean. The staff was absolutely wonderdul, they even located ibuprofen at 530am on a sunday for a hangover. I would recommend this place. It is a little pricy but within walk to everything. My only complaint is the bed was the most uncomfortable bed ever. Also there was no fan mode on the ac/​heater until and that made for a stuffy room. Everything else was fine.

Never got around to this until now, but review is based on our stay from a long holiday weekend from last Labor day. Worse experience from a hotel so it’s still memorable enough to review. *Warning — Long read but you can feel my pain if you read it through.
We booked a 2 night stay from a Sunday — Tuesday, got assigned a room on the lower level in the corner. Upon walking in the room had a moldy type of smell, the carpet felt damped, ventilation was lacking in the room. I asked if we could swap out rooms, but they were booked on Sunday night, which was understandable given it was a holiday weekend and the front desk lady said to try again tomorrow (Monday night). To deal with the mold smell, she gave me a bottle of carpet cleaner and fabreze to get through the night, whatever no big deal as she was trying to help us, so we dealt with what was given to us and tried to get air flowing as much as possible. This wouldn’t be as big of a concern if we did not have our 2 year old with us.
The next day (Monday), new front desk is on staff, Around 11am-​ish or so I try to ask the front desk about switching rooms, she stated that she can’t check anything until everyone has checked out. Note that checkout is 11am! There were about 4 or 5 cars in the lot so OK fine we went to walk along the pier for a bit then came back around 3pm or so, note at this time the ENTIRE parking lot was empty except for our car. A new front desk lady is now on staff, who seem to had an attitude from the start or was extremely unhappy about something. I told her about our room situation and she then tells me that they cant change my room yet because there may be some online reservations that might come in for the night (again at this time we were the only car in the whole f’n lot on Labor day Monday). To add on, she had the f’n nerve to give me an attitude like I did something wrong. So at this point I’m annoyed given that the entire town seem to have already shut down and we were the only one left in the entire hotel, I gave in and accepted her stupid reasoning that an influx of online reservations would come in and fill up the remaining rooms after 3pm on a day before people go back to work after a holiday!!!
So after dinner, around 7 or 8, I give it one last attempt to get a different room to no avail, I couldn’t get a refund, discount or anything. The only thing I was told by the same rude afternoon shift dumbazz front desk lady with the I’m too busy to help you attitude, was that it’s too late to make any changes in the system now. W… T…F??? So between 3 and 7 pm, somehow their system shuts down from making any f’n changes apparently. At this point I’m ready to break something. Either the front desk was just a lazy sack of crap or extremely too dumb to make changes. Adding fuel to my fury was that there were ONLY 3 cars now in the parking lot including ours.
If you’re still reading at this point, admin it you’d be beyond pissed off too, and for those with a young toddler I’m sure you can understand the frustration of having to spend 2 nights in a moldy air filled room.
The only positive from this was the price, location to the beach and the nice lady who checked us in. But the staff on the second day, especially soriyna or whatever the F her name is ruined it so much I can’t give it any more stars.

The staff at this motel really are incredibly friendly. The rooms are very clean and the location is perfect to walk to eat or see the boardwalk. Great deal for the price.

My family and I discovered Seaway Inn after our last bad experience at Terrace Courts. The manager was very friendly and showed us what a room looked like plus their rates are amazing.
We’ve been staying at Seaway Inn for almost five years now and we will continue on staying here. Our rooms are always freshly clean and very comfortable. In the mornings, you can go down to the front office and get some breakfast.
Great location. You can walk everywhere. The beach, the wharf, the Boardwalk and even Pacific Avenue if you’re that fit.
Going up the giant hill can be difficult at times but it won’t stop us from staying there. See you in March!

Cute little Inn right at the top of the hill from Santa Cruz boardwalk. I just spent one night here but felt I could stay there some more. I had a room with ocean view and for $ 128 per night on weekend, I couldn’t ask for more considering the rates for few others around at the same location. I am not sure about the other regular rooms there but the ocean view rooms are on the quieter side of the street and I was glad I booked that one which was just $ 5 more than the regular ones but in addition to the view was on the quieter side. The room was small but the décor was cute. pastel green walls with the green curtains and glass sliding doors gave a nice ocean feel. the view in the morning was pretty not extremely amazing or fancy but just pretty. they have free breakfast which has quiet a few options. bagels, muffins, serials, boiled eggs, yogurt and also have a waffle maker which was pretty cool… the bath was rather tiny but
clean.the bed was comfortable with lots of small pillows… all in all it was a pleasant, comfortable stay… If you are looking for something fancy there might be better options in this area but for the price, location, cleanliness and comfort I think if I am around in this area again I might just prefer the same one again with the same view!

Great place to stay very close to the beach in Santa Cruz.
The wife and I just spent two nights at here. We had spent a great two nights here in 2013 and came back when we passed through town again.
Our room was clean, large, and had a great view of the bay.
Their website is super easy to use and also allows you to register and pay your (very reasonable) pet fee online instead of being like many places where you have to call.
One drawback is a small parking lot that fills up before all the rooms do and sometimes people have to park in the lot next door. Not a dealbreaker, but less than ideal.
Mini-​breakfast was okay. Coffee strong and tasty.
Great spot that we’ll definitely return to in the future.

This was one of the worst accommodations value ratio. I am just coming back from the Fairmont hotel in san jose which was 199 for 5 star luxury. I paid 150 for this dump which gives me lumpy pillows made out of and the oldest rotten furniture from the 70’s. Its ok for a 60 dollar motel. Way too expensive for a one star.

The room was tiny and outdated. The bed was terrible. The head and foot bowed upward when I sat on the side of it. My husband and I kept rolling toward the center when we were attempting to sleep. I was so uncomfortable, I was unable to sleep. We paid over $ 300 for a one night stay here! Definitely not worth it.

An older hotel. Great location, decent room, nice staff, filling breakfast, but…
You go to a hotel to sleep and the mattress was rock hard. I probably would have done better sleeping on the floor. After 2 nights of getting no sleep I was happy to go.
There’s a beautiful B&B next door, The West Cliff Inn. I’ll try that next time I’m in Santa Cruz.

Loved this place. Clean, conveniently-​located, friendly staff, cute (if not particularly fancy) rooms. Comfortable bed, though the pillows are shorter than normal and a little strange to get used to (but they provided plenty of them, so it worked). A view of the wharf & water from their balcony — couldn’t have been better, especially considering the price. Booked a room that morning, checked in by 3:15pm. Parking was easy (though the front desk clerk mentioned that if their lot was full, they used an overflow lot across this street which involved parking validation. But we didn’t experience that) & no issues with billing. My sole complaint (if I had to make one) is that the showers are small. The free breakfast was continental and not anything fancy, but they had a waffle maker and decent coffee.
Will definitely come again on our next visit to Santa Cruz!

I canceled my reservation because they were charging me $ 300 for saturday night and $ 200 for sunday night. I didn’t like the discrepancy in pricing so I cancelled thursday. I receive a call on sunday (right as I’m waiting in the dream inn hotel to walk down the isle as a bridesmaid) and the associate tells me I’ve been charged for saturday. I told her I had cancelled and never even received a confirmation email. She tells me ‘well the system says it sent you an email’ and precedes to raise her voice at me! Absolutely unprofessional and unacceptable. She told me the manager would call me tuesday and I never received a call. I am planning on filing fraud charges on my card as well as a complaint with the BBB. I would never stay here after the awful customer service I received over the phone, I mean who yells at the customer in the customer service industry?

We go to Santa Cruz every year for a Bay Area family staycation. Finally after 5 years we have found the perfect inn for us! Our dog is part of the family and since she’s a guard dog by breed, the sliders are perfect for her to check out the scene and await our return from the Boardwalk, which is just a few blocks away within walking distance.
We’re about to make our reservations for this summer and I realized I forgot to give them the Unilocal review they deserve from last year so I’m taking a minute to do it now.
Staff is SUPER friendly and helpful.
It’s not a 5-​star hotel (no room service, bell hop, etc.) but I’m rating it 5 stars because of value, good ol’ friendly American service, location and fit for our family.

Great place, location, location, location.
For the price a Great value and a great view.
Kind of noisy in the evening but I am out till late anyways.
Staff very helpful and polite.
Very clean and well kept.
Great budget breakfast.

My family and I decided to take a vacation down to Santa Cruz for a couple of days, while on break. We needed a place that was dog friendly and close to the beach. Seaway Inn delivered!
It was about a 5 minute walk to the sand, 8 minutes to the wharf and about 15 minutes to the boardwalk. The staff was really friendly, especially April who didn’t mind if we ate our take out order in the office lounge. It was extremely fun since we traveled with our two kids. The breakfast was really good too. unlimited waffles! Well, not really unlimited but staff didn’t seem to care that we made 7 waffles. The breakfast wasn’t superb but definitely fun for the family.
The only issue I had with the hotel was the cost of the room. We stayed for one night (Wednesday) in a Queen/​King combo w/​pet deposit for $ 170! For the quality of the room I feel it was a bit high. There wasn’t much room to hangout as a family but the beds were nice.
My overall impression is that if you’re a family in need of closeness to the beach and a quick getaway then the seaway inn is a great place. However, if your planning on staying more than one night, I’d probably go with a house or cheaper hotel.

Awesome place to stay… as a family or a couple. Great location, price, and nice accommodates. This is not a luxury hotel but still a great place to stay!

I really liked everything about this hotel. This is a small friendly, clean hotel. Great location, a short walk to the wharf and the Boardwalk. Right across from the beach. Nice view from the front, upper balcony with sitting area outside each room. Great shower. Really good breakfast.

My sister lives in Santa Cruz, and it’s a struggle finding a place to stay when we visit. Most places are either very expensive (especially in the summer) or complete dives. Seaway is neither. It is small, and they seem to fill up fast. We stayed this time in January and they were totally booked, so definitely make reservations. The rooms are small but very clean. Ours had a coffee pot, microwave and fridge. It seems like they are also updating the bathrooms (which are also small, but very clean).
They are right on the beach, and for $ 5 extra you can get a second floor room with an ocean view. There is a nice balcony, so this is worth the $ 5 to sit and have coffee looking at the ocean.
The breakfast was good: boiled eggs, waffles, fruit, pastries. The front desk was friendly enough. We were offered tea and cookies on arrival.
The best part for us: they take dogs. Even large dogs. And dog beach is about half a mile down the road, so for a dog family like us, this place is literally perfect.

Family Owned!
I had room 107 — on the first floor — lots of space because it is also their handicap room. With the sliding glass door and large window, this room was extra bright.
My sister and her family stayed in 105 which is a family style room. It has two separate rooms one with a futon, tv and desk — the other with two queen size beds and a tv. Not huge but did the job of keeping a family of 5 happy and cozy.
My mother a room upstairs which was just a standard room — not as bright as my room but not dark either. Not bad but I loved my room.
Service was extra nice, newspaper in the morning, breakfast and coffee were yummy, room was super clean. Loved the free internet service that wasn’t snail slow like most hotels.
Short walk to the boardwalk! Our Family will be back. Thanks Seaway :)