Holiday Inn Express & Suites Watsonville

Absolutely terrible customer service. They can’t return a phone call, I’m trying to reserve a block of rooms for my wedding. I have been calling and leaving messages for the manager (who is never available, except for the first time I called) for 2 weeks. They told me it would take 48 hours to request the room block because their breakfast room only accommodates so many people so they can’t have too many people staying there at once?! Ridiculous.

This hotel is really nice, clean & Comfortable. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because our TV didn’t work. When we notified the staff they were prompt & nice about trying to fix the situation. The hotel was booked so we couldn’t switch rooms. We spoke to the manager & we were told by another staff member that we would possibly get a complimentary night but that didnt happen. However, she did discount our rate which was fine. It sucked because I have 3 little ones. But other than that it was a pleasant experience.

Wasn’t impressed… wouldnt stay at again. $ 250 per night and take a look at the picture of our stained sheets. Bathroom had hair in the shower so between that and the sheets, let’s just say I didnt feel overly confident in the rooms cleanliness. The continental breakfast was good and had a surprisingly good selection. Would much rather travel a little further and stay in a better hotel. Disappointing stay :(

Pros — Comfortable bed, front desk service was good, WiFi was fairly quick. Room was somewhat clean (see cons).
Cons — Ants. Not an entire colony, but random rogue ants out and about in the bathroom. Extremely annoying. I’d recommend giving a pest control company a call. Long hair in bathtub… yuck. Thermostat — looks like a thermostat out of the 80’s. I had to turn it down to 60 to get the air to kick on, if you tried to turn it up to 70 or so, it would turn off. So it was difficult to maintain a comfortable temperature in the room. Lighting — where the desk/​table is in the front of the room, lighting is poor. I work when I travel, and need some lighting over my laptop!!! And finally — this is petty, but irritating — I am in the bay area/​south coast, and they can’t subscribe to Comcast Sports Net Bay Area so you can see the SF Giants game??? Geez…
I travel a lot for work, and Holiday Inn Express is normally a solid, reliable hotel, where we know what we will get. I would have to think about staying in this one again.

Fast and easy check in and out. Indoor pool and spa were great. Shower is left some to wonder how often they get throughly cleaned. There was that black slimy soap scum under the grab bar, metal shelf in shower, under the shower valve. It was strange because the rest of our suite was very clean. Shower has great water pressure, shower head was clogged or dirty as it shoots water every were. Since it is a 2 room suite the layout is the tv/​wet bar area is in the front and the bedroom and bathroom directly behind, well the 1 window unit in the bedroom doesn’t cut it for the front tv/​wet bar area was very warm. Breakfast was ok and staff was friendly and even called us after check in to see if everything was good. Having a mini fridge was a plus. Places to eat all around their location, loved that Erik’s Deli was around the corner within 5 min walking time. Target is just next light up. Overall great place great location for the cost. We would stay there again would just need to bring a fan.

This hotel has terrible Customer Service! Being a big fan of this chain I was very disappointed and will never stay here again. I reserved a room for father’s day weekend last month way back in March of this year. The cancellation policy clearly stated that I had up to two days before check in to cancell my room and not be charged, this is the only reason why I reserved this room because I was able to cancel. Shortly after reserving I changed my mind and called the hotel to cancel (way back in March). We’ll come to find out they still charged me for the room and when I called guest relations about it they said they do have a record of me cancelling back in March but that their cancellation policy is a one night penalty for cancelling. This was definitely not the case or I never would of reserved the room in the first place. I was furious, paying for a room I never even used. A bunch of greedy management at this hotel, because of them charging my debit card for this room my father’s day weekend with my kids was cut short, I couldn’t afford to do anything with them. As I said before I was furious and I will never stay at this hotel again! Lesson learned Go Elsewhere!

Room, indoor pool, and free parking are great. The room was clean and free of nasty things.
Free breakfast is okay. But it’s free!
And it’s close enough to Santa Cruz.

Helpful and friendly front desk attendant. I was pleased with the customer service. Decent bed and pillows. Terribly loud air conditioner. The shower experience was not great because the water pressure actually hurt. No matter what setting I turned it to, it was way too hard. Also, the bathroom sink had a slow drain which I can’t stand. It’s not a bad place for the price point, if you need a place to stay during travel. I would probably stay here again if in the area. Overall, it’s a fairly good place to stay the night.

Adequate. King suite was very small. Needed to move couch so the pull out bed would open fully. Bathroom in bedroom made it difficult to share a room. Bed was very comfortable and shower head was great. Toilet wouldn’t flush. Shower curtain too short! Overall, not my usual experience with Holiday Inn Express. But, Pete at front desk was excellent!!!

I can never give a five star to a holiday inn though this is very nice. Has a pool and spa. Also some place for exercise. The inn is also located in a place where many restaurants are located and other attractions.

This was the perfect overnight stay for us. The staff was friendly and gave us great recommendations for dinner and a stroll on the beach. The spa and pool was in a neat little room – clean and comfortable (other than the tiny, scratchy pool towels). Amenities such as Target and Starbucks were close-​by. Breakfast was typical of HI – salty little omelettes and sausage patties, oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, coffee and tea with variety of milk and Coffee-​mates. Room was clean and spacious but bathroom was not upgraded with tile, etc like most of the HI we have stayed in recently. Overall very comfortable stay, would return.

We stayed in a suite/​room with separate living area which was nothing more than a regular sized room with a wall and door built in the middle, leaving you a cramped bedroom where you could barely walk around the edges of the bed. There was no closet or armoire for your clothes because there was no room. Instead, you had to hang them in the bathroom directly behind the sink — I’ve attached a photo of it. The tub had a shower head that was so old that the water pressure was EXTREMELY heavy and got the entire bathroom floor wet when we turned it on. The spray did not work correctly and made a mess. The separate living area was a cheap couch cramped into a tiny area with a TV that was good for nothing. The frig was located under a counter where you had to open a door to reach it, however, you couldn’t open the frig all the way because it was wedged against the wall. Also, it was too tall for the under counter space so you scraped your fingers if you tried to open it. The temperature was only moderately cool and useless (we had to use our ice cooler instead). The room was very hot and required you use the air conditioner all night. The problem is that they moved the controls for the air conditioner from the unit to a wall thermostat, leaving no way to control the noisy fan. It was located right next to the bed and blew STRONG cold air directly on you in that cramped bedroom. The room was VERY CLAUSTROPHOBIC so we ended up staying out of it as much as possible. Cannot believe they charged us $ 179 night for a room where you felt you were being punished. We will never stay here again.
CAUTION: the picture of the room they show on their website does not resemble the actual room.

My fellow Unilocaler Jonathan P. and I had to crash at this hotel because we couldn’t hang with some friends who were partying.
I thought it was absolutely great, they made accommodations for us at a early time in the AM, the only reason I give it ⁴⁄₅ instead of a perfect is because the room was a disabled persons accommodation room and I do not necessarily know how to work those types of showers and it got the whole bathroom and my clothes wet, but that was not a deal breaker.
I still really enjoyed this place and they have continental breakfast, which I missed but that is only because I was sleeping so comfortably in the king sized bed.

I’m so torn on this place. I’ll give a breakdown of star-​values:
— Staff: 4.5 stars. Most of the employees are wonderful, helpful and attentive. The one maid that tried to squeeze herself between her cart and my cart (to take my bags out of the room) in the 3 seconds I was standing there was rude. Let me get in my room then you can get by.
— Cleanliness of the room: 2 stars. There was makeup on our bedspread. It was also torn. Had obviously not been washed. The bathroom was another story completely. You can see my picture of our tub faucet that was literally about to come off of the wall. It actually exploded while I was in the shower. There was also rotting wall next to the tub that was leaking. Fortunately, the maintenance man came up while we were gone and fixed it and we didn’t have any more issues.
— Breakfast: 1 star. Disgusting. Children coughing all over everything. The only decent food was the oatmeal, and that was packaged. I heard a couple years ago that Holiday Inn was supposed to be offering gluten free options but that hasn’t happened yet.
— Pool/​spa: 5 stars. We went down around 10pm on Friday night and it was perfect. No one else was there so we had the place to ourselves. The pool was clean and warm and there were plenty of clean, albeit teensy-​tiny towels. And the spa was delightful after a long day at work and a 3 hour car ride.
— Accessibility: 5 stars. So close to everything! Nob Hill, Target, gas stations. You need it, it’s nearby.
Average: 3.5 stars. I would stay here again, but would definitely make sure I had a working faucet before getting in the tub…

Was here for a night during Jan 2014. I got the room around 8pm and it seemed like there was a lot of rooms left.
Pros:
–Free Parking (well lit lot)
–Clean and big rooms
–Convenient location (close to Safeway, Target, Starbucks, etc)
–Free breakfast
–Bed & Body Works shampoo and body gels (that’s a first for any hotel I’ve been at)
Cons:
–There was no way to close the shades entirely. Couldn’t really sleep in a bit more once the sun was out.

Rooms are nice and the beds are comfortable. Breakfast offered a variety of food to choose from. The indoor pool was a plus. Will definitely stay here again.

**Pros**
— Parking’s free.
— The free breakfast is nice. It’s buffet style. Bacon, eggs, bagels, etc. Nothing like waking up to the alluring smell of bacon.
— Free wifi
— They slipped a rapid checkout slip under our door in the middle of the night so we didn’t even have to check out at the front desk.
— The bathtub/​shower combo has a circular shower curtain that extends outwards and makes the shower seem a bit roomier.
— They have a jacuzzi, tiny work out room, and pool.
— Air conditioning was nice and kept the room cool.
— I like the 3-​story design. It means less people staying at the hotel.
**Cons**
— The pillows are kinda cruddy.
— They didn’t have an easily accessible stairway so you’re waiting at the ONE elevator during peak hours.
**Recommendations**
— I’d recommend this place if you’re looking for a nice place to stay.

Air flow in the room was not that great we didn’t realize the curtains covered the AC unit and it never got cool. Free breakfast was nice.

Family-​friendly hotel, 5+ stars for hospitality. We stayed here 3 days during our trip to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The receptionist was nice enough to get us a room next to the breakfast area and allowed us to check-​in early on day one. Day two, after a long day at the Boardwalk, we walked into our immaculate room thanks to brilliant maid service. Day three, we were granted our request for late checkout. Trying to gather kids from the pool is not an easy task, so we needed the extra hour to pack up and clear our room. The pool is kept clean with towels available consistently. The lobby/​lounge area is comfy and cozy with a nice fireplace. The breakfast area staff were amazing and made sure everything was always refilled, hot, and delicious. In addition to a fantastic getaway, the hotel was comped thanks to hubby’s points!

I made a reservation in May for a July 14^th 2012 stay for my daughter’s water polo tournament in Santa Cruz. In June we found out the tournament was cancelled so I tried to cancel the reservation. I was told by the manager that we couldn’t cancel as it was non-​refundable. I checked my confirmation and it was stated in small print at the bottom of the reservation that yes it was non-​refundable. This was not clearly stated on the website. Yes it was visible, but not clearly marked in BOLD or highlighted and was easy to miss. My fault for not reading closer. They would not let me move the reservation to another Holiday Inn — it had to be for Watsonville. They would let me move the reservation to another date — only if I stayed in Watsonville.
I refuse to do business with a company that is so inflexible and ignores their customers. I made an honest mistake and tried to correct it over 30 days in advance. If you know Santa Cruz in the summer, they easily could have resold this room in June for the July 14^th date. Instead they are losing my business for life. They are not affliated with the Better Business Bureau in Santa Cruz county. What does that say about them? I will tell every person I know of my bad experience with Holiday Inn and encourage them to avoid them at all costs. I suggest you do the same.