Spaulding Hotel Santa Cruz

My wife and I stayed here for 2 nights and it was horrible. The whole hotel smells weird, especially the elevator. The continental breakfast consists of doughnuts, bad coffee and tea with only half & half milk. If you stay here, go to the Starbucks across the hotel for breakfast. On the first night we stayed here, there was a fire a couple of buildings away and the fire engines, police, and the smell of smoke woke us up in the middle of the night. Also, the windows don't shut properly, leaving the room cold at night, and the bathroom door didn't even close!! Adding to that, there's nothing in the bathroom besides a few small bars of soap and extra toilet paper, and there's no reception on the TV, you can barely only watch about 2 channels. Overall, this hotel was the worst hotel I've ever stayed at. My suggestion would be to only stay here if everything else is booked up, you're a deep sleeper, and you're going to be out most of the time. Otherwise, spend an extra $30-$40 and stay at a better hotel.

Stay here only when everything else is full, as a last resort. No air conditioning, no telephone, no toiletries (soap, shampoo), no maid service. The toilet seat is cracked and has scotch tape for repair. Shower has mold, and the paint is peeling. Good location near Union Square.

My wife and I statyed at the hotel for 2 nights and thankfully it was no longer.

The receptionist was welcoming however the lift and the rooms had a odd smell. The room we stayed in was clean however it was very dated.

The bath tub and sink did not drain the water away efficiently and nor did it consist of a extractor fan.

The continental breakfast provided consisted of doughnuts, tea and coffee.

Location is great but if I were you pay the extra $20-$30 per night and go else where.

Room and hallway smelled terrible! Everyday when we left the room we would be wondering what today's mystery smell would be! No hot water in the room.

We stayed 1 night instead of 7, opting to pay 65 dollars for that one night rather than pay $35 per night for 7. We moved to a clean airport hotel for 46 dollars a night.

To be fair, I was able to "peek" into another room - it was definitely better than ours, so maybe it's a "hit or miss" thing. If you don't like your room, try to get it changed before moving out. Some of the staff (actually, just one guy in particular) are friendly, and was even understanding when we said we wanted to leave.

If you're looking for a cheap place in a very good location to crash at night and quickly leave in the morning, this is the place. But, do not go here looking for someplace "romantic" or a room you can hang around in the whole day. Better to get a cheap airport hotel where they have clean sheets and towels everyday, clean bathrooms, 24 service and good smelling rooms.

I recommend the area of Burlingame, where most hotels have free shuttles to the Airport BART stations and there's a free trolley which takes you to the Burlingame Shopping area and CalTrain. BART is $5 to downtown San Francisco, Caltrain is $4. The one hour commute is worth it, compared to staying in the Spaulding.

No 24 hour checkin. Arrived at the hotel at 8 but it only opens it's doors at 9am. Clerk was good enough to allow early check-in. The lift perpetually smells of chinese food. It was strong enough to force me to hold my breath everytime i took the lift. The room was basic. 1 noisy fridge, tv with bad reception, double bed. There was a bad smell in the room. Smelt like sewerage. It took me quite a bit of time to identify the source of the smell. It was coming from the drainage of the bath tub. I covered up the hole with the shower curtain to stop the smell from eminating from it. The toilet bowl was not properly secured to the floor. So whenever I sat on it, I had to make sure I did so carefully to avoid detaching it from the floor.

The location was great though. It is within 5 minutes of Union Square so I could go shopping, buy stuff and walk back to the hotel to leave the shopping bags there before going out sightseeing again. Diners around the corner and a pretty good mediterranean restaurant next door which I ate at almost every night.

Don't stay at this hotel if you are there on honeymoon. If you do not mind roughing it out, you can consider it due to it's very good price and wonderful location.

I stayed at this hotel for 3 nights, it wasn't a good experience. I had problems from the very start, the clerk couldn't find my reservations in their system (I booked the room via the telephone, spoke with a live person who said she would send me an email confirmation but never did, I emailed them back asking for it but never got a response), he'd rather play solitaire on the computer than help me resolve the problem but very eager to check me in at a higher rate. Luckily, I had a cell phone & brought along the toll free tel # that I called to make my reservations so I was able to straighten the situation out, got the clerk to talk with the reservations rep. Still, this clerk tried to charge me $10 more than the agreed upon rate until I showed him the terms on the confirmation faxed to him by the reservations rep.

Moving on to the quality of the hotel room, it has no telephone, no cable, no antenna, no electrical outlet (there's only 1 in the bathroom), ammenities don't exist in this hotel. There's an odor in the room, the beds were beautifully made but with dirty & smelly sheets, the clean sheets that the clerk gave us had holes in them. The maids wouldn't remove the dirty sheets from the room until I left a note for them to do so. There's a pub & a bar in this neighborhood, so it gets really noisy at night, the later the noisier.

The only positive side to this horrible hotel is its location.

All things considered, $75/night at this hotel isn't that cheap if you have to deal with this kind of lack of quality, so I wouldn't recommend it. The hotel manager was unavailable the whole time. The clerk on duty often times disappeared, leaving the hotel unattended. When you ask for something, expect to have to ask multiple times before it gets done.

Old building, but they have finished recarpeting and painting hallways. Only 1 elevator. No phone, old furnishings but TV worked. Old taps, drain slow but shower hot. Inexpensive new laundry machines. Close to sports bar, starbucks, theaters, cable car, Geary bus, and Market St. streetcars/subways. $7/hr Internet a few blocks away. Weekly rate (with no maid service) equal to daily rate of hotels a block away. Excellent for independent travellers.

Stayed there in March 2005 and it looked like they were finishing up the renovation. The rooms were plain, but clean and location is second to none. At $65 a night you can't ask for anything else. Why spend all that money on room when you and blow it on a night out on the town.

I stayed in this hotel while backpacking in 2002, so perhaps it has been extensively renovated, but it was a total dump when we stayed there for 5 days. It seemed to be some sort of halfway house for the 'rougher' side of life.

Don't get me wrong, it was a lifesaver moneywise, and I would stay there again if I was backpacking or desperate, but Im writing this to advise people looking for a cheap wee place to stay on a holiday, who arent THAT constrained by money - dont do it! Go to a travel in or chain motel instead!

Location wise and value for money though - second to none.

Fantastic location in O'Farrell Street, a few doors from the corner of Powell, Union Square and cable car, 2 short blocks from Market (cable car terminus, MUNI and BART stations and Visitor Centre). Couldn't have been better.

Rooms a bit shabby but clean, beds new and comfortable, bathroom fittings somewhat ancient as refurbishment has been a bit haphazard. TV only got 3 channels and no satellite.

We got rooms at the back which were quiet even with windows wide open (no aircon). Street frontage was very noisy.

No dining room but Starbucks 4 doors down, bar next door, internet 4 doors up.

Weekly rate worked out to about $US38 a night - single nights around $55. We'd definitely go back.