Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Santa Cruz (California)

Horrible view, unhelpful staff, no towels for 2 of 3 days (wet ones were delivered on the 3rd day), and power and cable problems capped off a 3 night vacation stay that we'd hoped to be perfect, but was less than average. We were told by staff that the walk was a short distance to the beach, and it was very far. Especially if you don't enjoy walking through a total barrio. We had a 3rd floor view of a junk house with a 50's vintage school bus parked in the back yard, and a weirdo that smoked all night behind a music store. There was also a mattress sprawled out for a junkyard dog in this side yard. The parking garage is only big enough for a smart car. The worst of it though was a power outage that occured on the third evening that lasted all night, and prevented us from watching any tv at all. The management claimed it was a transformer failure, but nothing else in the neighborhood was out. Then when the power finally came on, the cable tv was out for the remainder of the next day. I guess transformers blow out cable too? It more than likely was their own internal systems mal-functioning since they had a power system that requires you to keep your room key card plugged in to get power. After a 3rd horrible night, I asked for some kind of discount since we could do nothing in our room. They could care less even though we had spent a total of nearly $600. I would never recommmend this hotel. Alternatively, get the Surf & Sand on the beach.