Lanai Lodge

Truly a weird place to stay. When we arrived we noticed that all the room doors were wide open the whole way along the corridor. Upon entering the room we discovered why: the air conditioning had been disabled. In California. In Summer. Temperature 88 °F (31C). No way to get it working.
Tried to watch TV but the TV and the cable box were both unplugged. Plugged them in and finally got the TV going after much rooting around behind the TV cabinet.
Decided to put my beers into the fridge to keep cool. Electrical outlet near the fridge has had the grounding pin plugged up so fridge can no longer be plugged in. Managed to bodge that one and got the fridge working (don’t ask!)
Starting to get dark, maybe we should turn on a light. Seriously ONE LIGHT. The only one that we can make work.
I understand that they might be trying to save money as this is a budget hotel but, seriously?
Cannot recommend this hotel unless you get a REALLY good deal on the room rate. Just don’t expect working air conditioning, fridge, TV or lights for your money. Also don’t expect the place to be clean or well-​maintained.

Motel que deixa muito a desejar, pelo mesmo preço ficamos em opções muito melhores na nossa viagem pela California. Quartos sujos e mal cheirosos. Péssima experiência, infelizmente, pois os donos foram super cordiais, mas falta profissionalismo na gestão desta propriedade.

Let me start with: The service was nice. The reception people were really nice, they were attentive and cordial. They gave us a fan because the room did not have AC.
The hotel: expensive and old. The room had a little bit of ocean view. The room outdated and kind of dirty. The walls were covered by this «dust“who knows what it is. People were cleaning the rooms and I did not see them taking the bed covers. Are they not supposed to change those every time people check out of a room? For 229 $ for a night, YES THEY HAVE TO… well, a hotel supposed to. You don’t know what people do over those, gross.
The pool was nice, we swam a little while. Too expensive for the quality. My advice is, paint the rooms grey, change the carpet to a dark grey and update the bed covers to a bright color like yellow. It will look modern and worth it of the price.
The hotel is close (walking distance) to the boardwalk, that is awesome. It is really really loud in the day time because the buses ride on that street.
Forgot. The «FREE BREAKFAST» it is not actual breakfast, it pastries likes the ones are sold at costco and coffee… that s it/

We stayed at this lodge as an Overnighter on our way to San Fran and it’s not fancy but it served our purpose. It was cheap, clean, had cable TV and free wifi.
The Manager was really nice and friendly and helped me get the cable working when I was too stupid to work out the remote! The only problem is the walls are really thin and the toilet door sticks so it’s really loud when people try to close it or watch TV, but I always bring earplugs for this reason so we had no probs and actually a good night sleep.
There is no brekky but they do serve coffee and a Danish in the morning so you cant complain about that. It’s close to Downtown and the Boardwalk so we loved the location as it’s all walking distance. It was cheap and easy and all we needed!

If you’re used to the Hilton you might not dig this place.
Lots of whiners here giving the Lanai a bad rap. Whiners.
Read the negative reviews — most all of them have two things in common:
1) Whiners;
2) Non-​locals who booked through sh*tty 3^rd-​party companies like Exp*edia, Pricel*ine, etc.
Go on the web, CALLTHEM at the front desk. Simple.
$ 90 total for a suite that sleeps 6 easlily (separate bedroom with queen bed)
is a great deal. I have never had any of the problems that the negative reviewers here complained about. No problems, decent room, 2 minutes from the beach /​wharf.
Quiet. Pool. Staff is fine. Save your $$ for other things — this place is a bargain.
Been staying there for 6 years now.
If you’re not a whiner and you need an inexpensive motel that is super-​close to the beach, you will like it.
Highly recommended.

First let’s get this out of the way: If you’re not familiar with Santa Cruz, you won’t understand the motel situation. It’s dicey. Most properties are older — this is a longtime beach destination in a county where growth is not embraced. That’s a good thing for those of us who live here.
Motels like Lanai Lodge are pricier than comparable properties would be elsewhere, so if you read reviews complaining about rates, keep that in mind. It costs these people a lot in property taxes to operate.
Now my review: I travel exclusively. Period. I don’t have a residence. I stay in other people’s homes watching their dogs while they vacation. For the few nights each month I’m not booked, I stay in motels. I’m picky about some things. My #1 concern? INTERNET. I have a side business which I operate through email and the Web. If I have no connectivity, or spotty connectivity, I suffer. Lanai Lodge is the only property in the Santa Cruz area I’ve stayed at that has never had an issue there. It’s free, reliable and secure. LOVE THAT.
The rooms are older and not fancy. But they are relatively spacious and clean, and there are balconies (lanais!) accessible through sliding glass doors. This morning I soaked up the Santa Cruz December sun while enjoying my peek-​a-​boo view.
The owners and staff are awesome, flexible and friendly. I couldn’t recall if LL had refigerators and microwaves, so I called to inquire and he actually set up one of each in my room before I checked in (Hello? Can we say CUSTOMER SERVICE WINS??)
While some areas near the Boardwalk feel unsafe, this is a completely secure, quiet property in nook west of the Beach Street area and I’d never been that far out. It’s still very close to the boardwalk, Dream Inn and other pertinent Santa Cruz attractions.
The heat in my room didn’t work, or perhaps I wasn’t trying hard enough. I was too lazy to call the front desk, so don’t hold that against them. Just understand that if yours doesn’t you should ask.
I had ZERO noise in any unit near me. I realize that’s a variable that can change, but this is unlike other motels that attract vagrants and druggies. Really great place for a really great price (book through a third-​party site if you can) and I can promise you I will be back.

I laughed when I read the Unilocal reviews the first time I stayed here. Yes, I’ve stayed here TWICE. This place is kind of like a «get what you pay for» type of place. We got a deal online and shared it among 2 – 3 people. Its close to the boardwalk and they give you guarantee parking. Yes they want you out EXACTLY at check out but that’s okay. Isn’t that what check out is.
I stayed here again for the Big Kahuna triathlon — two blocks away from transition and it was great. We paid a little extra money to keep our room after we finished our race so we could shower and drive home. Totally worth it. Room is probably not the cleanest but I did a quick bed bug check and didn’t see any nasty critters so I was pleased.
I guess the take away is — you don’t come to Santa Cruz to stay in your hotel room — you go outside and enjoy the beach.
NOTE: No AC, wifi is a joke — could not log on for the life of me.

I stayed here once before and I would have given the experience 3 stars. But after revisiting the place, I give it 1 star. Let me tell you why.
The room is filthy. The walls, carpets, sheets and counters are all stained. There is a stale smell in the room and utilities in the kitchen don’t work.
The worst part is the manager. He pestered us so much and threatened to kick us out for making too much noise. Just walking around makes a big thud sound, that comes from cheap flooring. The walls are paper thin as well. That manager would continue to walk by our door and ask us inappropriate questions if he saw any of us walking around.
Its a large room with full kitchen. But save yourself the headache, go some where else.

My recent stay in Santa Cruz was surprisingly unpleasant. My boyfriend and I were in Santa Cruz for an event and decided to stay the night last minute. Since it was last minute it all kind of happened fast and we hadn’t set an alarm for the morning. When the morning rolled around we missed checkout at 11 and at 11:15 the manager of the hotel comes barging in our room demanding for us to leave that second otherwise he was going to call the police! How rediculous! Anyways I will never stay here again or recommend anyone to ever stay here. Even for cheap last minute it’s not worth it not to mention it reeked of new paint!

For some wacky reason. My husband and I stay here every Xmas w our 4 boys. I dread it every year, and every year it’s worse and worse.
On the upside… It’s a cheap (ish) hotel and we don’t have to worry about our 4 young boys (6,8,9,&13) breaking anything because everything is ALREADY broken!
The staff is completely rude. We stay in room 218 w the kitchen, separate bedroom & pull out couch. When we arrived the kids were hungry and we brought spaghetti to make for dinner. We called the front desk to ask for the dishes and she said «we’ll bring them up tomorrow». Unacceptable. They ended up bringing the dishes. We get into the room and it’s FREEZING, the pilot is out. Call the front desk, they say someone will be up in 3 hours to light the pilot! My husband asks to just use the lighter and she says she will not give him the lighter. We ended up finding a lighter and got the pilot lit. … The sun goes down, we start flipping lights on, NO LIGHTBULBS. Call the front desk. She asks me to come down and get one. I send the 13 yr old down, he returns and says she wouldn’t give him a bulb.. I go down and she says «I didn’t want to give the bulb to the baby in case he hurt himself». He’s a TEENAGER.
Tiles are falling off the walls in the bathroom. The bedding is rough itchy polyester (if that). It’s just not a good place. I dont know why our boys beg and insist to stay in this dump every Xmas :-/​
On the upside, since this is like our 6^th time here we know what to bring w us, paper towels, olive oil, salt & pepper, sponge (things for the kitchen). and it’s always an adventure… If this place were just run by different people it wouldn’t be so bad. It’s so unbelievable the way they treat the guests of the hotel.
Oh! The free wifi was broken too, and no 3 prong outlets for the laptop

DO NOT STAY HERE!!! THIS PLACE IS A DUMP!!!
This had to be the worst place my family and I have ever stayed at. I picked it because it was one of the less expensive places in Santa Cruz and right near a race that I was competing in.
Expedia also rated it at 3 stars so I didn’t think it could be all that bad. We had the 2 bedroom family suit, but there was nothing suit about this room.
The carpet had cigarette burns, the couch looked like they grabbed it off the street corner and just removed a free sign. I had to ask for an extra sheet to put over the couch before my kids could sit on it. My 8 and 4 yr old even thought it was a dump. It had a kitchen, but no pots or pans. My wife wanted to make tea in the evening, but since there was no coffee maker she couldn’t do that. The wall paper the room was peeling off and many stains all over the walls. The description said flat panel TVs, which was a lie. The TV looks very old and had the front cover broken off that hides the manual buttons for the vol. and channel. They also say continental breakfast. Yeah right, if you consider OJ and cheap danish rolls from Costco, continental breakfast. The hot water in the morning had coffee grounds in the pot. Speaking of pot, the people below us, I think were where the owners had a pot plant growing on the balcony and well as some loud music playing at 11 pm. I tried to call the office, to ask for the music to stop, but the phone didn’t even work.
We also paid an extra $ 20 for a 2pm checkout. Because of the event I was doing, we got back at about 2:05 and the lady (owner) from the desk was in our room asking when we were leaving.

I needed a get away from regular life so I planned a weekend get away to Santa Cruz on the weekend of July 4^th. I thought that it was going to be hard to book a hotel room cutting close to the date so I went ahead and booked in advance with
. Not being sure of the number of people attending, this place seemed to have the best deal with 2 queen beds or 2 bedroom suite.
I’m not the type that likes to do a lot of research so I just went ahead and booked it after comparing the prices. Then when I told my girlfriend who was going on the trip with me, she Unilocal it. Oh boy… we were in it for a treat when we read the reviews. But I was like, «the hell with it, it’ll just be like another one of our adventures.»
Cons:
No AC — but thankfully it wasn’t super hot in the room that we had.
Only double prong outlets — my gf wasn’t too happy she couldn’t use her laptop.
Odor — kind of like mold…
Front desk person — not very organize and a little hard to understand.
Pros:
Free breakfast — although, we didn’t try it to be able to comment on it.
Close distance to Boardwalk, the Pier/​Wharf, Downtown, etc. — I enjoy walking and the location of the hotel made it fairly easy to go to places.
Free WiFi
Parking’s OK
Swimming pool — although we didn’t use it so not sure what to say.
There’s a TV…
Bottom line — this place is OK to put your stuff down and close your eyes but you wouldn’t want to live out of here.

You get what you pay for, maybe a little less. I found and bookedt this location through Expedia. It has decent reviews and I didn’t have any issues checking in. All of the rooms have a balcony which was really nice in the morning with a cup of coffee (that you have to get in the office w/​the complimentary «breakfast» if you can call it that). Couple things to note, the rooms do Not have A/​C but it isn’t crazy hot at night, the plug outlets are only double prong — I could not charge my laptop because it is a 3 prong plug, and the building and furnishings are in very used condition. I honestly would go again because it is super close to the beach and shops and we stayed in the family suite which gave my kids their own room. I will just make sure I bring things to accommodate what it doesn’t have.

DO NOT BOOK HERE!!! i tried to give ZERO stars.
I booked through
and when i showed up, no one was there. No one answered manager bell and
couldn’t get through to anyone on the telephone leaving me sitting in the parking lot FOR AN HOUR after a long day of driving.
I ended up booking somewhere else and showed up next day to see what happened and get a refund, the shifty eyed guy behind the desk was completely useless except in pissing me off.
tried for days to contact Lanai Lodge and after days of dodging, THE HOTEL WOULDN’T APPROVE A REFUND!
I am so livid I keep typing and backspacing to erase the profanity. I had better end it here. RAGE!

Worst… place…EVER.
I booked a room online, then called the Hotel to change my reservation from Saturday to Sunday. The guy on the phone said that it was fine, and he changed my reservation.
When I showed up on Sunday night, they said that I need to go through the internet company, and would not give me a room unless I pay for another night. The woman refused to give me any service and kept on telling my that I was wrong (in very broken English), and that I can’t call the hotel to change my reservation if I booked online — even though the guy on the phone said everything was all set, and I my reservation was changed.
At one point she got the manager on the phone and handed the phone to me. As soon as I said «hello?» he just went into a tirade and kept screaming, as if he was talking to himself. It was almost right out of a movie! I handed the phone back after he wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise. She then just started to ignore me until I give her the money for an extra night. I didn’t have much of a choice, so I ended up paying (I had just biked from San Francisco, and it was Memorial Day weekend so there weren’t any options). I explained to this other guy that showed up behind the counter that by doing what they are doing, it a short term gain, and a long term loss, because the internet is a small world if they search for you. He said he didn’t care. I said he should have more pride in his business and represent it to the best of his ability. He said he didn’t care because he might not be working there next month. I just thought «forget it» it was like talking to a brick wall.
After coughing up the cash, I got the key and went to the room. The room was disgusting. Horrible. Smelled like smoke and DIRTY.
I can honestly say it was the worst experience I have ever had with a hotel — hands down. Whatever you do — DO NOT STAY HERE. Like others have said, if I could give it no stars, I would.
This place needs to change hands and get a full renovation.

I had an absolute terrible experience with this hotel. When I tried to call and alter my reservation with the actual physical hotel, although I was within the time frame they state that one can alter their reservation, I was told they would not honor this.
I booked through an online company (not the Magnuson group, they’re actually great), so when I first called to try to alter my reservation, I had a very hard time communicating with the lady that answered the phone, but was finally told by her that I needed to contact the online company to change my reservation. Fair enough…
When I called the online company, they told me that I had to take it up with the hotel. Ok…
So I called the hotel back, and asked to speak with the manager. I was told he would be in at 5pm.
I called at 5pm and got a new man, that said the manager was here, but he left quickly and would not be back until Monday. I asked when on Monday, and I got the run around. When I tried to explain the situation the man on the phone said «you can tell me your problem, but it wont do any good, I’m just going to go home and do nothing.» Shocked, but realizing he was being honest, I asked again what time the manager would be in. This time I was told, «you probably will never get to talk to him.»
What?
I repeated back what the man said to me, and he said «oh you know what, I’m not answering anymore questions, you can talk to me, I’ll listen, but I’m not going to say anything else.» I will admit, I was pretty frustrated at this point, and the guy working at this flea bag, really probably has enough problems without me hassling him.
At a loss at what to do, I looked further into this hotel, and saw they were represented by the Magnuson Hotel group, so I called their reservation number and to see if they could be of any help. They were VERY helpful, very friendly, and gave me the numbers of the people that could probably help me, and their contact information if I needed them again.
Well, sadly, I did contact those numbers, and those numbers did insist on contacting the hotel, where they said they spoke with the manager, and he would not alter my reservation! Confused, I called the hotel back, hoping the manager had come back. Nope, I was still told there was no manager there.
When I tried to explain that someone had just called them and was told that they did indeed talk to the manager, I was hung up on.
I’m sure if you made it this far in the story, you can imagine this just kept circling. I did however call back the only helpful people in this, and they offered me a few more venues of hope, but still no resolution.
I did learn a very good lesson, and that is if I was forced to ever stay at this place of horrendous customer service, I would book it through the Magnuson group, as they actually care about customers and honor their rules.

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL!!!
I agree with another reviewer, I wish I could give this place no stars, but Unilocal wouldn’t let me.
We actually booked through Priceline, paid $ 320 for a Friday and Saturday night. The place was so rundown it looked like a place for a horror movie. All rooms are smoking, even though we specified non-​smoking. (I mean there were ashes in the drawers!!) We wanted a King size bed, which was specified, they gave us 2 queen beds. Later on that evening we spoke with our neighbors, who had no reservations and paid $ 100 dollars for a 2 King bed Suite with a kitchenette…
When we brought up these issues the hotel staff was nothing but rude, and got completely defensive and just wanted to argue… Priceline ended up settling the issue… it was an awful place!!!
I mean if I was paying $ 69 dollars, then I would expect what we got. But for the money paid, no air conditioning, wet toilet paper, dirty, smelly room, and shady customer service… Not to mention the «included breakfast» was orange juice and package of cheap «honey buns»

I tried to give this dump no stars, but Unilocal wouldn’t let me!
The service was horrendous. From the moment we got there, the lady at the front desk was so rude! No greeting, no smile, no warmth at all. She wanted us to get the license plate number of our car so my friend went out to get it, and about 20 seconds later, she tells me to go outside and tell my friend to hurry up because she was taking too long. What is that?! She had no qualms about saying everything on her mind and seemed like she went out of her way to make it an unpleasant experience for us. This lady needs to find another line of work. She had an accusative tone when asking us about how many occupants we were going to have in our room and she told us sternly twice, «Be honest!» She couldn’t just take our word for it, and she felt the need to wag her finger at us as if we were kids.
When we needed to extend checkout, she wanted to charge us an extra $ 10 for each extra hour, which I’ve never seen before. So we agreed, and even before the extra hour was up, she called, demanding the $ 10. In her words verbatim: «You pay me now.» Unbelievable.
Granted it was cheap to stay there, but there’s a certain level of service that’s mandatory at all hospitality establishments. No one deserves to be treated like that, and I hope no one goes there so they can understand that they can’t expect to stay in business with service like that.

This place used to be an Econolodge. I stayed here twice for the yearly Big Kahuna triathlon race. Yeah its a dump, but its two blocks from the race location. One week prior to the race and luckily they still had a vacancy. They wanted $ 150 for their last room, a one bedroom with kitchen. I went on Expedia and got it for $ 130.
When I was there the desk lady was telling a guest that it’s another $ 10 for a 2^nd car to park there. Why nickel and dime everyone? The prior Econolodge guy didn’t do that.
Don’t bring a gal there — she’ll go screaming out the door. The rooms are dark and dingy, like you’d bring someone paid by the hour.