Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Santa Cruz

Liked: Nicely appointed and free breakfast was phenomenal.

Pleasant, quiet, nice staff

Liked: A bigger room than we are used to staying in as it was a suite with a comfy sofa, microwave and fridge, bath (always a bonus!). The breakfast had a range of options. The hotel / room was quiet, couldn't hear the nearby PCH. The young lady on reception went out of her way to offer places to visit in the local area when I told her we were birdwatching - thank you for your effort! This was the only place we stayed at on our trip that we were aware of that had free-to-view movie streaming on the TV that was easy to access.
Disliked: Nothing to do with the hotel but it is opposite a school and we made the mistake of arriving to check in at school exit time so we were sitting at the road crossing at the adjacent junction for over 10 minutes whilst all the young folk crocodiled out across the road. No noise or any problem but just try and check in at a different time!

Overall nice hotel covering all...

Liked: The location is excellent near Natural Bridges in a quiet area not far from the center of town. The staff were friendly and helpful. The breakfast has a nice variety of tasty and healthful snack items. The parking is free.
Disliked: The breakfast could be more substantial considering the cost of the hotel, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Poor

Liked: Rooms were clean and comfortable
Disliked: Lost my confirmation or could not find it. I checked in to find out I was lost in the system. I had a room with two beds and was switched to a room with a Queen size bed. I had a family member with me. We slept uncomfortably.

The breakfast area is very...

Liked: Quite location. It’s on the Westside.. Easy drive to UCSC

Messy and unorganized check in

Liked: The breakfast was ok. I wish there were freshly cooked eggs instead of the heated items.
Disliked: I have never seen such unorganized check in. The front desk employees were running up to the rooms to check if they were ready to be assigned because they said the system does not sync what's still occupied and what is clean. I arrived early to see if my room was ready for possible check in. It wasn't and it was not a big deal since I was just there early. I didn't mind waiting. The girl at the front desk told me she was new, so I gave her grace since I had some time to spare. It took 40 minutes after check in started for me and my husband to finally get a clean room. We were first given room keys to a room that was not even cleaned yet. We went upstairs and found dirty towels, a wet bathroom and pillows not in place. There was crumbs all over the desk. I went back down stairs to notify a now different girl working the desk and she told us we were supposed to wait like 20 more minutes before the room was ready. It was not communicated to us to wait. We should have never been given the room keys if the room was not ready. The girl asked what was wrong with the room and if she can quickly grab it out of the way for us. I understand she was trying to make the situation better but that room still wouldn't have been cleaned or restocked for us. It was unacceptable and I requested for a new clean and stocked room since we had to get ready for a wedding. The girl had to figure out what was available, ran upstairs some more to check on clean rooms and then we made the move. We lost a lot of time just trying to get the room that we had to rush ourselves to get to our destination. The front desk is always our first impression of the hotel and it was not a good one.

Great location, good breakfast, friendly...

Liked: Great location, good breakfast, and the staff were friendly and helpful. I've stayed here many times, and they're consistent in all areas.

Nice

Disliked: Need more service providers.

Passable

Liked: It was quiet. Safe neighborhood.
Disliked: The breakfast was horrible

Good

Liked: TV's did not work appropriately. When contacting front desk they were useless