Chose this hotel for my birthday weekend in Santa Cruz, trying to stay within the Choice Hotels group to earn points, and it was the only one within our budget. When making the online reservation 1-2 months ago, I specifically asked for a lower level floor due to being a senior (62), and recuperating from knee surgery a few months ago. When we checked in, I asked about the lower level, and no rooms were available with a king size bed. He stated that they had a queen size, but that was already reserved. The alternative? A room on the second level close by steep stairs. Too many trips up and down slowly with some knee pain, so very unhappy with this. When we parked in the handicapped space, the clerk saw this and came to our car and said ”sorry”. Our check-in process was a little challenging with the language (clerk was E. Indian). We were not told where the ice maker was, and my husband had to search to find, which was located at the opposite end of the motel on the bottom level. We were not told about breakfast and those hours, therefore we never used. The room was somewhat updated, but carpet was dirty, as my husband's white socks got dirty black stains on the bottom over both nights of the two-night stay. Some of the electrical outlets didn't work. The configuration of the room was odd, as the bathroom door blocked closet door; one has to be closed in order to access the other. Wasted space in an area where a desk or table w/ chairs would have been nice to use for additional seating. Not enough room between closet shelf and clothing rack, as it was difficult to remove hangers ( see picture). The king size bed was not too bad, but we bought our own pillows and had some comfort. Room was quiet, but at night, when we returned to our room there were a couple of people walking around that looked a little rough, so we made sure our car was locked and did not have any items visible. It looked like someone looked in our car, because palm handprints were found on the back passenger window that we saw the next morning. The window air conditioner could have been a little cooler, even after leaving on high when not in the room. This was ridiculous, given we were in an area where the temps were in the 70s, but there was some humidity in the area. The frosted window above the air conditioner did not have curtains, so at night there was a bright light shining in from the parking lot next door, so the room was not completely dark, and it was hard to get to sleep. The curtains were torn and knotted, and ugly to look at (see pictures). The coffee maker was small and okay, but not a Keurig unit. Please do not label me a ****** on my next comments, but there must be a culture thing with the Indian people who are running/owning these establishments. They need to focus on speaking clearly and doing better with customer service and to ensure that the rooms are in good shape and that their visitors receive all pertinent information about th