Hotel Condominio Casa Blanca

We rented a 1 BR suite for one month, at a price of $850. Overall that is a good value for what is essentially a 1 BR apartment. However, there are some pros and cons to consider.
Pros:
- Price: You get a lot of space and a nice kitchen for $850 per month. Compared to other hotels in Santa Cruz, this seemed to us like a good value.
- Staff: Very friendly and helpful. Most of the front desk also speak English.
- Swimming Pool: Very nice pool with a waterfall.

Cons:
- No credit cards: Hotel does not accept credit cards for long term stays. That's a first for us anywhere we have traveled. This was hard to understand, but "it's just the way it is". We had to make 3 separate trips to ATMs on 3 days to come up with the cash to pay up front.
- Deposit: We had to make a $300 deposit up front that we didn't know about beforehand. I was a little concerned we would never see that money again, but in the end we were refunded our deposit on the day we checked out.
- Hidden Charges: We found out a few days before checkout that we would be charged for our electric usage during our stay, and these charges would come out of our deposit. It ended up not being a huge bill, approx $50, but nonetheless was a surprise.
- Air Conditioning: There is air conditioning only in the bedroom, which isn't nearly enough air to cool the rest of the apartment. They sorely need to add a split unit to the living room. We were not there during the hottest time of the year, and it was uncomfortable. During Dec/Jan it must be stifling.
- Room Location: Rooms are either on the street side or the courtyard side. Ours was on the street side, which was pretty noisy. We tried to move to the courtyard/side but were told none were available on that side!
- Hotel Location: The hotel is situated on a quite unattractive street with vacant lots next door that are littered with trash and rubble (which is the case in much of Santa Cruz). It is not a good street to walk on, especially at night.
- Restaurant: Food is lousy, and hardly anyone patronizes it. Long term stay does not include breakfast.

Overall, Hotel Casablanca is very reasonably priced, but you get what you pay for. Next time I will probably pay the extra $500 and stay at Toborochi Suites.

Part of the hotel is rented out monthly, mostly to students studying at the local university. On any given night there are loud parties around the pool area and it's very hard to sleep until things quite down around 2-3am.