Our stay in Kokoro was not something to be desired by anybody, we would say it was not memorable, and we would like to erase our stay in the property from our mind. First of all, when we checked in, Fernando the front desk agent gave us a puzzled look as if we did not have a reservation. We sensed that we will have to play their game. We had to call the company we booked through (HotelClub.com) and complained that Kokoro did not receive our hotel reservation, and that we were not appearing in their computer. This already sounded fishy because we knew that we paid for two beautiful cabins (according to the advertised picture) way ahead of time, and we had a confirmation. Hotelclub.com told us that our reservation was confirmed. Fernando told us not to worry that he would work something out for us, but immediately we could read between the lines that he wanted us to pay more money to stay in the property, and he sounded that they were booked up. We got to know later on that there was hardly anybody staying in their property. He told us next time never to deal with ANY third party, because one gets the worse accommodations. After all the run around, we waited for two hours and Fernando finally confirmed that we had a reservation. Fernando finally gave us two rustic but beautiful cabins with the understanding that we had to move to different rooms the following day because they were booked. The following day, we spoke to the morning front agent on duty, and asked him if we had to move to different rooms and if that was the case we will leave the bags in storage with him, but he said that we did not have to move. We were scheduled to take a half day tour at 7:15 AM, and while having breakfast the agent came running to let us know that he made a mistake and we actually had to pack and move out of the rooms immediately. We really felt harassed the way the situation was handled, because we had to stop eating breakfast and run to our rooms to pack our bags in a matter of minutes because our tour driver was already waiting for us. But this is not the end of our nightmare.

Coming back from the tour, we stopped at the front desk and Fernando was on duty, and while walking towards the place, he was preparing us psychologically about the new rooms. He said that these are the type of rooms that one gets booking through a third party. He also said these rooms had been closed for awhile because they are only utilized in their high season. Before reaching the place, the lush tropical beauty of the main place was fading, there was almost no grass, and few tropical dying plants, a parked old car, a dark ugly hut gazebo, and an abandoned storage place.

When we arrived to our new rooms, we were confronted with another nightmare. The two rooms were not cabins by any stretch of the imagination, they actually looked like cheap flea bag motel rooms. The rooms were newly fumigated and we could hardly breath with a very strong musty smell in the air. This treatment was totally unacceptable and degrading. We felt that we were back in Colonial times that we were put in the maids quarters, and we felt like second class citizens just because we booked through a third party, and that is what we deserved .

We went back to Fernando and told him that those rooms were not acceptable, and we even offered to pay a bit more to stay in the same type of room that we had the night before. After all their game playing, he managed to put us in other cabins, equal to the ones we stayed the first night, still not knowing if we had to pay more because he had to check with the owners.

When we checked out, Fernando expected us to pay a total of $80 extra for the two cabin rooms that we got. The reason we refused to pay any extra money is because it was a matter of principle, for the above harassment they gave us, and the way they handled the whole situation. We felt that they did not deserve an extra cent. After much arguing, the owner came and told Fernando not to charge us anything extra and forget the whole thing. What a Kokoro nightmare experience this was!

The owner of this place should have never advertised through any third party if they wanted to charge more money and put the guest through these manipulative horrible experiences.

We hope nobody else has gone through what we had been through.

I spent three nights at Kokoro because of its friendly and knowledgeable staff. They helped us have a very eventful trip in Arenal. The rooms were large, clean, and appropriately priced. The breakfasts' were delicious, and the coffee was delightful. Our great experience at Kokoro is another reason why we loved our Costa Rican vacation.

Sadly, we only spent one night at Kokoro and the Arenal area. This is what I imagined when I think of Costa Rica--lush and green and beautiful. The room was large, the shower (mostly) hot (I showered second), and the beds comfortable. Breakfast was the best we had the entire week in Costa Rica. Fernando was helpful and friendly and is a huge asset to the Hotel.

Stay 3 nights here and were one of two couples staying at the entire resort because it was the low season. Great service and the rooms were very nice and spacious. The owners really took care of us and gave us great reccomendations for places to eat and activities. My only complaint is that the beds are not of the best quality. It is about $10 every time you want to go to town so I would not recommend this place if you aren't driving. Loved it!