I am writing this review to encourage others to try the Hotel Samara Beach. The staff was incredibly friendly, the rooms clean, and the location was very desirable in most all ways. An easy walk to the beach or the supermarket and centrally located. The only possible drawback for light sleepers is the central location, as the beach town absolutely parties on the weekend, and because of the hotel's proximity to everything, the music definitely penetrates one's sleep. However, if you bring earplugs, I'd highly encourage you to experience this very moderately priced hotel. The AC worked great, thank goodness!!

Buyer Beware! My friend and I booked a full week, we only stayed 2 nights! We asked for a refund of the 5 nights... Expedia will not refund us!!

The room was dirty! We had to keep our flip flops on will in the room. We pulled the bed away from the wall to help avoid the fire ants from getting into our beds! Another couple we spoke to at breakfast said the swimming pool area is full of fire ants and not to bother even going there. We didnt see one person use the pool during our two nights.

Also, the Expedia website for the hotel said they had "free in-room wifi"... not true. At first we told the front desk the internet was not working... the response...no comprenda. How Rude! Then we were told the internet is only in the lobby.

The first night we didn't have hot water! We informed the front desk and the next night it was working, but by then we were fed up and decided to move to a nice hotel in Samara. That was the best decision!!

We stayed here when our original hotel Villas Playa Samara was damaged in the Earthquake.

From moment one this place was horrible. There were 12 people in our group staying in 6 rooms. Our room was not very clean, the beds are futon mattresses at best. The bathrooms were outdated and dirty. Stains on the plastic toilet seats. The Hotel tried to give a tropical welcome with some flowers and towels on the beds, however the flowers had small bugs in them which got onto the bed and bath towels. The thought was there.

There was no hot water, for the 4 days we were there. On day 1 we actually had no water in the shower, my wife washed her hair in cold water in the sink.

There are no ironing boards or Irons.

Some Rooms were missing TV's Refrigerators, and telephones. One room was missing a toilet I kid you not, the toilet was gone. The couple was asked to use the hotels washroom by the pool until someone checked out of another room and they could be moved. This didn't last long since heavy rains caused a sewage back up on the lower level of the hotel and everyone down on that level were moved to another location.


There was a security incident one night, no one every got a straight answer, police were at the hotel checking doors, looking around the property. No one in our group had any problems but they were checking our doors. Not really sure what happened, I can say I always felt safe in Samara, just use some common sense and don't leave valuables laying around.

The Staff were brought in from Villa Playa Samara, so I can't comment on the staff of Hotel Samara Beach, for the most part all the staff were great.

There was one woman who worked mostly nights, she seemed to have an attitude, and was pretty lazy, spending most of her time in the back office on a computer.

Food was average, we only ate breakfast at the hotel it was nothing special, but was included. The coffee was great.

This hotel could be a great place, the location in the town is fantastic. If they spend some time updated the rooms and fixtures this could be a real gem, however it has been let go and just isn't worth it.

To start we had booked a trip with Monkey Tours (Who Owns Hotel Villas Playa Samara). Approx three days before we leave on our trip we get an email stating that the resort suffered damages from the earth quakes that had occurred. So they had changed hotels for the last four days of our vacation to what we thought was to be a lower class hotel ( as seen in pictures). The excursions for the first leg of our trip was great to include our guides, tours, experiences. Until we got to Samara that's when things had changed. The staff at the hotel ( Hotel Samara Beach) greeted us at the tour bus when we arrived stalling for time for the cleaning crew to prep the rooms. They kept on stating how they were so sorry that they changed hotels due to the earth quake damaging the Vilas (lie). Then went on to say they brought over their staff from the Villas over to the Hotel Samara Beach to make sure that we continued to have a great time and to make sure they had enough staff to handle the tour group (lie). We got checked in and that's when the problems started. One person in our group had no running water in their shower, every room was suppose to have a fridge and several did not or did not work. One room had no cable TV. None of the rooms had hot water starting the second night. There was a guy there that was there in case you wanted to book anything extra ( very pushy). Some in our group booked a fishing trip prior to the start of the trip, after not being able to get in touch with Monkey Tours. The pushy sales guy kept on for three days asking who the one was that booked it, who they booked it with, why didn't they go through him, when are we going, what time.

Well after speaking to the locals we find out that we are better off staying at the Hotel Samara Beach. They stated that the Villas are dilapidated and have not been updated for years. After, walking down the beach it was evident that the building at the resort were delapadated and in fact they were renovating them. One person even emailed them before leaving on the trip asking the price for a room during the time that the group would be here and a staff member replied back that they were closed for renovation for the busy season.

In regards to the staffing at the hotel. After speaking to the locals, it was brought to our attention that they did not bring over their staff, they actually laid them off.

If it was not for the tour group,the tour guides, and the excursions around Costa Rica this trip would have been a disaster.