Location. Not where Tripadvisor shows on map. Right on beach but on edge of town, good walk into centre, poor lighting at night, quiet streets, some may feel unsafe. inconvenient for town.
Booking. made over phone on morning, day of arrival, room type i'd booked not available when i arrived, wanted to charge additional to put me in an a/c room.
Staff. Too busy trying to run a bar/restaurant to give good customer service, not very helpful.
Room. Room 8, do not stay in it. Roof open to adjacent rooms at eaves so you get to hear neighbours talking and their tv. I stayed on a Thursday night. 7pm the dj soundsystem went into full effect, which penetrated the room, to the point of intolerable. this went on till 11pm.
From their website 'Thursday is all about Latina Musica and Dancing under the Stars to reggae, salsa, merengue and your requests'. no tv in room. safe keypad did not work so they had to find key for it.
Breakfast. Not included.
i could'nt wait to get away from there.
There just has to be better combinations of location, price, service, ambience from other places in town.
Pros. on beach, but most places only a couple of minutes from beach. chip for a free beer when you check in, but i'd advise going elsewhere and treat yourself for making a smarter choice.

My first time visit to CR and Clarita's, stayed for 10 days and for me it was perfect. Super clean rooms, I felt the meals were excellent as well and priced right. The girls that work the bar/restaurant knew my name after only a day and were always friendly with prompt service, I truly can't understand a few of the negative comments concerning unfriendly service, be nice, be friendly, and understand if the bar is busy, they are also. It is a beach bar so be aware that it is a lively place at times, while I could certainly hear the music from the bar at night I would simply put on my sound machine and had absolutely no problem. Clarita's is just out of town.......a casual walk will put you at the other end of Jaco in 20 minutes, no more. I did this every day, as others have said a taxi is only $2.00 to the far side of town, $10 to La Playa Herradura and a bit less to playa Hermosa............
David, the manager was super, enjoyed my talks with him, and......while I did have an odor problem in my room one day, when I told David he immediatley came to my room, verified I had a problem and had his maintenance guy right there, in the meantime he offered me another room, which I took.....then , because of the inconvenience he comped me a free nights stay, I travel a LOT...and its very very rare to have this kind of service, and because of this I know that whenever I am in Jaco it's Clarita's for me, which by the way I am returning in January.

Clarita's is the place to stay if you want a laid back beach experience. Nothing fancy or high dollar. Right on beach. Small facility but with restaurant and bar on site. Bar very popular with locals with entertainment most nights. Short cab ride to other entertainment in downtown Jaco.

We stay at Claritas every time we go to Jaco. It's right on the beach and it's got a pretty much native Costa Rican style look. A lot of the other hotels are either not on the beach or are on the beach but have the look and feel of an American hotel transplanted to Jaco beach. The checkin was completely hassle free and they had the reservation information (from the internet) printed out and ready to go when we showed up. I was recommended by Claritas to use Adrian for the ride down from San Jose. He showed up exactly when he said he was going to which, you know if you've spent any time in Costa Rica, is a rarity.