When a review is written with the sole intent of extracting revenge over a disputed refund with a third party it therefor helps neither the traveller or the hotelier in the quest of gaining an honest and genuine insight of a property. The fundamental point of writing an online review is to give honest feedback on a hotel which aids and improves both of the aforementioned parties in deciding if the property in question is the one for you and thus also helping assist management in how they can improve their property.

When you arrived I noticed that you were quite tense as you took the wrong and longer route to get to us and that you had had a disaster of a trip including a quad accident. Therefore I tried to be as welcoming and helpful as possible to both of you as I wanted your trip to improve, you even commented that we were the first place to have working wifi.

You said that you needed to return your rental car and catch your departing flight at 11am in San Jose the day you were to check out from us.

As San Jose is almost 6 hours away I knew that you would not make that flight. I then set about trying to help you replan your trip. I spent the next half hour helping you figure out how best to get you to San Jose, cancelling your last night with us and not charging you for it which meant me loosing $115 on the loss of sale, but I put you first. While I offered you a refund I wasn't required to, as it was your mistake as you hadn't planned for a 5.5 hour drive to drop a car off and then make the airport before 9am.
I informed you that you'd needed to call Expedia (I then offered you the use of our phone to place the call) for the refund as you booked through them and not through us, this is because they only pay us a month after the client has stayed with us.

As we've only started to work with Expedia in July I asked you some questions as to how you found us, you told me through a partner site of Expedia but you said that you had not seen our website. This contradicts your claim of our website being misleading, if you hadnt seen it how could be misleading? Coupled with the other point you made about us advertising a spa, further proves that you have not seen our website and seriously questions the integrity of your review. We've never had a spa and we've never claimed that we have, we do arrange for massages and thats on our website for all to see.

I then received a call two days after you left from Expedia asking if I wanted to issue a refund for not just one night but for two nights.
I agreed not to collect the sale from Expedia on the last night but as you didn't check out till after 4pm on your second night and as you never informed us that you were checking out there was no possibility of me offering a refund for that night, and I stick by that decision which has cost us an unfair one star review.

Regarding your points that made for such an unpleasant stay.
Unfortunately there was a black out on the entire southern tip of the peninsula due to trees that were brought down during the violent storm that passed through that night. Being a small hotel we unfortunately don't have the budget for a back up generator. That storm also caused the leaves that ended up in the pool that night. While it rained all night and again the following day (the real reason you decided to leave that day) the leaves in the pool were removed first thing that morning.

The monkeys and the spider that you spoke of, are simply beyond our control, but I suggest that if you wish to avoid such creatures perhaps you should really consider as to why you decided to visit a hotel in the Costa Rican jungle. Ive seen spiders in both the hotel and in my home but in seven years of living here never once has one entered my bed and got under the sheets to crawl across my leg, making what happened to you a very unlucky experience.

Your claim of bed bugs is the first time Ive ever heard that made about our hotel. We have all the rooms fumigated annually, not for bed bugs but for ants and termites but the fumigation Ive been told would kill bed bugs if there was any present. Perhaps you'd be good enough to send me some photos of the bugs or the bites you encountered so we could see if those bites were those of bed bugs or of ants.

I do apologise about the toilet but I checked it after I read your review and there seemed to be no problem with it. If you had mentioned it to Vicky the next day she would have sent our maintenance man there straight away. I do however find it hard to imagine that if a toilet didn't work during your entire stay that you'd not report it to us and that you would choose to use the bushes with 'all the animals' as you claimed to relive yourself.

Regarding the restaurant, we made the hard decision to close it for dinner service the last week of the season because we couldn't sustain the effects of the downturn in the economy which has hit Costa Rica hard this year. We did write to inform all of the guests that were staying that last week before we closed the hotel to inform them that the restaurant would be closed and if they wished to cancel their stay that we'd not place any charge on them for doing so.
In our defence I informed you of this the minute you arrived and I also explained that we wrote to Expedia but you told me that they failed to pass that on to you. Im sorry that they didnt relay the message but Ive contacted them again to vent my feelings as we wanted to avoid disappointing any of our guests.

Normally the restaurant is open till 10pm and we do close the front desk at 5pm. Located on the front desk door we have an intercom thats connected to the staff house in the case that a guest needs something. Perhaps you missed that when I showed you, which I apologise for.

Obviously I was quite saddened to receive such a scathing feedback on our hotel.
We work very hard to maintain a high standard for all of our guests so to be told that our hotel is the 'worst place ever' was hard for us to understand after so many positive comments through the years.
When a hotel receives a one star review its very damaging to a hotel that has worked hard to get to where it is.
In this case this one star review comes from a person thats only ever written one review, again I stand by my decision to not to refund your stay for the day you disappeared after 4pm and without saying anything to us. While that might have cost us a bad review I have up stand up for what I believe is correct and fair otherwise my business could go under.

Were a small family run hotel, we run it honestly and as best as we professionally can. As were not part of a large hotel chain that allows us to hear what our guests have to say and that makes me flexible with refunds which larger hotels would not bow to.
Lastly we hope that our guests can come and spend time with us and enjoy the jungle and all the animals that live within it, I believe that thats what makes Mal Pais special.
Thank you,
Aidan