I'm not sure how this hotel managed to obtain such a high ranking. Although the staff is amazing and the food is good, the hotel itself is horrible.
1. In some rooms, there is not a single window. In other rooms, there is a window but you can't get the sun blocked in case you decide to have a nap during the day. Also, if there is a party outside, you will have a hard time falling asleep.
2. No hot water, or should I say, no water at all? This is the most frustrating part. After a day at the beach one would hope that for over a $120/night you can get a basic shower. Well, no. There is a serious problem with water pressure and if you are lucky and there is some pressure, it will be cold anyway. At some times, there was no water at all!!!
3. No room for clothes/stuff.
On the positive side, the staff is very nice and the hotel is secured at night. The food is pretty good too. There is a/c & internet. Also, when you reserve a room at Sano banano you may access the pool and the restaurant at a fancier hotel - ylang ylang. This is a good option if you're willing to walk 10-15 minutes along the beach.
Let me finish with a comment on the location that many mention in their review. Montezuma is a tiny place. Everything is in "downtown" except for the above mentioned ylang ylang resort. There is absolutely nothing special in the Sano banano's location.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
January 9, 2013
Thank you for mentioning the positives regarding your stay: Nice Staff, Security, Air Conditioning, Free WiFi, the Good Food offered at our restaurant and free access to our sister hotel Ylang Ylang. It makes us happy that you noticed these very important details as they are the points most mentioned by travelers when traveling. Let me add that the hotel is clean and quiet for a hotel in an energetic little town.
Regarding your review, let me clarify a few points:
First, we only rent one room that does not offer any window, Room 11. The rest of our rooms all have windows that either look out to the Park/street, Garden or a hallway. All of our rooms have curtains, except for Room 11, which has no window due to its location and is often preferred by people who want to sleep in late as it is also our most quiet.
Second, we do have hot water in all of our rooms, unless there is a problem with the town's water supply. The in-room hot water units we offer are On-Demand heaters which only heat up the water when you open the valve to shower. Each unit has a dial where you choose the temperature. It is possible you did not notice this and the temperature was set to off or cool. On occasion the town's water supply experiences brief outages related to excessive use and/or pump failure. These likely were the issues you experienced during your stay. We do have reserve water tanks at the hotel for times like these but the amount in reserve is exhaustible.
Third, all of our rooms have shelving space and hangers. We apologize if there was not enough space for your belongings.
We believe our prices are very fair in relation to the services we offer and we do our best to keep our guests happy. It is with pleasure we serve you and hope to make any corrections we can as long as our guests let us know what is needed during their stay...
Sincerely,
Patricia (Owner)
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.