This was my first time in a hostel, and it was amazing it didnt feel like a hostel. the staff were very accommodating, and Linda went out of her way to help us with everything we needed. On the weekends the bar does play the music really loud, so make sure your room is far away from there as possible.

If you book throughnExpedia, make sure to confirm with the hotel personally that they have a record of the reservation. We showed up in the evening, and the lady, despite nice, had no record of us. Good thing they had an empty room, but I see other travelers have not been so lucky!

My friend and I arrived late in the evening after our flight from the states. We had booked a private room and were hoping to get a good night's rest. Upon our arrival they told us the horrible news that a group of Italian boys had stayed in our room the night before and had TOTALLY TRASHED the room. They offered to put us in a dorm-style room...this is not what we wanted but given it was nearly 23:00, we just wanted to shower and sleep. The woman lied and said there were only 2 other girls in the room but when we walked in, there were at least 4 people in the room. We decided to leave Casa Colon and had the girl at the front desk help us book a most horrible place a block down the road at Hotel Ambassador (that's another review). Instead of offering to completely remove the bill for us the girl walked us down the grimy, late-night streets of San Jose to the other hotel and just paid the difference. Unbelievably so, the room at Ambassador was 20 dollars more expensive (lord knows why!!!) We were hoping for a great first night in San Jose but unfortunately, Casa Colon left us with a very bitter feeling.

I have stayed at this hostel quite a few times since the start of 2012. I keep going back and having had some quite different stays there I am now starting to weigh up whether I actually think it is worth the extra money over other hostels in San Jose (of which I have been to about 5 others).
Starting with the good points. I like that there is a bar and restaurant in the hostel as sometimes this can just be more convenient (and nicer) than the ample supply of fast food chains on Paseo Colon. The rooms and bathrooms are always spotless and the beds comfy. The place feels more like a hotel rather than a hostel. The cleaners are always milling around and the staff are friendly and happy to help.
On the downside, some of the rooms are really noisy through the night and the morning. One of them to the point that i couldnt sleep in there as every 2 minutes the beeping of the pedestrian crossing by it would go off. Many people have commented on the noise before and this is just what you get with a hostel situated on Paseo Colon. However, the noise from the restaurant and bar has also been too much on a couple of occasions. If this was down to people staying at the hostel then you just have to take it, but the owners seem to put on a lot of functions for large groups. As someone else also commented, this can make the location of the downstairs bathrooms somewhat tricky if you are in a dorm and need to walk through the bar to get to the shower! At the beginning they also seemed to have many wifi and hot water problems, but this seems to have been rectified now. The wifi isnt the fasted I have had in a hostel still though.
The breakfast is nice, but as you need to pay $5 extra for the basic breakfast this isn't great value compared to other hostels that will give you pancakes/fruit and include in the bed price which is already cheaper.
Overall, I think that maybe it isn't worth staying here (compared to other hostels in San Jose) if your budget is stretched. But if you end up here you will be happy.