I am very dissappointed at my stay with Best Western. After staying 10 days in hostels in and around San Jose, I was really excited to have my own room with air conditioning and a comfortable bed. Also, BW boasted of some very nice perks: a/c, free breakfast, free airport taxi, free cocktail, pool. Not only is this hotel located in the seediest, part of town, it really did not live up to my expectations. I should have stuck with the hostels.

The staff was most unhelpful as nobody offered to open the door, get my bag or show me to the room. Upon arriving, I waited in line but was repeatedly ignored as the reception attended to various children who pushed passed me and my luggage. I finally begged the reception person to attend to me as I wanted to get to my room and I was an adult who was paying.

Upon finally receiving my room card, and other ammenities, I was released with no direction to the elevator or stairs (I was staying on the 5th floor). As I aimelessly wandered the lobby, dogding soccer plays (an apparent conference was taking place) and running children, I wandered towards a hallway. Due to others' wet feet and carelessness, the floor was extremely slippery. I fell with all my baggage and things to the floor. I had to practically crawl to a standing position and try to make it back towards the elevator without falling. I finally was directed towards the elevator after some staff saw me fall. I commented to them that these soccer players running wild really didn't help things as I had to continuously dodge them in the lobby- I should have realized this was the first bad omen.

I arrived at 4pm and it was raining- granted that there ws nothing for these soccer players to do, but their behavior was unacceptable and not one staff person even bothered to tell them to act appropriately. Obviously the parents didn't see the need- but they were not the only guests at the hotel. I called management twice- with no answer or response either time, good thing it wasn't an emergency. I did leave the hotel and returned around 9pm. These children were outrageous- knocking on my door, calling my room and since the concierge room was right next to mine- the t.v. was blaring, and they were screaming and slamming doors from 9-12pm. Nobody said anything and management didn't even acknowledge my complaints- I should have been moved to a quieter room as I needed to rest.

Upon seeing the advertisement for a free airport taxi- I rushed down to the reception the minute I awoke. I was told that it would be no problem and the hotel would still cover the cost of the airport taxi- this didn't happen, I had to foot the bill. This was most unacceptable since I saw a voucher for "pago de transporte de taxi" and the young lady at the desk didn't give it to me - even after I inquired. I also had to convice the young lady upon check out that I had already paid the room via Visa online. She wanted to charge me twice, but did check and it was confirmed that I had in fact paid. I was going to be charged twice! Also, the rate was $51 online and then $69 in person- a very nice bait and switch and wholly not worth the value of my stay.

Alas, my stay with Best Western was terrible, the only high points were the a/c, the free coffee and use of coffeemaker and the full bed. The pool was inhabited by underage soccer players who acted like they owned the place, the shower only gave me cold water, and the lights in my room were tempermental.

All in all, this was the worst stay in all of Costa Rica. I would not ever recommend staying at this BW. Not only for the location, but for the above mentioned horror stories. Attached is a picture of the bruise I received from the fall. I initially wanted to stay in a "good" hotel with a nice reputation- I chose very wrong.