I travel to Costa Rica approximatly 10 days per month. I ahve done as such the past three years. While in San Jose I typically stay at either the Marriott or White House. Unfortunately, both hotels were sold out for teh five days that I needed to be in San Jose. As such, I and several other business associates stayed at the Real Intercontinental. There is no question that the pool area bars and restuarnts were above average. The Food at Alfredo's was exceptional. Prices at these dining and drinking venues was out of site by Costa Rican standards. Not only were the prices sky high, they also add the taxes, tips, etc to the bill. This is customary in Costa Rica. What is uncustomary is that if you charge your total bar bill to your room, these charges once again appear on your final bill. They amount to a 26% tax x 2.

The first night of my stay involved my having to switch rooms three times. They are remodeling the rooms and several of the rooms have an acidic moldy smell. At $290 per night this was unacceptable. The second room they gave me was fine, however, the magentic key system that they use for getting into your room or the elevator never worked. As such, I could not get back into my second room where my bags, luggage and money was stored until maintenance could open the room the next morning. This mandated a third room. When I was finally able to get back into my room to collect my belongings, my IPOD was missing from the night stand where I had left it. My report of this to teh front desk was basically blown off!!! This has never happened at any other hotel in which I have stayed in Costa Rica. Throughout my stay, I must have had to change key cards at least 25 times. I was not the only guest to have to as such. I was informed by the front desk that tehy had a week and antiquated sysytem for the key cards and this was a regular occurrance. It must be the same system that runs the internet, TV system and out-going telepohone system in the hotel. For four days, my TV never worked and I could never make a direct out-going call. All in all, a shabby excuse for a hotel charging these prices. Great location but save your moeny and book the San Jose Marriott or Courtyard down the street. I and known of my other traveling companions would ever consider a stay in this hotel again. I would, however, give a big thumbs up to Alfredos and recommend the restaurant to anyone traveling to San Jose.

We started and ended our trip to Costa Rica at this hotel. It is very nice and the bed was great. The pool is newly renovated and is terrific. The local area is upscale and much better than staying in the crappy downtown. The concierge was also great and helped us book day tours and gave good directions for driving to other areas of the country.

Based on the size of the country we had planned to stay longer at this hotel and do day trips to see the beaches and other tourist stuff, but we quickly realized that day trips from San Jose is a bad idea. So we left for a few days and spent nights at Arenal and Monteverde. Then we returned to this hotel for the night before our flight home.

Overall this is a great hotel and a nice place to start and end a vacation in Costa Rica, but not to stay at for the entire trip.

We did stay for the first time in 2007 one night 09 to 10 August Room 563 in this hotel and the changes which took place over the past year are great.

The Bar and Restaurants are New opened just a few weeks ago, the new Pool area is well planed and perfectly finished.

The F^B overall has improved by 360% and the Prices are well balanced.

The 5 fool still has the best service however is not much too expensive then other rooms in lower floors.

I understand they are building new rooms which at later stage will have an impact on the present comfort, but for sure this upgrade is needed.

Overall great Hotel, well trained staff and good value for money

I was here for a conference in early June of 2007. I traveled with a friend who was not part of the conference.

The good:
I was astounded by how pretty the architecture of the building was when we first walked in. If you stay here, you should look up when you enter the building and you'll see what I mean.
The staff spoke English very well. I guess that should be standard for a business hotel, but I really appreciated it. Especially at check out when I had a lot of special requests. This was also helpful when we decided to take a last minute trip to see the city of San Jose - the bellboys knew exactly where to tell us to go in English and were able to instruct our taxi driver for us.
Further on that note, I was able to call the main InterContinental number the day before my arrival in order to order a taxi for a very late-night arrival. The woman I spoke to was able to take my airline information, translate it to the taxi driver and then tell me all the information about how to find him afterwards. He was there and waiting for my guest and me; it was a very welcome sign after a delayed flight!
During our stay, we visited one of the hotel restaurants twice: Alfredo's. We had such a fantastic meal the first time, that we had to go back for seconds. It didn't disappoint the second time around. I also found the prices to be very inexpensive for a nice sit-down restaurant. I ordered a spagetti carbonara which was around $6 US with the exchange rate. We found that generally you will eat cheap all around San Jose, Costa Rica.
In the rooms, the cable TV was great. Surprisingly good selection of channels, many in English. HBO and Cinemax too. Also, the internet connection was surprisingly fast with the ethernet cable that was in the room. This cost extra - I paid for a full week which was around $40 US. They also let you just pay for a couple of hours, or a day. There is no free internet, unless it comes with your room.

The not-so-good:
Although the pool was supposed to be finished, it was never opened during our stay. It looks like it will be a beautiful pool eventually with nice cabanas and comfy chairs all around.
Water pressure was fairly terrible. I expect this in a hotel, but I don't understand why they use such a gigantic shower head when all they have is a trickle anyway. It took my guest and I quite a while to even get wet when either of us took a shower.
The breakfast was delicious, but I'm putting this in my not-so-good category because I didn't think it was worth $21 US for the buffet for one person.

All in all, I would recommend this hotel to any travelers beginning/ending their vacation in Costa Rica near the airport.