I stayed at the hostel for one night. The shuttle service did pick me up at the airport. The driver was very nice and helpful. The front desk staff were ok. They were young and seemed bored and lazy. The hostel itself was very nice. Clean rooms, hot water, a lot of comuters with free internet. It was a comfortable environment. The downside is that its far from anything else. That is why I only stayed one night. I do recommend if if youre just arriving in Costa Rica and need to sleep somewhere until you plan what you want to do next. They do have a tourist office that will book shuttles and activities for you.

I loved the atmosphere of Costa Rica Backpackers. Even when San Jose is dark and rainy, as it many times is, the hostel is an extremely cool place to relax and regroup on your way in, out, or through Costa Rica. There is a constant cool mix of eclectic music, a pool, and plenty of computers. As with any hostel the environment changes with the crowd at a given time, but I stayed three times there and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I would recommend it highly.

We were very disappointed with the place and service.
It started already at the airport. Airport pick up never showed up. I spent a fortune calling the hostel to find out what was happening.
When we finally got there, the receptionist was on the phone and didn't get off it for a good 5 minutes. Over all he wasn't pleasant, more arrogant.
Our private room was very small and smelly - it didn't have an outside window. The bed (---) had some greasy stains, I'm not even mentioning that we had to check out ( with deposit) towels that let a lot to desire.
The hotel was promising hot water, but most of the showers had the water heaters not working. There was only one working shower in the girls dorm bathroom. My husband had to shower is cold water for 3 days.
The first night at the hostel's restaurant was rather tasty, but the next day they didn't have half items of the limited menu. The two ladies - cashier/cook/waiters were rude and didn't attend to us for over 10 minutes of standing at the counter and trying to order some food, what forced us to leave the restaurant.
Hotel isn't in the best area. There aren't any close places to eat that are open after 6pm.

I have to say I liked two things there - the coffee and the kitten that was sitting on the sofa in the internet room. Oh, I forgot about the internet. There are several computers. Some of them don't work, and those that do work are very slow.

I would never stay in this place again!