I stayed at the Barcelo Palma Real 9/13 - 9/17/07. I had a pleasant stay. The hotel is advertised as a 3 star, but I think that it rates at least 3 1/2 stars. I stayed in Room 409, a corner room, with 2 double beds. The furniture was modern and looked almost new. There was a 19 or 20 inch television in the room with access to plenty of channels (including English-speaking). The room was large compared to your standard hotel room with a beautiful wood floor. The bathroom was a little small, but nice. My only issue with it was the lighting was poor, but good enough for a vacationer. The room/hotel was very clean and the service was excellent. There is Free Wireless internet service throughout the hotel. For other internet use, there are 3 PC's that you can use for as little $1.50 US for 15 min, $3.00 for 30 min, etc. I payed $65/night on Hotwire...was a great deal which also included breakfast daily. The breakfast included, eggs, cold meat, sausage, beans & rice, etc. plus hot and cold drinks, including fresh juices and fresh fruit. There is a supermarket one block away and at least 3 restaurants within a 3 block walk. Beyond that, you need to take a cab since accessing San Jose means having to cross a very busy highway.

The front desk staff was a little standoffish at first, but once I approached and began talking to each of them, they quickly warmed up. Many of them only speak a little English and are afraid of embarassing themselves. They are very nice and helpful. The evening Consierge, Javiar, is very fluent in English and is also very helpful and willing to help you in any way.

Overall, I had a great stay. It is a lovely hotel. It is right on the edge of San Jose which was great since it was close enough where a cab to the city center was very cheap (approx $4USD), but out of the noisy, crowded area. After a long day of touring around and hanging out at night, I was glad to come back to the quiet, cozy accommodations there. They have live music in their small bar area Mon- Fri evenings until 11 p.m. which is good for light entertainment. I would definitely stay there again.

We stayed a total of 6 nights at Palma Real, 5nights during Easter week and on our last night in Costa Rica. The hotel is nice. The staff during Easter week were awesome. The bell boys and the concierge were very helpful. We also asked the lady who does the tours to book a reservation to the Aerial Tram. She was great (although, thinking back, we would have gotten a cheaper price (we paid full price) if we booked ourselves using the car rental discount or booking through our car rental). The hotel was a nice place to stay for day trips. San Jose was also very quiet during this time of our stay since everyone was at the beach. The breakfast buffet choices at the hotel were great; my family and I had different tastes so we had choices of continental, traditional, omelet, etc. THe hotel's in a quiet neighborhood. I found the male front desk staff a bit unfriendly but the women were otherwise. The hotel is clean but they may have a mold problem because my allergies were acting up whenever we were inside the room. Can't complain because most places I have seen in Costa Rica seem worse. It's a tropical country--mold and insects abound. However, no roaches on this hotel.
The walls are thin, we found out on our last night stay on the way back to the U.S. They were having karaoke, or some sort of singing, downstairs and it was pretty loud. We could also hear our next-room neighbors on our last night.
Otherwise, it's a good priced hotel when booked through Hotwire. The location is good. Beware of driving in CR though, signs are fading and Tico drivers can be reckless. Restaurant prices are expensive, comparable to U.S. It's actually cheaper to eat out in other 3rd world countries.

The hotel is fairly close to downtown, and just North of Parque La Sabana. The free WiFi Internet service was a great help.

If you find yourself in San Jose overnight and want all the comfort and convenience of an international standard business hotel, this is one option in San Jose, Costa Rica.