The highly positive reviews of the hotel's owner Kurt are all true -- he is charming, most helpful, and he runs a modern, efficient B&B style hotel where the rooms and common areas are kept very clean. The location is just enough out of the center without being too far to walk, and I felt absolutely safe and secure.
What really ruined my experience was the arrangement of the rooms around very small central courtyard that seems designed to reflect noise, combined with the presence of televisions in every room. If you want to hear CNN News up till midnight, which you will do if one single person at the hotel is watching it, then this will be the ideal place for you to stay. I usually prefer a place where I won't need air conditioning (and it's not really needed in San Jose, in my opinion) and here, there are ceiling fans and, but for the hotel's central echo chamber, you'd want to leave your windows open at all times. Until Kurt removes all the televisions from the rooms, I would not consider staying here.
And it is a vast mystery to me why the other reviewers commented about the friendly staff. The lead staffer (aside from the owner, Kurt), a Tico who seems to live on the premises as he was there from early morning till late at night, could not possibly have been more surly from the get-go.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Would I recommend this hotel to my best friend?
probably not
I recommend this hotel for:
Young singles, A romantic getaway, Girlfriend getaway, Older travelers, Tourists
I do not recommend this hotel for:
An amazing honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Girlfriend getaway, Older travelers, Great pool scene
I selected this hotel as a top choice for:
Museums / Cultural / Historical sites
Management Response
Doug Dosdall, Marketing/Public Relations
(Management representative)
Aug 27, 2008
It is always helpful if a guest voices his complaints during the stay, or even better immediately when the problem occurs, to give us a chance to remedy the problem and make everybody feel comfortable instead of complaining after the fact, in this case after returning to Canada.
My own bedroom window goes to the same courtyard and we do enforce our House Rules which state clearly no noise between 10 pm and 8 am.
I was not aware of any noise and we did not receive any complaints about noise from the guest. We ask all guest to be considerate and quiet between 10 pm and 8 am. All rules are enforced by the staff and me.
Our Ricardo, praised by many, disliked by some, does not work here any longer. Granted he could be moody at times and so we parted amicably
and I hired different, even more attentive staff.
One can not please everybody and I think the other 41 reviews speak for themselves.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
