My friend and i just got back from this hotel a couple days ago, a few things you should know is that its about 2hrs from san jose airport. which means you can either rent a car with a $1000 deposit or get a taxi driver to drive you for about $100 + tip.
When we checked in the person at the front desk wasn't exactly friendly and didn't say anything to us, he just gave us the key to the villa and pointed in the direction to go, ... no smiles, no offer to help us with our bags.. which after 7hrs of travelling wasn't exactly what we had expected.
The actual grounds of the hotel are absolutely beautiful and have been well maintained, we got villa 108 which I think had the best view of the beach and was also close to the pool and restaurant. It was a cosy little villa which had maids come to clean each day.
The restaurant is open aired and they provide you with an inclusive bfast. The one person who was actually friendly with us was the bartender Karla, she helped us with transportation and info about the area. Besides Karla there is a neighboring resort called Alma, the front desk receptionist there was extremely helpful and their customer service was exceptional! we booked our tours through them rather than our own hotel because of their friendliness and willingness to help us out!
We do refer this hotel because of its beauty and its a great place to get away from the towns and tourists but be aware that the customer service needs to improve alot!!!

a beautiful looking hotel, and a beautiful view of the beach if you didnt go out and see all the trash on the beach. But the room was not for sleeping without a mask to screen out the mold and mildew even after airing it out for three hours with the door and patio doors open. The maintenance guy did come and check the a/c remote control, but not the air filters, which I pulled out later and scrapped the gunk out of that must have been accumulating for many months. Both I and my spouse came down with URI one day after leaving there and I can still recall too easily how the air smelled for the long two nights. Only on other guest was in this large hotel and she was on the internet trying to get other lodgings. But a beautiful looking place.

I'm a CR resident and have stayed at other, simpler places in Esterillos but friends visiting wanted something more upscale, and the website looked gorgeous. Expensive, but they offered 33% discount if you stayed 3 nights. We took the "presidential" suite, which would better be called the "Family" suite, as there really wasn't much "Presidential" about it. It didn't have a coffee maker, the curtain rod broke when I tried to close the sheers, the AC units were noisy. However, the beds and linens were excellent quality.
I like this stretch of beach because it is long, flat and you can walk forever. And hardly any people, even on weekends. As other reviewers have also said, strong rip currents so not a swimming beach.
It wasn't awful, by any means, just very ho-hum and not the value for money I'd expected. BUT when when we checked out the guy at the desk - who said he was the manager -wasn't going to honor the discount, as he said that only applied if you made your reservation a month in advance! We had him pull up the website, showed him the offer, and pointed out there was no mention of that. I told him we were prepared to wash dishes! He eventually caved, but it was one last annoying thing that further spoiled the visit.

We spent a week there and used the rental car daily to drive to our tourist sites and also just plain drive around the countryside. It was spectacular. I was sad to see any poor reviews here because the pool was quite properly clean the whole time, even after one day when a storm came through. The gardens were so well taken care of I tipped the gardener a month's pay for the joy... (thought he was gonna hug me or faint). The Tican breakfast is perfect to start a day with some of the most wonderful coffee I ever tasted (we have this sent to us every 3 months now so we get Costa Rican coffee daily here in US). With the exception of one person at the desk, everyone was super helpful. Once we got to know the fellow, he really warmed up and helped us a lot. Great swimming, just do the shuffle so the stringrays get out of your way.