I have traveled around the world and have stayed at hotels that cover the spectrum of quality. I can say this hotel nears the bottom of the list. From the moment we arrived we felt unwelcome by the staff who acted as though we were such a bother to them that they could not even offer up a smile during our stay. When I checked in I mentioned we were in town for a funeral and would stay two or three nights. Before I knew what the clerk was doing she charged three nights on my credit card and informed me if we checked out early they would not credit my card but instead would issue us a vouchure for their restaurant. (more later). As we approached our villa we were greeted by a dead bird in front of our door that stayed there for two days (I had to kick it to the edge of the sidewalk so we could get into the room.) The room was dingy, the air conditioning was extremely noisy, and ineffective, the beds and pillows were uncomfortable, and the bathroom was cramped and offered very weak water pressure. An odd thing occurred when we asked for additional towels. We were refused even though there were only two thin towels in the bathroom..... totally inadequate for our needs. Our three requests for additional towels went unanswered, The breakfast buffet is a misnomer and again the lack of service was shocking. The buffet included a plate of beans and rice, scrambled eggs, small helping of fruit, and beverage. The second (and final) breakfast was the deciding factor for our early departure from the hotel. We walked into a customer and staff empty restaurant and went to the buffet table to get our food. After a couple of minutes a staff member appeared and informed us she would make us a plate. We returned to our table and waited for our breakfast. A few minutes later we heard the staff person yell at us that our plates were ready. We looked at each other and realized that the staff person would not bring the plates to our table (a distance of 20 feet) even though we were the only two guest in the entire restaurant. In the time it took us to get up from the table to retrieve our plates the staff person was gone and not seen again. It was obvious she had more important things to do than offer customer service. It was then that we decided we would find a hotel that understood customer service and wanted our business. We went to the front desk and informed them we were checking out. They seemed surprised and unsure what to do to reverse our credit cards charges for the nights they had placed on the card. We left agreeing not only would be never return but would write a report to warn others. Costa Rica is a beautiful country with that offers great places to visit. When you begin to list all the places you wish to visit in Costa Rica make sure this hotel is not on your list.

Travelling with a group of in total 12 people we had lunch at this place.

At the time we were there we were the only guests for lunch. It was supposed to be a buffet lunch. It was obviously specially made for us. We had the choice of one piece of meat (chicken of course), nicely counted out for 12 and a piece of fish, again 12 pieces! Some vegetables and a reasonable starter (not counted) followed by a piece of a kind of custard pudding.

The worst of it all was that despite the lunch being specially prepared for us, all the food was cold. Horrible cold food what is supposed to be warm or better still hot. When I made a remark on that subject (in Spanish, I speak that language) the reaction was a pulling up of shoulders, not a single word was uttered.

We sat on the terrace with a beautiful ocean view, but this was the only positive memory I had of the place.

The hotel is okay, rooms were clean, housekeeping staff was very responsive and the pool area was expansive. The hotel/restaurant has a beautiful beach view, but be forewarned there is no beach access and it's not that close to Playa Bonita (despite what the lonely planet may lead you to believe).

Unfortunately, I was not overly impressed with the hotel management otherwise. We were there at the tail end of Semana Santa and the staff seemed weary. They were aggressive and unhelpful - it was the only time during our trip to Costa Rica when I truly felt unwelcome. There also seemed to be a double standard - always a "No We Can't" attitude for the foreign tourists, but then you would turn around and see staff say "Yes" to the same request from a local tourist.

I think you will find that I typically write positive reviews - and often I will chose not to review a property if I think it's a "just me" issue. But in this case the bias against foreign tourists was blatant and made our stay incredibly unpleasant. I think it's okay not to cater to the tourist crowd, but once you have agreed to rent the room I don't think it's okay for staff to be rude or have a "double standard".