The hotel is clean, the beds are very comfortable, it's quiet and safe. We enjoyed our stay and the staff at the hotel and the El Patio restaurant were super friendly and helpful. It came in handy to have a nice big fridge since we bought some fruit and didn't want to leave it on the counter.
Stayed for 4 nights- hotel is in the HEART of downtown. The hotel, although dated was clean and simple. The rooms reminded me of college dorm rooms- they were very simple. The t.v. was extremely staticy and there was only one channel in English. There was no alarm clock... the bathroom was pretty basic- I will mention they do not supply wash rags ONLY towels. There is NO WHERE onsite to get any snacks or beverages, but they do offer ice. El Patio, their featured restaurant served a daily made to order breakfast...there absolutely nothing spectacular about this breakfast and the coffee was horrible BUT it was acceptable as far as breakfasts go- I didn't like how I asked for a watermelon juice and the waiter refused me- I don't think he realized I was willing to pay additional for it (as it was not included in the free breakfast) but he wouldn't give the option he just kept saying no you cant have...I understand that he didn't speak English and I'm in a Spanish speaking country but instead of continuously repeating I couldn't have it he should have just brought it and charged me which after going back in forth for 5 mins he finally realized i was going to pay the additional money. I locked my belongings in my safe that malfunctioned (IM SURE I WAS THE CAUSE OF THE MALFUNTION!!! MY FAULT lol) but i was so grateful that the staff took over an hour to get into my safe so that I could retrieve my belongings...again the hotel was CLEAN and the staff was GREAT...but if you are looking for standard U.S. amenities this isnt for you....if you are looking for a clean budget friendly place to lay your head at night in the middle of the city and shopping THIS IS THE PLACE…
Very nice hotel in the center of San Jose and within minute walk to hundreds of stores that offer anything you can think of at great price. San Jose Airport is a short 20 minute car Ride. The hotel staff is outstanding. Rooms are excellent, clean, and very cold A/C that you will need. Highly recommend this hotel!
On 7 April I arrived in Costa Rica for An 8 day visit to my wife and my family who live in San Jose, so I thought it was a great idea to stay at Hotel Balmoral who is in the middle for both. The arrival we coordinated directly with the Hotel with Joseph to have a taxi to pick us from the airport as previous trip couple years back; nobody came to pick us up, at around midnight we took an UBER ride. We arrived at the hotel around past midnight; we got our room and asked the clerk at that time why the Taxi never showed up; he check the logged and said I don’t see anything, so we went to our room. In the morning we went to eat breakfast, there were maybe around 40 people spread in a large area, there were only three people serving breakfast ( I will make a pause for what the breakfast used to be at this hotel, one of the best in town; will continue) the servers were really slow, one of the three must do dishes, then is only two, when you want coffee you are lucky is you are close to the coffee as they must stop by there (make another pause, this is now one of the worst breakfast) they took long to bring breakfast only three options, the “pinto” famous in Costa Rica, I give a 3 of 10, three pieces of plaintain, and Turrialba Cheese, same size as the plaintain (this is larger than a banana) the other was pancakes and the last one fruit) the serving for the fruits you can spend maybe a dollar for big pineapple and big papaya, with one of each you can serve easy 10 people and they will charge over a dollar if you order something than fruit, the bread dry, no butter no jelly; I asked the first three days for butter and jelly, (frozen butter and almost frozen Jelly), I stopped asking for these after the third day, the coffee was good but sometimes it was cold, I like hot coffee. Now my second day was worst, we arrive at 0745 by the side, the door was close so we went by the from, is now 7:48 PM and we see somebody holding the door and we tell them or better (Oscar at the door) and he said we are closed, you must go by the side with attitude, I said we went, so he let us in, once inside we asked can we eat here, he said is closed, another person come and said we can make you something and you can take to the room, so we said, that’s okay.(we had to take UBER and went to eat outside), next day we eat breakfast and leave then after and we split in our visit to our families. The next day everybody knew about what Oscar did and apologized, we said that’s okay. At night we come back late and see a large group of tourist including children and most were Americans, the kitchen closes at 0800 hours, and they are hungry and the clerk tell you can go out, there are places open; let me tell you San Jose at night is dangerous once you leave the central avenue; I said to my wife with children they sent them outside, not nice from a Hotel to do that. We only ate at night the night before leaving and the servers except for “Oscar” are really nice, they make us a nice pizza and some other Costa Rican specialties. I have many options for locations, I will stick to the Intercontinental which the service is a 10+ Balmoral service 3-, we have options in the middle, I would stay at Irazu or any IHG hotels or even Hilton. Very good service by Joshua who showed us all the communication with the taxi Driver and even called and told him in our presence about why they failed to go to the Airport; also good service by Desiderio, Robert Mauricio and Alexander all these were excellent as well as the cleaning team.…
This hotel has a wonderful location to explore San Jose, Coata Rica. The people, employees are extremely nice everywhere. The problem is the facility itself. I arrived on Monday, the 11th. Waited 3 Hours for check in, fine, the room has no workable AC that turned off every ten minutes. The closet door was broken, tv was the worst and the security box did not work. I called reception, they send a lady that nicely told me the problem was the card for the air conditioner. Second night was unbelievable hot. I called again. A nice gentlement offered us to change us to another room because room 329 was not ready uet when they located us there. Next day, I left. It was a shame. The hote employees and restaurant deserve better review beacause they work hard in order to satisfy customer needs, I can say that but thay failed with our accomodation which is the most important thing that you look when you pay for a hotel.…
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