TL;DR: Hotels are meant to be a relaxing reprieve, but with strict, abnormal regulations that impacted our experience, the springs and restaurants closing earlier than most in the area, and the lack of staff friendliness, we wouldn't choose this hotel again or recommend to anyone.
While I'm sure this is a great hotel for couples looking for solitude, it wasn't for us. We were traveling with family and friends to celebrate our wedding, and the hotel made this the most unenjoyable portion of our trip.
La Fortuna is a secluded area - you can't step outside the hotel doors and find restaurants, bars, or public areas to gather. Hotels are also on the smaller side - it's unlikely you'll be able to get multiple rooms at the same hotel.
Our 18 friends and family members stayed in (3) different La Fortuna hotels. We planned to make ours, The Royal Corin, the central meet-up for shuttle pick ups.
However, our loved ones were usually denied access into the hotel's lobby or Front Drive, due to a No Outside Guests policy. This made transportation for 18 people even more (unnecessarily) complicated than it already was. And we weren't causing trouble, or looking like people who would. My husband's sweet, Tica mom was denied multiple times.
This was actually the first time some of our loved ones met each other. We did not book our rooms under a group block, on the same date, or at the same rate. The only time we were all together was at check-in.
Despite this, the hotel treated us as a group, denying a late check-out to all but one of the rooms. They asked my mom about the status of our friend's room - which she had no idea about, and should never be expected to. The Royal Corin demanded our friends and family move all luggage to our honeymoon suite - which was also not ready to be seen (by my mother especially) and felt violating. With our friends staying not knowing our family members, and each group having different plans for the day, this added an unexpected level of stress.
Worst of all, the anniversary of our friend's mother's passing fell over our arrival date at The Royal Corin. It was an especially difficult day for him. We planned a private, lowkey night of dinner and reflecting on his memories of her.
By the time the lengthy check-in concluded (that never mentioned the guests policy), the restaurants were about to close, so we ordered room service to avoid inconveniencing the employees. However, our friend was told he wasn't allowed up to our room. When we came to retrieve him, we were told that even the guest in the room couldn't allow anyone up unless they were staying at the hotel.
Their only accommodation was for us to sit at the bar, where the bartender was obviously not happy about our presence. It made it uncomfortable for our friend to read the tribute he wrote for his mom, and he ended up never doing it. To top things off, our room service order was cold. When we asked the bartender to reheat the steak we ordered, he microwaved it and turned a medium-rare steak into a well-done one. Considering we paid thousands to stay a couple of nights, this was not what we anticipated.
After the first night, we ended up spending most of our time next door at El Silencio, where the springs felt more natural, we were allowed to swim until 11PM without issue, and could play cards together at our friend's bungalow.
