Barcelo San Jose Palacio

Great hotel

Aside from the service provided at the breakfast buffet, the hotel was excellent. Very clean, safe and well maintained. I would strongly recommend this hotel.

Poor service

While in San Jose I had stayed at this hotel before. It is a lovely and fairly well maintained facility. However, I had forgotten how poor the service was. The front desk personnel are fair at best. The handle on the toilet in my room was broken. I left a note, in Sanish, asking the housekeeper to report it...nothing. I reported it to the front desk...nothing. Finally, I went to the front desk a second time and complained again before it was fixed. The service in the cafeteria is absolutely terrible. The food, at best, is fair. I will stay at this hotel again, but I will keep in mind that the management does not know how to train the employees.

Was OK

The hotel is generally OK. It was further from the airport than led to believe from reading the description on the internet. Shuttle service to the airport not very convenient as it runs only on the hour with prior day reservation. The lobby area is comfortable and every evening there is a pianist. We enjoyed the music very much. The breakfast buffet was excellent. Local tours, reasonable rates, can be booked at the hotel and the agents are very helpful. We do recommend this hotel.

Great Hotel but be specific

We had stayed here before and thought it was the greatest ever. This time, not so good. They gave us a room that was connected to a master suite and had a queen and a twin bed. I should have held them to the two queens I requested. It was quite small and right next to service elevator. I could clearly hear the people in the next room and the connection door banging all night. I kept waking up everytime staff used the elevator and slammed the door on the other side. I should have made them change the room but my son was exhausted and fell asleep right away. Too bad my husband & I didn't sleep at all. I recommend this hotel highly but make sure you are satisfied with room and they don't shove you in a small crappy room! This one was my fault for not requesting a different room immediately!

Super DeaL

The rooms were great, plush and super comfortable. The restaurant had a buffet that was good and reasonable price. We loved the extras...robes, shampoo, etc.

Beware of hidden charges

The hotel lobby was the only nice thing about the hotel. The breakfast is OK and they charge an arm and a leg for it. The bar area was OK but the bartenders are rude. The casino was empty. Beware of hidden charges. They will ask you for a credit card for incidental charges on check-in and then you will see charges showing up later for no apparent reason. The shuttle service to/from the airport is a joke. They make it sound like they are doing you a favor by picking/dropping you to the airport and if you ask for an out of turn drop/pickup they will charge you! In the business center printers don't work but once again they are charge-happy when you print something. Overall a very bad experience - TWICE because I booked a non-refundable rate for two separate stays. STAY AWAY from this place.

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Great choice close to the Airport

We stayed in Manuel Antonio for most of our trip but had to stay a night in San Jose due to our flight leaving early the next morning. The Barcelo San Jose Palicio was perfect, I was looking for a hotel that was close to the airport, restaurants and shopping. We had our kids with us and needed a room for four so we got a suite instead of two rooms, it had everything we needed (2 bedrooms for privacy and 3 Bathrooms!). The hotel has a casino and 4 or 5 restaurants in it. The hotel offers a free airport shuttle, however we took the taxi that is at the hotel throughout the day (very convenient). If your flight leaves early as ours did (9 am), take the 6am shuttle or take the taxi, believe me you might need to be at the airport a full 2 hours before your flight leaves, we did! Had we waited for the 7am hotel shuttle, we may have gotten bumped from our flight (Delta Airlines messed up our reservation and it took awhile to fix), whichever you choose, the taxi only cost me $20 and was about 10-15 minutes from the airport. Would definately stay again.

Room service after a late flight!

We got in around 10:30 at night and were so happy to get delicious room service. Our room was nice, but not super fancy - did have bath robes, slippers, little toothpastes and shaving cream and stuff. It's Costa Rica, so expect non-perfect paint job in room, kinda faded artwork with excellent service from friendly, attentive staff. It's one of those places that's very good for a one-night stay associated with a flight.

Beware for they don't tell you breakfast is NOT included

Hotel is ok, but eating there is expensive Beds in need of renovating. Do not book attractions through the hotel

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Good hotel for the money

Everything was great until I found a termite sleeping with me. Otherwise, I greatly recommend the hotel...Beautiful gardens and good hotel and excellent service....I guess nothing is ever 100%

great deal and lots of amenities

San Jose Palacio is centrally located between the airport ( free shuttle pick up as well)and downtown san jose .. the hotel has a great breakfast buffet every morning ( included), very nice pool & lobby atmosphere .. Service can be a little slow and laid back - but otherwise a bargain for the low price paid for the height of the winter season .. great clubs in san jose .. beware of price gouging and tourist traps that are looking to raise prices on taxi's, food and merchandise for americans ...