Bamboo Aparthotel — Hotel in Alajuela

We stayed at this hotel on two separate nights as it is close to the airport and convenient to stay at overnight if your flight lands late or leaves very early. It is a small, privately owned little hotel, fairly simple but it has everything you need. There is a shower, kitchenette with a plug-in hot plate, microwave, blender, kettle, coffee maker and small fridge (larger than mini size). The hotel is in the middle of Alajuela City, a small town North of the Juan Santamaria International Airport. ||Below are some pluses and minuses we found staying there:||Pros - kitchenette and full size fridge are big bonuses as well as the free breakfast (coffee/tea, juice, eggs, pico gallo (rice and beans), sausage and plantains is what we had - buffet style) 6:30 - 8:30 AM. Proximity to airport is a big bonus, so if you have to Uber or Taxi, it's only a few dollars. You can also drive there, they do have 3 parking spots (first come first serve basis - you need to let the owner know ASAP if you need parking). More on that later. Vicky, the owner, is extremely accommodating and will make sure someone is there to greet you even if she's not there herself. She will check in via Whatsapp usually, so good to have a WiFi connection at the airport or contact her in advance if you won't have a connection. She appreciates a heads up if your flight is delayed etc and is very understanding and patient. Hotel had everything we needed, including A/C (wall mounted) and a balcony looking out onto the street and church across the road. There is shampoo/soap in the shower, as well as some cotton rounds, tissues and some tea/coffee (not a lot).||Cons - if you like fancy hotels, don't book this and complain later ;) I have read reviews from people that clearly didn't understand what they signed up for. This is a small, private hotel and as such, there is some wear and tear on the rooms and some things are in a bit of disrepair. The second room we stayed at had a very noisy A/C unit (leaving the vane in a fixed position fixed the noise issue) and had a bit more wear than the first. If you need a very quiet environment to sleep, bring earplugs as there were cars, trucks and scooters going up and down the streets pretty much all night (I am a very light sleeper). Some of the rooms are a bit quieter because the bedroom is separated from the kitchenette and balcony by a door but some are not. ||PARKING - if you rented a large car/truck, I would strongly advise against trying to park at the hotel. There are only 3 parking spots and it is VERY tight. I drove a Nissan sedan and it took me a good 5-10 minutes to get in and park. There is very little street parking as well as a lot of traffic during the day.||Overall, a good experience with this hotel - it was...

Absolutely terrible. We booked this hotel through Expedia because we thought we were getting an apartment. We got a tiny efficiency room that had a super small kitchen that you have to walk through to get to the bathroom and doesn’t look at all like the photos we saw. The air conditioning is ancient and barely worked And the windows are all single pain on a very busy street so we didn’t sleep at all before our early morning flights having to hear all the motors Traffic and Horne’s just feet away. The owner was not willing to find solutions for us and when my brother came to visit for a few minutes, she acted very Upset and annoyed and told me that the room was only for two. HEE was just visiting honestly, there was barely room for him to sit in the room so we could talk. There were several broken items in the room, including the table lamp next to the bed the shower drain, and there weren’t even enough cups to have tea for two just one tea cup. Also, we had paid for breakfast for two and even though we let them know we had an early flight and asked if they could just prepare us an easy breakfast to go like a boiled egg and a banana. They were absolutely unwilling to discuss it or make any accommodations for our 6 AM departure. 6 AM is not that early for international flights and I can’t believe they didn’t make any effort to try to accommodate us for breakfast that we had paid for. I’m so disappointed and when I commented to her that the Room doesn’t look at all like what Expedia has she said it wasn’t her fault (the photos I enclose are screenshots of what Expedia showed me the room I had booked would look like. The video show shows the actual room). I wonder who’s fault it is then who provides Expedia with those photos? I’m sure they don’t just randomly pull them from nowhere. They also make it look like in the photos. There is a garden or places to sit outside. It’s not true. It’s basically just a glorified large house in the city with a parking area and to the side of the parking area. There is a swing chair right next to where the car is parked. No taste at all and for $90 a night you would do much better to stay at the Hampton Inn, closer to the airport...

My husband and I stayed here the first night we arrived in Costa Rica. We needed somewhere close to the airport as we expected to be tired from travelling from the uk (and we were). We were then driving to La Fortuna the following day. ||When we arrived there was someone there to check us in and show us the room. They also were very helpful and opened the gates to drive into the car park and helped me park our rental car - it’s quite narrow to get into their car park! ||The room was very clean, as spacious as we expected with a big bathroom and kitchen area with a view of the church. ||We walked into Alajuela for dinner and found a great place called Jalapeños Central if you are looking for somewhere reasonably priced with great food. The fajitas were amazing! We felt pretty safe walking around but like anywhere, just keep your wits about you. ||Breakfast in the morning was an excellent introduction to Costa Rican food with fresh fruit and hot food choices, juice, tea and coffee. ||We would definitely recommend...