Hotel Laguna Arenal — Hotel in Arenal

I wanted to update my review from March 2024. I had previously stated that the owner refunded our money. This information was not accurate. Instead it was only a hold on the charge while the credit card company investigated.|We were supposed to stay for two nights in March. When we arrived by taxi, we could not find any staff member in order to check in. Our taxi driver was nice enough to call the hotel and get hold of someone. I had a bad feeling at this point and should have stuck with my gut.|The staff member spoke little English and we mostly communicated by google translate. I am not sure what her position was with the hotel. After she ran our credit card, we received the keys to our room. Upon entering the room, we quickly noticed the loud metallic banging sound on the roof. I knew we would not be able to sleep with that noise.|We informed the staffer that we were unhappy about the noise and would need to leave as we felt it was too loud to sleep. I asked about a refund, but she said that we would have to contact the owner by email.|I contacted the owner by email that same day but did not hear back. At that point, I disputed the charge with the credit card company.|Unfortunately, the owner lied to the credit card company by telling them that we did spend one night and that we never voiced any complaints at the time of service (we received a copy of his letter to them). Because I had not been issued a refund on-site with a receipt, the credit card company felt they had to take his word for it. |I tried contacting the owner again in June 2024. He replied this time and said he does not “recognize your complaint of heavy shaking roof panels as they are all properly fastened”. He also states that it is not the hotel policy to “provide refunds as a result of guest inconvenience experiences”. I emailed back stating again that our particular room did have an issue with the roof panels shaking loudly despite his confidence they were not. I asked if we could at least receive a refund for the second night since we did not stay at all, but I received to response. |The hotel does not take your credit card information at the time of booking. If we had not shown up, we would not have been charged anything. Literally the credit card had just been swiped before we noticed the problem with the room. Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was spend 2 hours finding another lodging and a taxi service that could take us there! We only left because I didn’t think I would sleep. Guess this is just an “inconvenience” per the hotel owner.|I have been visiting Costa Rica for the last 14 years, once or twice a year. Of all the lodging I’ve stayed in, this hotel was the only unprofessional one I’ve dealt with. No Pura Vida philosophy here! So my recommendation to anyone considering staying here:|-Do NOT let them run your credit card until you’ve seen the room and make sure it is quiet and as you wish it to be.|-I recommend staying at the Arenal Observatory Lodge instead. They had much better customer service, pleasant rooms, and...

We booked a two night stay at the location based on al the glowing reviews here and we were totally disappointed in our experience there. The website is full of lies and it is far from a relaxing place to stay. The only redeeming quality of the place is a great view of Lake Arenal. We were travelling without a car and picked the location as it advertised an on site location to eat...not the case at all. We arrived to find the restaurant was closed. The staff member on staff said we could walk down the steep hill to go eat at one of the restaurants along the road...the website states it is 200 meters but is actually three times that distance and down a steep hill...again not an end of the world issue but if you have any mobility issues at all it would be a big problem. The roof on the units makes tons of noise when the sun it out as it apparently expands and makes tons of noise so forget about sleep if the sun is out at all...owner stated that is not an issue but I assure you it is. There are also several free roaming cats on the grounds which is hardly what one wants to see if one is allergic to cats or cares at all about the native wildlife...which the location claims to care about. Without an on site restaurant that was actually available, a long walk to an alternative, a noisy unit and feral cats roaming on site we decided to try to find a new place to spend our last two nights in Costa Rica and eventually found one. We informed the staff member on site with the issues we had and that we would be leaving to stay somewhere else. The only "help" we got from the single staff member that seemed more interested in looking at her phone was a business card to a transport business that didn't have phone numbers that worked. We stayed elsewhere to finish our trip and were hopeful that the management would do the right thing and refund us as we stayed no nights at the location. I would even have been okay with getting billed for a single night if we had to but the owner charged us for both nights. We tried to dispute this with our credit card company but the owner out and out lied about us actually staying for two nights and said we never cancelled or said anything about the issues. Although we had receipts from the new place we stayed and the google translate conversations we had with the staff member on site expressing our concerns and the fact we would not be staying we were on the hook for the full price of two nights. I have travelled extensively around the world and been to Costa Rica 15+ times and this hotel is one of the worst I have dealt with. The owner is a liar and the website is full of falsehoods. There were several other more minor issues but this sums up the experience with this location. Please use lots of caution if looking to book this spot....you have been warned! Go elsewhere if looking at this place. Do not believe the glowing reviews...the place is not what people have described in past reviews...maybe new owners or they have just let...

Our experience was not what we were expecting from the hotel’s website. ||We arrived by taxi but could not locate any hotel employee. Our taxi driver was nice enough to call the hotel and speak with an employee so we could check into our room. ||We specifically chose this hotel because we did not have a car. We wanted a location that both had a restaurant on site for all meals and could arrange tours with transportation. According to the website they have “a small restaurant where you can enjoy a breakfast, lunch and dinner”. After we paid, we were told that the restaurant was closed and we would have to walk to a restaurant in town for dinner (the hotel is up a steep gravel road). ||As for the tours, the website states: “we offer our guests a choice of various tours and excursions. Please ask our reception for the daily excursions program”. When I asked about their upcoming tours, I was advised they did not arrange tours and was given an Arenal tourism web address.||The hotel website states they can arrange transportation: “We can arrange transportation service with an experienced driver”. Prior to our visit, I asked to arrange transportation from our previous lodge to the Laguna Arenal hotel. I was advised that they did not have the staff for that and to take a taxi. ||When we visited our bungalow, we realized the roof made a loud shaking metal noise. It seemed as though it was from the wind. There is no way we would be able to sleep with that noise. I was told the noise was from the sun and would stop when the sun went down. I am not sure if this information was accurate or not as we decided not to spend the night.||I asked the onsite employee if she could call us a taxi. She handed us a business card for private transportation. Both phone numbers on the card were not in service. The hotel employee did not speak English, so all communication with her was via Google translate. ||I finally found another lodge where we could stay and that lodge’s owner was kind enough to arrange a taxi to come and pick us up at Laguna Arenal. I greatly appreciated her customer service as we were feeling rather duped by the Laguna Arenal Hotel by this point.||I asked the hotel employee if we could receive a refund for our stay since it was not as advertised. She told me I would have to email the owner. I emailed, but as of weeks later I have not receive a response from the owner. I did receive a credit, but that was only after I had to file a dispute with the credit card company.||I will say that the sunset from the bungalow’s deck was very nice…we saw it briefly as we were leaving to...