Hotel Colonial CR — Hotel in Catedral

This is a very clean, comfortable, and economic hotel in the heart of the city, comparable in price to others in less secure areas. It's within easy walking distance of restaurants, museums, and shopping.

The building itself is a historical gem. The colonnade gives it the feeling of a colonial villa, and only the sound of the traffic (not nearly so bad as other reviewers indicate) reminds you that you're in the city. The rooms are very clean and comfortable, all opening to the courtyard, which has a small pool and plenty of places to sit and relax.

The breakfast is the typical local gallo pinto. That served us perfectly, but if you are the type of traveler who wants to bring home with you, you'll want to go out for breakfast. I only wish that the coffee had more local flavor to it too. It was almost water.

But what really shone for us was the attention to guests, particularly from Francisco Rojas, the night concierge. We had had a stressful night after encountering a problem with our reservations elsewhere and then searching for another place to spend our last two nights, and I remembered seeing this one on one of the hotel websites. Francisco was incredibly understanding of our situation and did everything possible to make our stay as welcoming as possible. For that service alone, what was a 4-star rating is bumped up to 5 stars, and has earned our future patronage whenever we need a hotel in San Jose. I hope he sees this and will accept (another) wholehearted "thank you."

Keep in mind that it's not a resort. I'm reviewing the place for what it is: a great base from which to explore San Jose and to return for a shower and a comfortable bed, offered at a reasonable price. Everything is clean and comfortable, but if you want luxury look somewhere else. If you are someone who travels to experience the local flavor of life, this is a great place.

EDIT: Stayed here for a second time. It continues to be a pleasant place to stay, but note that the neighborhood (like all of San José and the country in general) has become more dangerous since my first visit, particularly at night. The hotel, however, remains secure, with controlled entry at the lobby...

Do not stay at this hotel, there are plenty of better options in the same area for a similar price. The service is terrible. Unfortunately I can’t upload video here. But they put me in a room next to what seemed like a party or bar, with extremely loud music. I asked to move rooms, and was told I had to pay another $60 in addition to the $64 I had already paid. Yet on booking.com the room was the same price as the room I had already paid for. They said this was because the room had an additional double bed, then when I asked to move to a room that had one double bed, the manager suddenly was unreachable. The receptionist didn’t seem to care at all and made no effort to rectify the situation, in fact she said she didn’t realise music was playing, which I find very hard to believe. Anyway, when she found out, she did nothing to help. In addition the hotel was dirty, 10 mins after checking in I saw a rodent run into the restaurant, and there was construction going on, which they did not make known at the time of booking and made no effort to clean up. I ended up leaving the hotel after just a few hours and staying at Hotel Balmoral, which I’d...

Tl;Dr - Good restaurant & friendly staff, but BED BUGS or FLEAS in the room (room 26, to be exact). Don't risk it, stay somewhere else.

First the pros: The staff was great, very friendly. I needed something printed and they were happy to accommodate right away. The restaurant is also great. Lovely food, nice service.

Now for the cons: My room either had bed bugs or fleas...or some mystery bug that attacked me ALL NIGHT. I had ZERO bites when I came to this hotel, and I walked out the next morning with over 30. When I told the front desk staff he basically said there was nothing he could do except have me send a WhatsApp message to management, which I did, and still haven't been contacted or compensated (it's been nearly a week). I would NEVER stay here again for this reason, and could never recommend this place to anyone. I did talk to other people in the morning who had no issues, but I would NOT take the risk based on how covered in bites I was when I woke up.

Moral of the story, eat at the restaurant, but other than that, avoid this hotel at all costs. Save yourself the week of...