Hotel América Heredia — Hotel in Heredia

This hotel was never great, but it's gone down hill a great deal. There's not many choices in Heredia, so if you need to stay in city center, this is about the best you can get. I have stayed at this hotel multiple times, but this is the last time I will be staying here. The staff just made my stay here difficult. I stayed here with my wife, her friend and my two year old son. The accommodations were basic. You get a bed, one pillow, a blanket a sheet, a small fan, a tiny tv, a private bath, a desk and a closet with a small safe. The pillows were very old and lumpy. I stayed in a triple, however, there were only two towels. I asked for more towels, in Spanish, at the front desk. The woman at the front desk said she could bring them up, but not until later, say around 10:00 pm. I agreed. I stayed up until 10:30, she never came with the towels, so I just went to bed. The next day, my wife went downstairs, asked for towels in English and was immediately handed several towels. ||||The second night, my lumpy pillow was starting to get to me and again we only had two clean towels from the maid service. I went downstairs and I asked for three more pillows and some more towels. I asked in Spanish and I was told that the hotel policy is to not give out extra pillows or towels. Several hours later I checked to see if there had been a change of staff at the front desk, but it was the same woman who denied me pillows and towels. I sent my wife down. In English, she asked for more pillows and towels and was immediately given three pillows and two more towels, by the same woman who just denied my same request an hour ago.||||I remember the hotel being noisy as it is located next to a casino, but this time around it was unreal. The music and base blared until 3am. Having stayed here before, I came prepared with earplugs. I had my ear plugs in and I could still hear it. I didn't sleep at all. The music seemed to be louder on the weekends, which most of our stay was on Fridays or Saturdays. The hotel is also about 50 meters from a church so just a bit after the music is turned down, you will be awoken by the church bell at 5 a.m. There were a lot of drunk people on the street in front too, so expect to be hassled by them a bit too, even during daylight hours. ||||If your visiting Heredia, the location is about the only good thing about this hotel. It's located right in downtown, a few blocks from the university, 50 meters from central park and a few blocks to most bus stops. There is a cab stand about 50 meters away. You are only blocks away from both Tico and American restaurants. That said, it is thus noisy with all the downtown traffic and casino next door. There is also an arcade across the street which can get noisy too. A nice souvenir shop is located across the street and the post office is about a block away. The hotel is about 7 blocks away from the palacio de los deportes which has a gym, an outdoor pool, basketball courts, suana and jacuzzi. The soccer stadium is right behind the gym. There is a pops ice cream store about a block away, a grocery store is about a block and half away. A pharmacy is on the same block and if you cut through central park and head up the block from the fortin, there is a excellent ice cream shop. You will recognize it by the line of people waiting and by the green "dos pinos" awning. The prices are very fair and the portions are big. ||||I didn't use the wi-fi, but my wife did and she didn't seem to have any trouble. ||||When I stayed here in the past breakfast was laid out in a continental style. It was delicious, fast and healthy, however they seemed to have changed this to a cook to order style, however, I couldn't find any one to cook it. Breakfast is normally on the top floor. It has a really nice view of the city. I would go up to the designated floor and there would be no food out and no staff member on the floor. My family and I often wanted to get a quick start on our appointments and excursions, so we didn't have time to search around for staff and wait for our food to be cooked. We went to the bakery down the street to buy breakfast most days. On the last day, I tracked down a staff member and she made us gallo pinto. It was not that great. Breakfast was included, but I could almost never find anyone to cook it.||||Parking was included too. We rented a car for a few days of our stay and the hotel did give us free parking. The parking lot was about a block away. It was open 24 hours some days, but other days it had more limited hours. It is guarded and locked when closed, so your car is protected, but you might have to wait for the lot to open up to get your car out. We never had to wait long. One day we wanted to leave at 5am, but I think the lot opened at six, so we just sat around for an hour or so.||||During past stays, I used to see dead cockroaches in the hotel, which I was fine with. It meant they were spraying regularly. This is Latin America and its hard to kill these things anywhere. I understand. Where there is food, warm weather and buildings that are connected, there will be bugs. This time around I did not see any dead cockroaches, but I did see several living cockroaches. I have a feeling that they stopped spraying.||||There was a refridgerator for guests to use, but it was dirty and smelled like onions. The fridge also didnt work very well, but the freezer did, so I used the freezer. ||||The shower also leaked all over our room. I did tell the front desk about this and they did fix it. ||||I submit this review with a good deal of despair. I stayed here multiple times and I had good memories of this hotel. I stayed here with my brother on vacation in 2009. I stayed here with my girlfriend in 2011. When I married that same girlfriend we stayed here on part of our honeymoon in 2012. I am sad to say that I will not stay here again. I will probably try to stay in one of the hotels on the western edge of Heredia closer to...

Absolutely the worse “motel” in Costa Rica. This place is a joke. Although the weather outside was 65 degrees, inside was almost 80. It does have a tini fan but it blows all the dirt from the room making impossible to breath. There’s no hot water. There’s no wifi. The bed is extremely uncomfortable and the pillows two bulky bags filled with a strange material. There is only one sheet in the bed with stains all over. The two towels are all yellow staines and smelled really bad. They charge you for the whole number of days when you arrived. When I asked them why they told me years ago they changed that policy because the amount of gringos that were cancelling the rest of their staying after their first experience and now you can’t. Don’t take the elevator, one guy told me. It’s often broken. There’s a casino next to that the owner also owns that is so noisy that goes through the paper thin walls of the rooms. There’s no wifi. The same guy told me there’s no wifi because the owner Mr Carlos didn’t want to pay for it and told his staff to tell their guess they were having some issues the time they were staying. Exactly what they told me. The bathroom doors were broken. The shower cap broke that first night, but couldn’t take a shower anyway because there was not hot water. I just washed my hair with the little water that came out of the sink. They couldn’t change my room because I had already checked in in that room but they were sending someone to fix it but never arrived. Two days of hell during the night. We were bitten by something during the night but didn’t see what it was. My back was full of tini red spots. Do yourself a favor. Spend an extra 30 dollars and stay somewhere more decent. I booked it at $49.00 per night for a two queen bed and a sofa and I got two single beds with all these issues. When I got there they charged me 140 dollars but was too tired to complain. I don’t know what this other guy was talking about 11,000 colonies per night. That’s like 18 dollars. By his 5 starts review, I guess he must really be into camping. If you do decided to stay there, remember me that first night. I wouldn’t be surprise they also...

Once I got used the idea that $70 was cheap for Costa Rica and I saw the place in daylight, I was not dissatisfied with our hotel. It is located in a charming old theater with antique camera equipment and a dramatic, sweeping staircase. The location is perfect for walking around the city--a great Central Valley base for exploration.||||We found the staff friendly and helpful. We were able to exchange $20.00 at a favorable rate at the desk. The breakfast was simple but tasty-fruit, cereal, eggs made to order--not premade and kept in a warming tray. Perhaps that is because we were the only people at breakfast! ||||Okay, the bed was hard, the room small but we slept like rocks after our flight and the next day too.||||The safe provided is small...adequate for for passports, and a kindle but nothing larger. There is a $5.00 deposit for the safe key which is refunded on checkout.||||We had no problem with noise or smells. The Hotel America hosts a variety of groups so experience may vary greatly on other hotel clients. Good wifi connection outside our rooms. Water cooler also available in this same lobby area.||||Value for the money? Not what I am used to but this is my first time in Costa Rica and I expected it to be expensive. Take a trip to Walmart (or not) to get an idea of the cost of things. ||||I would recommend this hotel to family and friends with a bit of...