Hotel La Choza Inn — Hotel in La Fortuna

Do not get the "unlimited" shuttle for 20usd. (I doubt that they'll continue running it for much longer anyway. Hardly anyone uses it.) The shuttle does not run as advertised. You have to pre-arrange with them to take you somewhere in the morning and take you back at a specified time (decided by them not by you). When I pointed out that this is not what the schedule shows or how the shuttle is described when sold, the man at the desk simply gaslighted me. First, he blamed his colleague then he blamed me. He told me on the phone that I would get a refund. And then later he pretended the conversation never happened. Such a shocking and shameless liar. His tone was so aggressive and condescending. Disgusting man.

His behavior is not that surprising when you look at comments about the hostels management from other reviewers. There are hostile and aggressive signs everywhere warning people about laws and fines etc. it creates an unpleasant environment. They say that people who are untrustworthy are always suspicious of others. Everything about the way this hostel is run shows that. The hostel administration is completely untrustworthy. And that is why they demand a deposit for everything - even a towel. They threaten you with laws but do not obey the law themselves. They do not provide services as they are described when sold. They still have not provided me with a valid tax receipt. After I asked three times, they gave me some meaningless piece of paper that doesn't even have the name of the hostel on it. The shuttle has many broken seat belts and missing headrests in the back seats. It's not a legally compliant vehicle.

Do not book any tours or extra services through them. Everyone I spoke to who had done a tour through the hostel felt ripped off and were dissatisfied with the quality. Book with Viator or just go to a tour operator office in town instead. Normally when you book through a hostel they quality control. These guys just pocket the commission and don't care that they've sold you a dud.

I only stayed there because I was booking last minute. It is totally overpriced for what they give. Other hostels provide much better facilities and services (without the lying and threats).

Rooms are cramped with few amenities. Always a queue for the toilet. WiFi is sketchy.

The only saving grace of the hostel is the nice breakfast and small courtyard.

Avoid it if you can. And if you have to stay there book through a third party and don't get any...

Firstly, it appears that there's three different listings on Google Maps for this place, but they are all the same thing. To avoid confusion with taxi/shuttle drivers, just let them know you want La Choza Inn. It is an interesting hybrid of a hotel/hostel, featuring quite a few private rooms that are much nicer than I would have expected for a hostel. I think really it must have once been purely a hotel but they wanted to tap into the tourist market and offer a hostel experience as well. There's a little garden courtyard in the center, and adjacent is a large common dining area with a nice little home style kitchen where guests can prepare their own meals, and where the complimentary breakfast of Gallo Pinto and scrambled eggs is cooked and served along with fresh pineapple, toast, coffee, and juice. The front desk is typically occupied by about 3 different people nearly all day, and they were very helpful in most regards. You may do well NOT to ask any of them about any hot spring resorts or other attractions that are not on their list in the front desk. They seem to have some sort of agreement/kickback from the Baldi resort, so when we asked about Paradise Hotsprings, they tried to scare us off of the idea with flat out bogus info. We had a wonderful time at Paradise, at half the price of Baldi. The bogus info about competing resorts is really the only negative I have for La Choza. They offer an "unlimited" shuttle for a one time fee of $15 per person that basically lasts your entire stay. We were there in the off-season, so that may explain why our "shuttle" was just a dude and his car. Think "Uber." While the shuttle is "unlimited" in the sense that you can use it as much as you like during your stay, they limit pickup times to about 4-5 set times per day, and they limit the locations the shuttle will take you to Baldi, the free hot spring river, the Volcan Arenal National Park, the private wilderness reserve adjacent/in competition with the park, and their preferred adventure canopy/zip line tours. In town, taxis were pretty reasonably priced, but they have a pretty high set-price for the national park of about $25 each way, so the shuttle turned out to save us a...

My brother also wrote a review similar too this his name is Kyle Schmidt. We got kicked out today Feb 5th 2024 for writing a negative review before our stay had finished(kicked out on day 2 of 3) The hostel management does not like criticism. But when they canceled our stay they did give us our money back for the night that we missed since we were evicted from our stay. I had the absolute worst experience at this hostel, primarily due to the horrendous management. During our stay, a misunderstanding with an employee left my brother and me stranded at the free hot springs, along with another guest. Despite being assured we could use the free shuttle back, the head management disagreed and, instead of assisting, we were evicted after leaving a justified poor review. We simply asked for our Uber to be reimbursed or some other non-monetary resolution, but management was dismissive, leaving us to find alternative accommodation.

On a positive note, the hostel's rooms are decent, albeit small. The showers, however, only dispensed cold water, and sharing a bathroom with 10 other people in the dorm, especially when located closest to the kitchen, made mornings inconvenient. The hostel's excessively strict rules, including the prohibition of outside guests, make it difficult to enjoy a spontaneous drink with a newfound friend from the bar.

TLDR- bad management, poor customer service, stay here if it's for a day I'd say up to 3 max(got kicked out on the 2nd day, see reasoning above), decent breakfast, cramped dorms, strict rules, and cold water showers. Management will most likely say this review is a lie and all I have to say is that this has happened to other guests, when they say a negative thing about the hostel, the management just decides to kick the person out instead of dealing with the...