Hotel Manuel Antonio — Hotel in Quepos

I don‘t know where to start. When we arrived, the room, our bathroom and the corridor in between stank of poo. Lo and behold, we were greeted by a floating poop in the toilet, which I am very sure has been there for a while. Turns out the water wasn‘t running (apparently due to the rainy season, however, we‘ve been in Costa Rica for 3 weeks now and spent our nights in several hostels, never encountering this problem). We would have accepted this if they warned us before our checkin and the rest of the hostel was fine. But the bunk bed seemed really unsafe and the bathroom looked super disgusting like it hasn‘t been cleaned in weeks. We wanted to leave immediately and get a refund but they talked us into staying and got us an „upgrade“. They first showed us two other rooms with exactly the same problem which we politely declined until they gave us two rooms in another part of the hostel. At that point we just accepted our fate and stayed. Bad decision. The AC smelled like mold, the bed sheets were stained and very old. We don‘ know if they were old or new stains but at this point it didn‘t matter anymore. The pool is not exclusively part of the hostel and people working there were very rude. The fridge in the common area doesn‘t work. When we wanted to shower in the morning, the water was muddy and brown. Now we were just utterly disgusted and wanted to leave immediately, even though we had booked one more night. Of course we didn‘t get a refund otherwise we wouldn‘t even have written this review and just left it at that.||The next evening we were going out with our friend who still stayed at the hostel and they locked her out so we had to come back to get her to stay the night at our new place (even though they say on the webiste they have 24/7 reception, but noone was there). You can imagine it‘s great being locked out in the middle of the night as a blonde 21 year old girl in central america.||The next morning it turns out the place was robbed and several people got their belongings stolen. They did not want to show them the camera footage though? So I‘m not sure the camera even works.||||Tl;dr: shabby, dirty, smelly, no water, rude, locked out, unsafe. Bad bad bad hostel and experience compared to all the very nice places we have visited in Costa Rica so far. Don‘t come here if you value your money, health...

My boyfriend and I spent four nights here as part of a two-wek trip to Costa Rica. We chose it because of its location right next to the national park, where we planned to spend a lot of our time. We looked at several more expensive resorts up the hill, but since we didn't have a car, we thought it would be easier to stay right on the beach. ||||The location of this hotel was just as convenient as we had hoped it would be. The park entrance is minutes away by foot, and the public beach is right outside the door. When it comes to location, you really can't beat the convenience of this place. ||||However, with that proximity to the public beach and park entrance came some less desirable things, like a loud karaoke singer that sang and played loud music in the alley outside our window for hours on end. There were also lots of local merchants pushily hawking goods and services on the street outside the hotel all the time, which made us uncomfortable. The hotel grounds themselves were very clean and well cared for, but the main road beyond that was a bit grungy. We realized partway through our stay that we would have preferred being two steps removed from all of this, up on the hill at a resort, even though it would have been less convenient. ||||The hotel room itself was barebones and rather dated, but it was exceptionally clean. There were never any bugs in our room, which was quite impressive given the tropical location, and housekeeping did an excellent job every day of our stay. The bed was comfy and the air conditioning was very cold. The shower was hot with good pressure, and we felt safe here. The price was great, especially given the location. ||||The staff here were also great. They were friendly and professional and allowed us to leave our luggage at the front desk both on the day we arrived and the day we left, so that we could go exploring without having to haul around our bags. The called us taxis several times and were always very kind. ||||Overall, if you are looking for a basic, affordable hotel with easy beach/park access that is clean and comfortable, this is an excellent choice. If you are looking for something with a bit more luxury, aesthetic, or amenities, you are probably better off staying at one of the resorts up the hill. It just depends what you're...

This hostel will be one of your cheapest options for private rooms without booking a hotel. Our private room was decent in size and included a fan. The bathrooms were fine but looked like they hadn’t seen a deep clean in a while. The location of the hostel is key—it is located right next to a bus stop so you can catch the Manuel Antonio bus every 15 minutes for only 335 colones (like 60 US cents). There is also several grocery store options nearby, and it’s in walking distance of many great restaurants located on the way to Manuel Antonio (Cafe Milagro was a favorite of ours). It is possible to walk down to Manuel Antonio town from the hostel as it’s mostly down hill and took us about a half hour, but we’d recommend a bus back up the hill unless you’re looking for a hike. The hostel also includes a pool. It’s a small downhill jaunt from the hostel reception. It’s pretty small and nothing fancy, but has a nice view and made for a refreshing dip. As well, while we were there it looked like they were building a bar to open right next to the pool which we imagine will be very nice once it’s finished. |Our only qualm was the condition of the kitchen—it wasn’t particularly well-kept, the communal dishes were old and in definite need of an upgrade, and the fridge housed food that looked like it went...