In the Shade Hotel + coworking 300Mbit fiber — Hotel in Tamarindo

If you’re into the hostel travel life, this place may be for you.

If you are a couple, or a family looking to have a relaxing vacation, read on.

The Tropical Motel 6 - In the shade hotel

Expect people to be swimming directly outside the door of your room. Even if you book a room away from the pool - they will give you whatever room they want, and when questioned they said the one that we booked (which was more expensive!) was unavailable. Refused to let us cancel as they have a ‘7 day cancellation policy’ (how was I supposed to premeditate you were going to put me in the wrong room…). So they gave us free breakfast for the rest of our stay, and moved us into a room on the second floor balcony, that was a little more private. This room had a gap in the locked door that was so big I could put my finger through to the outside, and the safe did not work. Staffs solution? Use a FORK to open anytime you want to use the safe. Shower fixture fell out of the wall without even touching it. Water pressure in both of the rooms we stayed in - you're better off standing in a downpour or just jumping into the pool and bringing some shampoo with you. You can tell that this place was bought as an existing hotel and flipped with cosmetics and a slap of paint.

This is marked as a adults-only hotel - which it is, but you will still hear little kids screaming and playing echoing throughout the pool area while you're in your lounge chair because its directly next to a playground. (No fault of the hotel, just be aware)

Any time you come and go the hosts engage in friendly banter in the courtyard/pool area about how your day was. (Which is fine, they're in the business of hospitality!) but my personal feelings, it felt like coming home before curfew and checking in with mom or dad. I realize that this doesn’t bother most normal people. But after having staff in our room multiple times during the week to fix whatever was broken, shower, safe, move us from one room to another - and wasting half a day of our trip over it, etc. I literally just wanted to spend this trip relaxing, disconnecting and not dealing with anyone I didn’t go out of my way to engage. I could not fully relax this entire trip for a $1300 stay. We stayed at Tamarindo Bay Boutique last year (also adults only) but this year was sold out. Go there instead for adults-only, tranquil, excellent service/accommodations and great breakfast included.

Lesson learned we will just get a bnb next time or go back to bay boutique. Id rather save my money and not come back to tamarindo next year than to stay at this place...

We stayed 2 nights here, first night we couldn't sleep well because of a horrible mold smell, we weren't sure if it was from the aircon or the bed. In the morning we found out it was the pillows that were moldy, we informed the staff and the cleaning lady came and gave us another another room, then another guy came while we were moving from the room, he smelled the bed and agreed the pillows were moldy and told us no need to change the room, they came just change the pillows but since we already had all our stuff out, there was no sense - this was kinda strange, no yes it's moldy, I'm very sorry... Then another lady came a bit later to see if everything was fine in the new room - this was a plus point and good service actually. However I need to give only 3 stars because even in the other room we didn't sleep well next since we had the room full of ants (and we didn't have food in the room). The main issue is that on pictures this place looks amazing so you come with certain expectations but then the reality is different. The built quality is very low. All walls are paper, doors as well, thin windows... And generally not well thought design. No shelf in the shower to put cosmetics products, two glass shelves that are so low that you cannot fit a luggage under but too fragile to put it on top. Shower leaking the water all over the room destroying the furniture, hole in the wall where ants enter, the gap under the door is so big anyways that all possible bugs can enter. Also the cleanliness was below average, the area around the pool was full of mud from workers walking there in boots but didn't see anyone wash the floor during the two days, outdoor shower next to the pool growing algae, the pool itself we had the question the cleanliness of the water. Overall the place was OKish and I was thinking to put 4 stars since it still it might be better than a lot of other places in the area but then put 3 since it's deceptive as you come here with higher expectations based on the nice pictures but then you get disappointed once you see it closely. I still think it might be a decent option in the area but it's a pity that for it's cheap built this place is pretty new and already falling apart and soon in a need...

We booked a studio on the 2nd floor with balcony. When we arrived the AC in the apartment we were given did not work (we waited for an hour to be sure). The hostess agreed it was not working (it was over 40 celcius degrees in the apartment) and we were moved to a different apartment on the ground floor (which is cheaper than the ones with balcony).

The next day we were relocated to another apartment on the 2nd floor with balcony (we asked for it). This time the AC was working fine.

On our second night there was a power outage for 3-4h around 8PM. No AC, no light no nothing.

On our last day the water shut down for about an hour. We could not shower nor flush the toilets. The hotel said it it is because it is the dry season and the city is cutting the water but we confirmed it was working fine in other places like restaurants)

The place is cute and cosy but all the apartments are facing each other. A group a young people were staying for a few days and celebrating a birthday. They were playing music outside pre gaming in the afternoon evening and just having loud discussions outside. This bothered us and the rest of the people living in the other apartments.

Long story short this place is OK and the location is good but too many things go wrong everyday (AC broken, power outage for hours, no water etc).

On top of this if you get unlucky and have loud neighbors then this place looses the rest of it's positives.

We stayed in 6 hotels/places during our trip and this one is ranked last on our list. I will not go back to this place and would not recommend it to anyone that might be annoyed by noises or daily issues.

We asked the hotel for a small refund given that we spent one night in a cheaper apartment on the first night. They said they would not refund us as the AC was working fine which is false. We would have been happy to stay in the apartment we were supposed to have if the AC was working and the hostess only agreed to move us once she agreed the AC was not...