Tamarindo Diria — Hotel in Tamarindo

We were booked into the Diria with a large group of people attending a friend's wedding. When we arrived, there was a mix-up with our reservation, but I suspect the error was the fault of the Travel Agency, not the hotel, since we arrived a day later than most people. The problem was resolved after about 20 minutes. While the front desk was helpful, they weren't exactly what I would call "friendly" during this time.||The hotel property is huge, and is located on both sides of the main thoroughfare in Tamarindo. The open air lobby, main restaurant, and bar/patio are located on the beach side, along with the ocean-view rooms, as well as a large lawn area with lounge chairs. There is a 3 to 4 foot high retaining wall between the lawn and the beach, and that is where the hotel property ends. It is my understanding that all beaches in Costa Rica are public land, so there are many vendors walking up and down the beach plying their wares. Most are polite and respectful of your space, and take "no" for an answer. There is a guard posted at the entrance to the beach to keep out anyone not authorized to be on the property.||Along the main road on both sides are multiple restaurants affiliated with the hotel, as well as a small casino. There are also multiple gift shops. The larger portion of the hotel property is on the other side of the street.||The hotel uses RFID wristbands instead of keys. The wristbands allow access to the property as well as open the gate leading to the property on the other side of the street and also act as your room key. We had a room over-looking the family pool with a small balcony with a table and two chairs. The room was fairly basic, but did have a rainfall shower-head in a large shower. I do feel a need to mention that the tile in both the shower AND throughout the room is very slippery when wet, so take care. There weren't many amenities in the room, but it did have a refrigerator and a small capsule-espresso machine. The bed was a little firm for my taste, but not to the point of being uncomfortable.||There are 3 pools on the property. There is a small pool just off the main lobby, there is a gigantic family pool, and there is a smaller adult-only pool tucked away in the north of the property. The grounds themselves are meticulously maintained and VERY pretty. There are multiple gigantic Guanacaste trees, complete with a family of howler monkeys in residence, and iguanas and squirrels roaming the property. The family pool and the adult pool have swim up bars, although when we were there, only the family pool bar was staffed. I don't know if they put out more lounge chairs during the busy season, but while we were there, we were fortunate to find chairs with shade under palapas. When you check in, you are given a "towel card". You turn in the card for 2 beach towels. When you are done with those, you turn in the towels for either more/clean towels, or you get the card back. You turn the card in again for towels.||The provided breakfast buffet is amazing. There is a wide variety of foods, from fresh fruits and pastries, to an omelet station, to chafing dishes with a variety of Costa Rican dishes. There are several gourmet coffee dispensing machines as well as a variety of juices. Combine that with sitting in the open air restaurant/bar or the patio and looking out at the ocean was tremendous.||I thought the price per night was fair, give the entirety of the property. The wristbands are very convenient, instead of having to pull your a key card all the time. ||The three suggestions I would make would be:|1: Install water-filling stations on the property. Given the heat and humidity, staying hydrated is important, and buying and then lugging bottled water to your room is inconvenient and annoying.|2: Put a towel vending station on the other side of the street at the family pool. Having to lug your dirty/wet/used towels to the other side of the property to get new ones is also annoying.|3: Train your restaurant staff a bit better on being Customer focused. I only encountered the staff at the main bar, ice cream stand, and pizza restaurant, but none of those groups knocked my socks off in terms of their...

Dear Catherine,

I am writing this email out of frustration due to the very poor service received by your front desk associate, Carlos Acevedo. Upon check in for our reservation, that was made over a month ago for our family of four’s annual vacation, we got to the room to discover there were only two towels in our room. I called at 3pm upon getting to our room and asked for 4 extra towels and 2 luggage racks for our bags. I was told by the front desk agent it was no problem and it will be right up. At approximately 4 pm I still had not heard from anyone and called again only to be told that they are working on it and they will be right up. We waited until 4:30ish and we called and were told they would put them outside the room if we are not there. Needless to say when we came back from dinner at about 6pm there were still no racks or towels. In frustration I called the front desk again and my wife happened to be up there for a different reason as we STILL had no towels! My wife came back to the room and we waited again for over 30 minutes and no towels or luggage racks came. I personally went down to the from desk and spoke to Carlos (medium build young man with glasses) and asked why this was such a problem and could I please speak to a manager. I just wanted to know what the problem was with getting our towels. I asked him why would you have only 2 towels when you know that there are 4 adults checking in? He tells me that there is a problem with getting towels due to electrical issues, which was the first time we heard about this issue. I asked him if he was in charge then why can’t I just have 4 of the beach towels to use and he tells me he can’t do that. I ask him if these are the only towels you have then why not? He again tells me NO! He informs me that there is no manager here and there will not be one here until Monday. I asked again who is in charge until Monday and he told me “ I am”. I then asked for the general manager’s name and email and he tells me there isn’t one! I asked again letting him know that I worked over 30 years in the service industry and everyone has a boss or a general manager and he again told me there is no general manager. I left there and walked over to the bar and spoke to the bar manager who was kind enough to listen to my frustration and gave me your name (promote him!) He listened and gave me the information and bought me a beer for my troubles! He deserves a raise! I have worked over 30 years in the service industry and I am providing you the feedback as I will be posting this poor service on Trip Advisor and Google. I have also let our travel agency know that you have an employee who gives poor service and doesn’t represent your organization well at all, because quite honestly, they lied to me and that is inexcusable for this to happen to a customer as this is the platform for which poor service lives!

Hopefully you will read this and make things right and if not, on my next trip here I will make sure I give my hard earned money to someone...

We stayed a week here and had a very good time. Overall this hotel was very nice but I will say it was pricey for the room provided. Some pros and cons followed by other comments:

Pros; Great close view of the ocean from the hotel itself and very well maintained pools and grounds along with friendly staff. Great variety of food when it comes to complementary breakfast and relatively cheap when it comes to ordering basic drinks from the bar. The hotel lunch and dinner were pretty good but some items seemed a little expensive for what you’re getting. Free parking at the lot across the street from the main hotel but sometimes can be difficult to maneuver in and out of due to construction work and number of vehicles rented by other guests. The hotel staff were great and very friendly. Even the maids added the extra effort in making the bed for our daughter with her beloved stuffed lamas seen in the pictures which we really did appreciate. There are many car and atv rental businesses near the hotel as well as souvenir and beach shops that all are relatively reasonable price wise. Numerous restaurants around the area within walking distance and have a large variety of decent foods.

Cons; As I stated before, parking can be a little difficult depending on time of day as well as season. Also due to traffic that builds up right outside of the hotel entrance on the main street. Solicitors gather right outside the hotel on the beach and road and will try to sell you numerous items nonstop, seems like every minute another person approaches you when you are trying to relax within the hotel property line. The main road being right outside of our room did cause a lot of noise throughout the day and night due to loud vehicles, motorcycles, and semis using engine braking at all hours. The tv channels only had a very small percentage of English channels, most of which are in Spanish. Holes in the blackout curtains made the room look cheap and not like a $250+ per night resort room. Our toilet seat was broken, one of the bolts was missing when we checked in. Our shower head was obviously replaced but after putting in the new head, they painted the cut drywall section a different shade of blue than the rest of the wall, again one of the little things we noticed that made it feel cheap.

We did have a baby crab in our shower one night, not necessarily the hotels fault as we were staying on the beach, just humorous overall.

Overall a very nice resort with many different amenities and adventures available. Although we did think it was slightly overpriced for our stay, I’d still recommend this resort for anyone who doesn’t mind paying a little extra for a...