Surf Ranch Hotel & Resort — Hotel in San Juan del Sur (Municipio)

Since I am unable to respond to you directly I have to make a second response from my cousins account who was there with us that night. She consents to this review and agrees so this is her own review as well. I will get my entire family who was there to review as well. I was willing to let it go with one review, but you are taking absolutely no responsibility and making untrue defaming claims unlike our claims which are true! I did not commit fraud or EVER receive notice of fraud from you or my bank (which the bank would be on top of these kinds of claims) I initially booked on Booking.Com in which I never received a confirmation number. I tried to contact the hotel various times through phone number, email and whatsapp and didn’t get a response and decided to call my bank to get the charges removed. My cousin who’s a local recommended trying on the website which we did. We got a confirmation number, we got the money taken out of our account (which we had plenty of money for thank you; we have never had problems with “fraudulent” charges or insufficient funds for crying out loud i mean we spent $5,000 alone on plane tickets I promise you money is not a concern). We tried whatsapp messaging the hotel at various times upcoming our trip and never received a response but thought we would just try it when coming. You do not apologize for anything.

And now you are lying! When we arrived we were never asked to provide valid proof a card or ID. The person at the gate said we weren’t on the list and just didnt let us in. We showed the person at the gate our confirmation and bank statement and they didn’t know what to do, we weren’t allowed inside and there were no more rooms for us. Seems like you overbooked and didn’t check. We never received any communication from you other than our confirmation code. So please stop coming up with excuses and blaming guests for your short comings. We were never notified of any “fraudulent” activity. The bank would’ve notified us before you and we would’ve been prosecuted which for your information has never happened. We have absolutely no freud experience or money problems as you are suggesting very rudely. None of this is our fault had we known of this we wouldn’t have come 7 hours out of the way after our 16 hour flight day. We are not to blame you are. Terrible hotel experience. We never booked under different names or different cards and if we did it was slightly different names because it was my mothers. We NEVER made multiple attempts to rebook, we rebooked once on the website once our bank returned the money which they told us booking.com was holding on to the funds (which is proof there was no doubt on fraud, the banks involved would investigate us). Also traveling from the US to Nicaragua with all our official paperwork I highly doubt we’d get there by fraud. Very offensive to suggest. I never acknowledged that and am not thankful this was a terrible experience and we were treated inhumanly like I stated and I plan on further escalating this in the united states against you especially now for telling lies on your platform. Do not lie and mitigate blame. You do this with every costumer who leaves a poor review! Take accountability and do better. Stop coming up with fake stories with no backing. We were able to book somewhere else the day of and pay I promise you we do not have issues with money thanks for being rude once again! I really hope you learn from this experience.

I’m making an edit to your response, thanks for reporting but this is NOT a fake account I am Cristina’s cousin who lives here in Nicaragua so stop lying google can check and see i’ve had this account since 2018. Stop making stuff up to move blame here you are...

Hello I'd like to give a long honest review.

When I first booked the rooms i did not read reviews - then when i read them later i was worried about the conditions but I was really pleased with the hotel when we arrived.

To start we got a little lost because theres a new road being build that says not to use. We called the hotel and a woman picked up and gave us directions. Once we realized we could drive down the road we were on our way.

Theres a left turn onto a dirt path that has a bit of a drop. We were driving a small car and it made it just fine. I suspect once the road is compete this weird disjointedness between the two roads will be fixed. Theres a small area that has some water on the path it was very low and can be described a a tiny puddle.

Based on other reviews It seems when it rains a lot it might be a little harder for short cars to pass this point if they dont wait for the rain to stop. It was only spitting rain when we arrived so we had no issues.

We arrived a little late around 8pm. There was a security man at the gate who helped us in. We were greeted by a family of street cats who i absolutely adored. They are VERY friendly and dont bother you too much. The reception guy was friendly he told us about all the food options.

By boyfriend had chicken tacos and my cousin and i shared a plate of chicken wings, chicken strips, fries, tostadas and queso frito. It was good nothing amazing but it satisfied.

Our cabin was 2 rooms with a living room and a washroom. The bed seemed clean. There were a couple lizards and bugs in the habitation.

The AC was strong which is great ! There was a very faint stain on the quilt but it smelled amd felt clean. (I'll attach h a photo)

I will make a small complaint here that our beds were hard and the pillows very flat. I would recommend the owners offer more pillows so that we can stack them if we'd like. Nevertheless i slept super soundly because the area is very quiet and clam.

Lastly we had breakfast in the morning which was tasty and filling. We had coffee refills. Juice. Rice and beans with plantains two eggs and fruit.

Again the same guy from reception took our orders and brought our food. He was amazing very chatty guy who gave us lots of tips. He was mentioning that right now is quiet at the resort but it gets busy closer to independence day in September. I imagine when its slow like this theres few staff because theres no need to be fully staffed with only a few guests. This is typical with any hotel.

We left really happy. The river was a little fuller on exiting due to the larger amount of rain at night but our little car still made it through.

Id like to note that I have visted a few times in my youth to see family. I am somewhat accustomed to the abundance of bugs/lizards/rain etc that exists in Nicaragua. You cant keep nature out no mater how much you might try. Ive stayed in places "nicer" than this and still had lizards in my room. This resort is very nice for Nicaragua and id even say for Canada. The potential issues of getting here are sort of unrelated to the resort and have more to do with the government roads. For example later we tried to get to a beach in san juan but the road there was too muddy for our car so we had to turn around.

I would...

Wow wow WOW! This was by far the most amazing experience at a Resort I have encountered in my life in my country of Nicaragua!

Let me start off by telling you why, I have been to alot of Hotels and Resorts with my family since I was very little, we would travel to Managua, Leon, and even San Juan Del Sur years ago before the boom, and my level of satisfacation has always been the same, I just assumed that customer service takes a while in most places in Nicaragua, the food is usually basic, typically Nicaraguan dishes, and as for things to do with my family, the best thing available is to sit by a pool.

Surf Ranch Resort has raised the bar for my family and me and many people in Nicaragua!

I found out about the Surf Ranch from one of my friends in Managua, she mentioned to me that there was a new resort that has been getting alot of great reviews word-to-mouth around Managua and also that they have a Contest on Instagram ( @surfranch ) every Sundays for your chance to win Free nights, and my sister participated in the contest and he Won!

I emailed them and I recieved a very quick response, they already knew about us and were very happy and helpful with all of our questions.

Upon arrival they treated us like gold, we were all given complimentary drinks while we waited to be checked in, an amazing thing they do for all new arrival guests.

We were so amazed when we got there, the photos do not do justice until you actually get there, the place is HUGE! There were people rockclimbing and skateboarding at the park when we got there, and people were sitting around the pool in the lounge chairs and poolside cabanas, while the bartenders served them food and drinks. It was like something I had seem from the movies, we were amazed!

Our 2 days there seemed to go by way to fast, we tried the paintball course, jumped into the big airbag that they have, We played volleyball with the new friends we met at the bar, and my sister tried the rockclimbing wall while I took photos. I will post them on here for everyone to see! ALSO THE FOOD WAS AMAZING!

Surf Ranch, I want you to know how much you have changed our resort experience and we will not go anywhere else! I am so happy that you have chosen to build your second Resort in Popoyo Nicaragua because the experience WAS amazing and you will be closer to us in Managua ;) . NOS...