Villa Alejandro - Boquete — Hotel in Bajo Boquete

I stayed at Villa Alejandro for 4nights/5days during the July rainy season. Overall, it’s a great place to stay for the price, only $44/night! But I think some things should be mentioned and considered before staying here.

I stayed in casita 1 which was really cute upon 1st inspection: it has a fully equipped kitchen so you can cook & eat in if you want, smart tv worked (although the picture quality wasn’t the best), it was super quiet, the garden view was amazing as you can sit outside and watch the hummingbirds fly all around.

However a few things to note: The front entrance is not secured and there is no onsite security. There is a lock on the front gate but it can easily be opened by anyone. I felt very safe in the area so I was ok with this but something to consider.

Villa Alejandro is at the top of a hill so if you’re walking, when coming and going to shops or restaurants you will most likely walk up this hill which could be difficult for some. I saw a lady backpacking and struggling to carry all her belongings up the hill.

If staying in a casita you may never see the staff. I did not do a formal check-in in the lobby, I was not greeted in-person at all, you access the casita using a lockbox which the hotel will provide the code prior to your arrival. I had never used a lockbox before & got a little confused on how to enter my room. These instructions were not clear at all. So if you value that type of interaction or service, you may not find it here.

The room was cute however, the bed is FIRM, almost hard. The room apparently had previous leaks as there were water stains on the walls that came from the ceiling - There were no leaks while I was there though. The curtains were dirty in some areas too. There were spider webs on the ceiling. There were 3 power outages that were not the hotel’s fault but they should provide lanterns or something more than a tiny flashlight for this. The staff should also reach out to the guests during blackouts to provide reassurance to travelers instead of leaving them to figure it out for themselves- (the power only stayed out for 1 minute each time). Also, the provided coffee, sugar, creamer, salt etc. were all hard and clumped together due to the humidity. I don’t use these things anyway but definitely took notice. The water they also provided had debris floating in it. If you leave your toothpaste out in the bathroom tiny ants will come out of the outlet and swarm it. Last, one of the chairs outside my room was broken & I didn’t realize until after I sat on it.

As mentioned I didn’t interact with the staff at all. Seems like the hotel is mainly run through using WhatsApp, this is how you communicate with the hotel. However, they are very responsive! One of the other guests mentioned there was no one in the lobby one night when she needed help so I’m not sure when or how long the staff is onsite.

Considering the above, I still enjoyed my stay because many of these things don’t bother me but they may bother you. The other guests were friendly, but I didn’t see them much & the town itself made me already want to go back. I’d probably stay somewhere further out and drive into town next time though, just to have more comfortable...

So the house was clean and pristine. So clean in fact that you felt bad for leaving a single cup unwashed in the sink. The view was incredible and the house was amazing, but there is a huge factor that greatly effects the living conditions. The host in particular was rude upon our arrival, making it seem like it was inconvenient for him to receive a full nights room pay without us arriving. We made a simple mistake of accidentally booking it a night early, but paid in full. He asked if we were lost. He also made it seem like he waited at his own home until midnight, but didn't message us at all asking where we were. As if it were an inconvenience to receive pay without guests. To top all this off, when we entered the home after about 5 to 6 hours of travelling that morning he gave us a break down of every shelf, cupboard, and cabinet. He broke down every single detail in great depth when depth wasn't needed. A little rest was needed greatly but instead we got a Barney break down of how two right turns is a turn in a neighborhood no bigger than a few thousand people. After the breakdown we thought it was over but no. We used the blender and washed it promptly as he requested, and set it in the drying rack as to not waste a paper towel on something unnecessary. Not 15 minutes later a knock on our private room to let us know to put dishes back where we got them so the other guests could use them. The cherry on top of this messed up cake was the listing was incredibly inaccurate. We filtered the listings to have two beds two guests and private. Well apparently in his house to have two beds you have to book the place for two to three guests in order to get a second room in which he would otherwise be unable to rent out if the one was rented. This cost am additional 18 a night to get a room which wouldn't be able to rented while we stayed. Clean house, great house, inexperienced host that ruined whatever good could come...

Villa Alejandro accepted our reservation when the roads to the region were being blocked by the protestors against the copper mine, making their accommodation inaccessible. At the time, we did not know this, and the Villa Alejandro staff did not inform us of the situation. Once in Panama, we were stuck halfway between Panama City and Boquete, in Santa Catalina, and waited until the very last day for the Chiriqui province to open up to travel. However, the barricades on the Interamericana highway from Panama City to the Chiriqui province remained in place, civil unrest continued and driving to Boquete was physically impossible so we cancelled the reservation and asked several times for a refund.||||Villa Alejandro rejected paying us the full refund even though it is specified in the Booking.com’s Force Majeure clause under the Terms and Conditions (see below) that they are obliged to refund guests in a Force Majeure Event on their request, regardless of the Accommodation’s refund policy. (Our case is now up with booking.com). ||||Legalities aside, accepting reservations when their accommodation is inaccessible and not refunding the guests who are stuck behind the barricades should give a clear enough indication of their conduct and business culture. We know other travelers whose hotel had a no refund policy and yet fully refunded them as it is more than blatantly obvious that it was impossible and unsafe for travelers to reach these destinations, and advised against by their embassies.||||Due to the political situation in Panama and especially in the Chiriqui province, where entire regions are getting blocked from the rest of the world, we strongly advise travelers to not book with ANY accommodation provider who doesn’t state EXPLICITLY to refund their guests in case of civil unrest, road blockades and other force...