Hotel y Restaurante Boca Brava Lodge — Hotel in Boca Chica

Following my stay in this hotel in January, I reviewed in on the website where I booked it. I made a narrative review and I assessed all the categories which led to the final score of 5.8 out of 10. Given the owner’s subsequent arrogant reply, I’m now giving this hotel only one star. Whenever a guest puts a negative comment, the owner replies along the lines that it’s a shame the guest could not have afforded a more expensive room, because then they would have been happier. In our case, he could not reply this as we booked the most expensive option, so he found another way to blame the poor rating on us. To give you the flavour, this is a part of the owner’s reply “We always find it funny that backpacker type travelers like yourselves want the most such as every 5 star amenity known but want to pay the least because you are budgeted to travel for 6 months on 600 dollars.” Dear Owner (I’m sure you’ll read it), I’ve been laughing my head off for the last couples of days. Me a backpacker? Seriously, it’s hilarious! I’ll tell you what, if you said I was a 2019 Oscar winner, you wouldn’t be more wrong. I’ve never been a backpacker, not even as a student (I have absolutely nothing against backpackers, just I’m not the type). Really, a great joke. By the way, if you’re so curious about the length and the budget of our holidays, 600 dollars is the price of just the last 3 nights of our 17-night stay in Panama. During our trip to Panama we stayed in various places (apartments, hotel rooms, bungalows) with prices ranging from 60 to over 200 bucks per night and ALL of them scored much better than your hotel. So, Dear Owner, instead of blaming your clients for being too poor and/or too demanding, dedicate your energy to addressing the shortcoming so that future guests have nothing to complain about. Seriously, I can’t think of another that poorly maintained hotel I’ve ever been to and, more importantly, of such an arrogant owner (anticipating your future comment, I’ve been to hundreds of hotels in over 50 countries so I believe I have a good overview). Looking forward to your reply :) Just kidding :) Sounds familiar? I guess so. This is how you reply to guests who dared to say that your hotel was not...

The island is beautiful, but the walkable beaches are not worth it. No store on the island to buy groceries, you have to take the boat taxi to main land. The rooms were below expectations. The bathroom gave no private space since the wall wasn't going all way up. The shared kitchen was old and the standard and utensils were insufficient. A lot of ants which didn't made it any better.

The owner's way of managing the place left us a bit chocked. He welcomed us the first day by speaking in a foreign language even though we told him we don't understand, probably intoxicated he continued talking. We rented kayaks another day but weren't told that the currents can be very strong due to the tide. Since the current was too strong we could not return to the hotel. We called the owner who after some time arranged a boat taxi for us back, which was good. But once returning he was questing why we went that direction? I think givning some basic information about the waters would...

We stayed for three nights in this hotel and spent funny and interesting days. The rooms of this hotel are simple but clean. A specious area outside with a great view attracted us to sit outside and have many drinks (beers, cocktails, juices). Several backpackers were there in parallel and we spent a lovely time exchanging travelling experience and advices where to go next. ||Frank (the owner) and his wife organised a boat tour for us also taxis (boat and car) when we left. Food was fresh and very tasty with local fish as caught by the fishermen and local vegetables and fruits. Frank also provided a lot of information like where to hike, swim or where to best see howling monkeys. ||We enjoyed the time being here. Btw, we did not have to pay anything for to...