La Coralina Island House — Hotel in Bocas del Toro

We spent a lovely 6 days on Bocas Del Toro. The ocean, the activities and the hotel was stunning. Like many reviews on here, the issues with La Coralina are service. For us it seemed an ongoing problem with transportation. They offer taxi service anywhere on the island for $5 p/p. That great, it's a steal..except, if you want to go toward the bluff, then its $10 p/p. As explained to us it's bc the taxi which comes from Bocus Town charges the additional money for the longer ride. Ok that is understandable, however, when the taxi arrives, it is not a standard taxi, it is actually the hotel's guest only courtesy vehicle operated by a hotel employee. When asked about the fee I was told its the same fee as the taxi. Why? Why when I pay hundreds per night and need a ride 15 minutes up the road do I need to pay the hotel driver the same fee as the taxi? This happened multiple times thought out the week where I requested transportation and a hotel vehicle would arrive but I would pay the same fee as when a taxi came to get me. And on and on. Constantly getting a different story all revolving around use of the public taxi, but often driven in a hotel vehicle. There was another transportation misunderstanding on a different journey to Starfish beach and the cost to get to that destination. Quote $5 p/p but on the morning of then told that it is $40 p/p. The hotel begrudgingly settled at $30 p/p which in my opinion wasn't enough. There was no customer service to resolve our situation, no manager onsite because it was Sunday. They clearly saw me, a disappointed guest, standing in front of them and the sensible thing to do (at a 5 star property) would be to take care of the pricing discrepancy, but instead I was told, sorry, that is the public taxi so you must pay their fare. One easy resolution would have been to charge the taxi fare to my room instead of pay cash and then have a manager issue me a credit for that charge. That would have been service. Another option could have been to transport us to Starfish beach in the hotel's vehicle as they had been doing all week and would have cost them nothing and gained a satisfied guest! Instead, they rather have a customer who felt the need to write a review about the lack of customer service available at the property. These are easy fixes to me and I hope to the property too.

The property is beautiful. No issue with the location. Breakfast spread was included. Would recommend this property and probably even stay there again, but be mindful of the...

We are going to list the good, the bad and the exceptional. Exceptional: The property is located in the still not too populated area of the island, about 20 feet from the shoreline. The property expands about 300 yards from this point into the jungle and in both directions following the shoreline. In that jungle, there are trails. The trails are well kept and safe. About 2 miles of them all together. We have walked them. They are beautiful. In that jungle, there is a pool (heated), sauna, cold water hole and lots of birds, monkeys and other but friendly animals. There are one yoga pavilion and three massage pavilions. All in the jungle. All in the separate spot. They offer about 50 different massages. We went for the emotional options. Wow, just wow. Our room had a jungle view with ocean sounds. Not to mention the fauna sounds. Very relaxing. The room was spacious with large covered balcony. Two negatives though about the room. No mini bar and rocks for pillows. Not having the mini bar would not be a negative if the room service was offered in a standard booking. The mattress was on the upper rung. The pillows, though.... There is a restaurant and a bar on the property. The restaurant serves the breakfast and the dinner. The bar covers the lunch and quick bites. The food in both locations is a fine dining quality. Besides these two, they have a bar at the beach across the road and one up on the Bluff Beach. These two bars have a different menu than the one on the property. The food in all the bars and the restaurant was really good and beautifully presented. The bar at the Bluff Beach is accessible with a free shuttle organized by the resort. A big plus. The best waiter of our stay was (drum roll)....... BAKER!!!!!! Although all of them deserves a medal. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. The best hostess of our stay (double set drum roll)...... NINA!!!!!!! She made our stay even more enjoyable. A few words of constructive criticism. The property starts to show signs of minor neglect. Please keep it up as we need it for our next...

It wasn’t our first time in Bocas del toro, this time we decided to do Bachelor/Bachelorette party here. The property is absolutely beautiful, whoever built it certainly did a great job. The private dinner setup was great and the food was so delicious. That’s about it.

ZERO understanding of a great customer service. We paid around $900/night for a villa. Most of our friends stayed at the ocean view rooms (not cheap either). On the day we had a celebration dinner, we had girls and boys getting ready at our villa. It was a very exciting day for everybody. We called reception to ask for a bucket of ice. Minutes later we received a call from a manager (maybe not) SAYING IN A RUDE MANNER if we want to get ice we should go and get it ourselves. What?! We brought so much business to the hotel, 10 of our friends stayed there, we had a private dinner expenses and we daily spent a lot of money on drinks and food. And this is the treatment we get?

Every time we ordered food or drinks (besides private dinner, it was great), we had to wait for a very long time. And every time you remind them about the order, they would look at you, like you owe them. Honestly very disturbing feeling when you’re on vacation.

One day we were spending couple hours at the pool before going out. 2 of my friends didn’t stay at the hotel, they came to join us. Once again we were buying food and drinks for everybody. They kicked my friends out of the pool, saying if they want to stay in the pool, they need to pay $250 for day passes. I tried to respectfully talked to them, my friends were only going to be at the pool for 2 hours during lunch. There was nobody at the pool, empty lounge chairs, why can’t you cooperate with your guests. This is how you lose business.

Let me say, we are very respectful successful group of people, who travel all over the world.

None of our friends want to come back to this hotel.

Very unfortunate, because the property is stunning. The whole experience was ruined for us.

We tried to spend more time somewhere else but not...