Express Inn Coronado and Camping — Hotel in Panamá Oeste

I wish there was a rating between average and very good. We stayed here 2 nights. This hotel seems to get a wide range of reviews. Here is my take: If you compare a hotel in Panama to American Hotels you will probably be disappointed. This is Panama, not the United States. If you stayed at Donald Trumps house and then came and slept on my hide a bed you'd probably be disappointed too. Panama is still a developing country, lots of good stuff going on and still a lot of work to be done. ||||Yes it needs a better sign out front, but it is not impossible to find. We had a reservation and checked in quickly. The front desk people speak better English than I speak Spanish, no problems there. The housekeeping staff speaks almost no English, that is ok, it is Panama. The room was fairly clean, not surgical clean, but clean enough. They didn't make up the room, in between our 2 night stay, didn't bother me. I can use the same towel more than once. We had a room facing the highway, it is the Pan-American highway the major highway through Central America. If you are coming from Panama City you do need to go past the hotel and then make a U-turn and go back. This isn't the hotels fault. I live out of town and am used to it being very quiet. The highway noise didn't bother me, even though most of Panama City seemed to be fleeing the city because of Carnival. We didn't use the pool, but it seemed nice enough. The breakfast options were pretty darn slim, but it was better than nothing. I had a little fruit and some toast. My impression is that they are trying to be a nice hotel, they just aren't there yet. Our room had a broken door handle, it still locked but it was broken and no one seemed interested in fixing it. Didn't bother me our room was still secure the door handle just hung down. The TV had only a few channels, one channel was sometimes in English, all the rest were in Spanish. Again it is Panama, if you can't handle it, don't come to a Spanish speaking country. ||||So would I stay here again, maybe. It was fine, I would rather stay at a different hotel, just to try something different, but I had no...

Substandard - 3 night stay. Amenities are there, but so worn as to be totally replaced. Towels are worn and unraveling. Old towels are cut and used as bath mats. Breakfast: All you can say is that they having one. Very limited and subpar.

Manager is uncaring and distant with request and must be asked several times. It is as if you are asking him for a favor. He will not even lift his gaze to look at you. Staff are visibly terrified of him. The staff is kind and wants to help, but you can tell their hands are tied.

Pool water was opaque, dirty, slimy and OVER chlorinated. It is the dry season so maintaining water quality is not a because of rain, ph etc.

Manager monitors CCTV and came flying out to the pool area as we took pictures. A bit unnerving, his behavior and interactions are not understandable.

Wifi service was turned off durning the evening. A/C in the room was turned off as we were in the process of packing and checking out. Go figure?

The rate was $37, but we were charged $40 by the manager. No explanation.

So if you don't care, want cheap and don't care dealing with a...

This is definitely a budget hotel. We did have a big room with 2 beds and a big bathroom. Reasonable WiFi, good a/C, but you have to take the card for the A/C off the key ring to keep the A/C on when you leave the room. Beds were comfortable, towels OK. There is NO elevator and all the rooms are on the second floor. Steep stairs, the desk person did help us up with the luggage.||Be very careful if you use the pool. The tile on the steps and the bottom of the pool are VERY slippery. I slipped on the steps and will have a big bruise on my buttock for a couple of months, plus it tore my swim trunks.||You have to really look for the entrance because the gate is not readily discernable from the highway, plus it is a very poor entry.||Forget the breakfast, the coffee was mud from having sat in the pot for a couple of weeks, the fried eggs in the buffet were cold and looked really bad, the rest of the buffet was not much better. Go to Subway for a breakfast sandwich.||Would I stay here again, only if they still had a really cheap price and then...