So-So Hotel In A So-So City (Inca Real Hotel (San Jose, Costa Rica))

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Inca Real Hotel (San Jose, Costa Rica)
Date:	11/01/09 (200 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free internet, nice staff

Disadvantages: Not much else

The Inca Real is a budget hotel in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, and I stayed there twice during December, for the first and final nights of my Costa Rican tour. Before I went, I looked at the website (http://www.hotelincareal.com/) and it gave me a certain impression of the hotel that turned out to be entirely untrue. In part, this was because one of the rotating pictures on the website is a tall building, so I was expecting a high-rise hotel, which this isn't. When I checked back, I saw it was just one of several "general" Costa Rica photos they use, but it really looked like a hotel to me when I first saw it.

Located on Avenida 11 between Calle 3 and Calle 5, the hotel is reasonably central, just a few blocks from the main attractions. A taxi from the airport should take about 30 minutes, but since I was already in town, I walked from the Gran Hotel, my previous base, and it took me about 10 minutes carrying my luggage. I arrived about 3.30pm (check in is from 3pm - quite late compared to other hotels in the city) and though I was the only guest in reception, I had to wait maybe 15 minutes while they faffed around and also contacted the Tour Leader to say I had arrived, which was a little pointless since he had already arranged to meet us later that evening. I got my key (old-style, not a digi-card) and made my way up.

The hotel has rooms on 4 levels (ground, below ground and then floors 1 and 2) and we were on the 1st floor. The hotel is very open and airy inside, with balconies on each floor rather than corridors. This is nice and friendly, and allows you to see, for example, if the computers are free before you head downstairs, but it also made it quite noisy since the only walls were the bedroom ones. Signs implored you not to slam doors, and to be quiet after 10pm, but not everyone paid attention to this, and I'm not sure the lobby bar helped.

The rooms all have the same facilities, but decor and maintenance vary, as we found out when we returned for our final night and got a much nicer room. The hotel website says they offer 4 main room types:

* Single Room: one king bed.
* Double Room: two Queen beds or one King.
* Triple Room: three single beds.
* Quadruple Room: 2 single beds and one king.

They were quite flexible about room allocation, and when we returned and one couple asked for a big bed (i.e. a king double) the receptionist simply swapped the keys and sent them away. However, the website is not entirely accurate as in each of the double rooms I stayed in, we had one Queen and one Single bed, not the two Queens they claim.

Rooms have telephones and cable TV, wifi, a safe and a desk, but little else in the way of furniture. The bathrooms were clean but slightly worn. The showers took ages to drain (not because they were clogged, but because they weren't slanted correctly) and the sinks were outside the bathroom which was odd, but actually quite useful since it meant one person could be brushing teeth while the other showered. They had hot water (not a given in budget Costa Rican hotels) but the shower heads were like spouts, so you got a heavy but thin stream of water, not a nice spray. Towels were on the less-than-generous side with just a hand towel and a small bath towel (it barely wrapped round me in a decent way, and I'm short and small) each, though they were made into swans for us on arrival. The only toiletries were bars of soap. The room was functional but not too comfy. On the double bed, only one of the pillows was worthy of my head, the other being filled with shredded foam, not the solid kind. With only sheets, not blankets, you had to use the bedspread too, and I always hate touching these with my hands more than absolutely necessary since they are not washed as much as the sheets, and therefore I dread to think who/what has been on them before me.

The hotel, as many budget hotels, lacked exciting facilities, though they did have a few bonuses. In the airy ground floor area, outside the rooms, and behind the lobby there was a "lounge". This has comfy chairs (to seat 5 people), 2 computers with free internet, some tourist information leaflets and a book swap, that you got the idea had started itself when someone casually left a book behind. I liked it though. I got a paperback from there that still had the "2 for £7" Tesco sticker on, which was a nice reminder of home all the way over in Latin America. Next to the book swap, a chessboard has been set up, which was a fun touch, and quite a few people sat down for a game while waiting for the internet. Downstairs there was a small breakfast room, though we didn't try it as it was supposed to be quite pricy. Others who did said it was ok, but nothing more, and the service was a bit hit and miss. Next to the lobby there was also a small bar.

One of the most peculiar / interesting things about the hotel was the clashing decor. From the outside the building looks typically Spanish or Mediterranean, with pretty window boxes, and the ubiquitous foreign flags over the entrance. Inside, the reception area is quite cramped but the ground floor behind it (through 2 doorways) is like an indoor garden or atrium of some kind, with tiled floors and lots of green plants. It really was quite a nice place to sit, and much better than the slightly dated rooms, with their hideous bedspreads and worn wooden fittings. Worst of all was the bar, though, since it looked like a British pub from the 70s, and was only missing some dirty old men and a few cigars.

I wouldn't choose to stay here because there are hotels even more central than this with more facilities for the same price, but our stay was not bad. I gather they get a lot of their business from group tour bookings, which they seem to like since after our first night we all departed by 8.30am and they had plenty of time to clean the rooms before the next tour group shipped in. On the morning following our last night I decided to keep my room until the 12 noon check out, and got back to it about 11am to find a maid hovering outside. She asked if she could collect the towels - perhaps they didn't have enough - which was obviously not a problem for me since I just had a little packing left to finish. I left my bags with reception and they were safe enough, but I didn't get a nice little tag like I did at another hotel in the city, and they were left in plain sight behind the desk. That said, when I returned I was recognised immediately and they fetched my bags without me having to ask. I do think the service was the one real high point of this hotel, as the reception staff was always friendly and never once groaned when I appeared to drop off or collect our room key (2 unrelated people sharing a room + only one key = lots of leaving it with reception). As I was leaving, the manager / head receptionist / boss / whoever convinced one of his staff to walk with me to my next hotel and carry my bag for me. Sure, I'd been lugging it around the country for over a week by this point, but it was a nice touch, and he didn't want money, just a kiss, to thank him when we got to my destination.

Overall, it's an ok hotel for a night or two, which is all the time you need in San Jose anyway, but it's not the best in the city, nor the cheapest. Kind of in-between on all fronts.

Summary: Ok for a night, but not for an extended stay