LTP, paid stay, needed to be on the central area of San Jose for a few days. Property is a recent convert from a Holiday Inn - just two months ago. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but just needed the basics for this visit. I'm leary of 5* TA reviews for a new property. And this stay will put me two nights from Platinum for another year.

Property is about 20 minutes from SJO, without traffic, think 10 PM Saturday evening. Much longer with traffic. Property is centrally located. Lots of areas to explore/walk during the day; not so much at night unfortunately. (The situation is not unique to San Jose.) With regards to dining, I recommend the Barrio Escalante - lots of cuisines, in lots of price ranges, in a nice neighborhood; about a 20 minute daytime walk and then Uber return after dusk. There are metered taxis (cash) outside the hotel, which are also convenient. I didn’t see any taxis in Barrio Escalante. Also, if you drive to Barrio Escalante, the street parking appears to be pay...FYI and there are ‘monitors’ to watch your vehicle with the expectation for tips . Uber/taxi priced about the same.

Check-in was OK. Welcoming FDA. But lots of steps to go through. The FDA used functions at both check-in podiums and the office to check me in, so check-in was not fast. The FDA did explain all of the features of the property and noted that I was upgraded to a king executive city view room, on the 'executive floor' from a regular king city view room. (All of the rooms have a view of the city.) (The property does have suites, but I didn't ask about a further upgrade - not important to me.) I asked about checkout time. FDA advised that 'you are a member of the club, so 4 PM'. On my last night, I did determine that I required a 1 PM checkout and requested as such. I always give my name and room number upfront. The FDA was a bit snippy, but granted it. I asked if my key needed to be reprogrammed; the answer was 'no'. I then asked if she was sure I won't be locked out at 12:01 and she said 'well, I reprogram it just in case'.

The room obviously needed renovation, but it was clean, odorless, and functional; and was a corner room - so views of the mountains from two sides. (This feature is not mentioned in the room descriptions.) Bed was comfortable. The AC struggled to maintain temperature - wouldn't go below 21, and sometimes up to 23, but I wasn't terribly uncomfortable. I found that closing the curtains helped maintain temperature. (I did ask the evening FDA about renovations and she said those are in progress and implied ahead of schedule including the rooms - end of September and I did smell some paint on my floor.)

The bathroom was the typical old school hotel bathroom. Smallish, with an old tub and low ceiling. But it was clean, the countertop, sink, and toilet all appeared to be new. Lots of counterspace and seemingly newly well lit. And surprisingly decent towels. Poor ventilation of course. And notable that for an older property, there were no drainage issues from the tub or sink, i.e. clogged overtime. Water temperature and pressure, as well as the showerhead were all OK.

Other room notes. Unlimited bottled water, a Nespresso-like machine. Room was very dark. I had to remove the lamp shade to be able to read in bed. I asked for a solution at the front desk and the FDA followed-through, but there was no solution. Not sure if there was a language barrier or the fact that the incandescent light bulbs have some sort of translucent thick coating that I assume contains glass breakage. Maybe a local requirement? Being an unrenovated room, there were no convenient plugs to the nightstands. A mini-fridge would have been nice. (Given that the dental clinic books patients here, I'd think a fridge may be available on request. I didn't have any chewing restrictions this time. The dental clinic's rates were higher than what I paid plus I got my LTP benefits.)

Checkout was OK. Again, I don't understand the back and forth between the two podiums, i.e. FDA looks at one workstation, fiddles around, and then fiddles around with something on the other workstation. The charge in CRC matched my USD reservation exactly.

There is an indoor pool on the 3rd floor with a transparent roof. The environment was very uncomfortable - no air circulation. There is a small fitness room, where you can also refill your water bottle. Security was good - attentive personnel and a keycard is required for the elevator.

The lobby as well as the 2nd floor are quite nice. A lot of Costa Rican scenery. The 'pantry' and bar are on the 2nd floor. The pantry was stocked nicely - coffee machine for espresso drinks, cold water, but also Gatorade and sodas, bakery goods and mini-sandwiches, cereal and milk, salty snacks. 24/7 access to it with keycard.

Breakfast is being served in the meeting room although the breakfast tickets stated 'Tropicana'. Tropicana is located behind the check-in area and it seemed to be a perfectly serviceable restaurant, but also small. The 3rd floor meeting room was setup with many round tables. There was a basic buffet, although not self serve - staff served as much or as little as you wanted. The buffet was fresh, including real scrambled eggs. I had no complaints. Why was breakfast served in a meeting room? I available space for a very full property. I was in between 6:30 and 7:30 each morning and there were many groups present. On morning two, I shared my table with 7 students from California. On Wednesday morning, I noticed that breakfast was in Tropicana; I also did not notice any of the large groups. I did not partake, because I had found a cafe that I wanted to try on 7th Avenue, about a 5 minute walk from the property.

If you want something different for breakfast, plenty of 'sodas' around, but also more upscale joints in Barrio Amon and Barrio Escalante. Note that many joints (including for dinner) are closed Mondays; and some on Tuesdays as I learned the hard way.

The only room charges I had were from the 2nd floor bar. Beer and drinks were reasonably priced by US standards. The evening bartender, Daniel, has made a name for himself in the recent TA reviews. A very jovial fellow...

A few other notes - umbrellas were available at the security/bellhop desk. TV channel selection is quite limited, even for Central America - less than 20 channels, two English - Bloomberg and a Miami channel.