After staying one week in Andaz Costa Rica we moved over to the brand new W Costa Rica for another week in order to compare the properties.  The two are less alike than I expected, each with different strengths and weaknesses; the one that fits better to individual guests will depend on personal preferences.  Andaz is a property with a great reputation which has been around for a few years; W compares favorably for the most part but not in all aspects.

Location

The location of W is on Reserva Conchal which is a bit farther away from the airport and the overall feeling of the area is less upscale than the Papagayo peninsula where Andaz is located.  There is more to do around Conchal whereas the closest convenience store to Andaz was about half an hour drive away which was not ideal unless a guest intends to stay on the resort all week.  The W hotel ground are well taken care of but because the resort is new the vegetation is still not fully grown and it felt more artificial than at Andaz where you are literally in the jungle with Howler Monkeys audible at 5am to remind you of that fact.  W is on the same beach as Westin and you can walk over there and put restaurant charges on your W bill.  

Room

I booked the entry level room at W and I expected low occupancy given that it’s a new resort therefore good odds of a suite upgrade so I did not use Suite Night Awards.  To my surprise suites were no longer available online by the time we checked in so I guess my forecast was off; anyway we were upgraded possibly to the best room short of suites: a “spectacular ocean escape” room type on the top floor of building 3 which is the one sitting higher on a hill so we had the best possible view of the entire resort.  

The room is very colorful and the design is suitable for a W brand hotel including nice floor tiles to keep the room cool and it had well functioning air conditioning.  The bathroom is well done and I loved the dual walk-in shower with view of the ocean from the side window, while the front window had a decorative panel outside to keep some privacy in the shower and let natural light into the bathroom without having to draw the blinds down.  Since we were so far up on the hill the room felt very private which was in complete contrast to our suite at Andaz which was exposed from several sides due to the multiple windows and see-through sheers unless we drew blinds down.  Water pressure in the shower at W was good, unlike Andaz which was inadequate, and bathroom amenities were the standard Bliss products for W brand hotels.  The one drawback of our room at W is that obviously it was not a suite so we missed the larger space of our room at Andaz (over 100 square meters).  That said, the room at W was not small – 57 square meters if you count the balcony.  I am more inclined to count the balcony space at W than at Andaz because the terrace was more usable than at Andaz where the lack of privacy was a turn off.  One oddity however is that on some mornings we found lots of dead mosquitoes on the chairs of our balcony.  The trees were considerably below us so while I am not a fumigation expert I would guess that they spray downstairs on some nights and mosquitoes make their way up above the tree line and came to die on our patio but I should mention that during the day since November is not mosquito season we were not bothered by bugs outside our room.  Our room also felt quieter than at Andaz because we did not have a neighbor above us.  There was a large suite on our floor occupying a lot of space so in total there were only five rooms on our floor.  The soundproofing was not the best but with so few rooms on our floor we were not disturbed by noise much; there was very limited foot traffic outside our room.

The welcome drinks in our room were a couple of glasses of pressed juice which was not as generous as the bottle of Cava at Andaz.

One weakness about our room besides size is that the sofa between the bed and patio felt a bit out of place, too bulky and took too much space.  Because our room was smaller than Andaz to begin with, the sofa being right in the middle made the room felt more cramped that it really should be.  Also I am unsure whether lots of guests really use the sofa – if you want to enjoy the view you can go on the balcony and relax there, other guests might just stay in bed early morning and enjoy the view.  The sofa is not aligned with the TV so it’s not ideal for that either.  I would have picked a different design, perhaps a couple of smaller chairs to go along with a table.

Dining

Not to take anything away from the quality of breakfast at W, but the one at Andaz was one of the best we have had anywhere outside of Asia and the Middle East so it was tough for W to compete.  The fruit selection and quality was comparable – excellent at both, including ground cherries, several kinds of berries, papayas, etc.  Where Andaz stood out was first of all with a daily rotation of freshly prepared salads compared to W which had the same roasted veggies every day.  But the biggest difference was the hot dishes at Andaz many of which included protein for example pork stew, spicy beef chili, chicken fajitas, etc.  They also allowed us to order from the a la carte menu at Andaz in addition to the buffet and we loved the breakfast burritos.  At W there is a live cooking station for omelets but other hot dishes were the same every day and included standard fare such as sausages and bacon.  The one exception was one hot item changed and it was veggies.  If they want to improve their breakfast they should add something more creative with meat like Andaz does.  W also has an a la carte menu but it was a bit less extensive and more traditional than Andaz and the Ambassador Elite breakfast benefit was buffet or a la carte, not both.  To their credit, they made an exception and agreed to let us mix & match buffet and menu during our stay at no extra charge which was a good gesture.  They also offered that we could have breakfast as room service also for free which is normally not included.  We enjoyed the restaurant and we just went there, but it illustrates nonetheless their service level and willingness to please – more on that below.  The one dimension where breakfast at W was better than Andaz was the choice of seating outside or inside and the fact that it was generally more peaceful compared to Andaz which was busier and louder.  This contributed to why we just preferred to go to the restaurant each morning rather than order room service which is something we like to do in some hotels especially when we have a fantastic view from our room like we had in W.

Service

Service was one aspect where W was clearly above Andaz.  The comments above regarding breakfast was not the only thing positive about service - they just went out of their way several times to ensure we were having a good stay.  It started with the GM coming out to greet us at reception upon our arrival, then the cook making the rounds among guests during breakfast to ask if food was to their liking, and several staff greeted us by name as early as the second morning.  At Andaz they had more rotation of staff it seems, even on the last breakfast our server asked us if it was our first morning at the hotel!  The benefit of building a W from scratch rather than rebranding an existing property is that they can hire the right staff with a personality suitable for a W hotel.  This was done well at this resort and we had a similar feeling to the other new W resort we visited earlier this year in Dubai (The Palm).  When chatting with the GM we found out that they hired a significant number of staff which were not in the hotel industry before because they gave priority to hiring staff with the best fit for a W brand hotel in terms of personality, rather than exclusively hiring people with generic hotel experience.  In my opinion this seems to work so far so kudos to them.  

The only service issue we experienced was housekeeping which was not always thorough, they were not the most generous with refills, and also did not come at the time requested during our breakfast on one particular morning when I specifically called reception to make the request. However I would note that Andaz was also not on point regarding housekeeping timing, so perhaps expectations should not be the same as in an efficient business hotel and that I was overly demanding.

Gym

The gym at W was adequate but was generally more crowded than at Andaz during mornings; one day some people had to wait to use an elliptical machine or a treadmill.  Also none of the equipment had the TV working, some had internet so we could watch youtube but not all machines had a working internet connection. 

Wifi

Unlike Andaz, wifi worked great during our entire stay at W and speed was one of the best in any hotel, over 100 Mbps.  This was in the room though; from the beach pool wifi was considerably inferior with 5 Mbps although no outages such as what we experienced at Andaz.

Beach

The beach in front of W is far better than the beach in front of Andaz, and also better than the one at Andaz Beach House which is a boat ride away.  The Westin is pretty much on the same beach as W but the stretch in front of Westin has more locals and is busier because it’s closer to the parking lot which means the beach in front of W is more quiet.  

Pool

W has a small pool near the fitness gym, a pool near the beach where you have partial ocean views and you can hear the waves, and the main pool near reception.  I thought the pools generally speaking were better than Andaz for a few reasons.  First off having a pool near the beach was a plus for me which Andaz did not have – the views from the adult pool at Andaz are non-existent.  Also one would normally think that crowds at a W pool would be louder and less behaved than at Andaz but at least during our stay it was the opposite.  Andaz had more groups who were drunk and very loud, disturbing other guests, whereas W had more couples than groups.  Last but not least, this being a W hotel, for people that like a party atmosphere it was an option at one of the pools on Saturday (main pool) or Sunday (beach pool) with a house DJ which was not the case at Andaz.  People who preferred to stay quiet and no music could still pick the pool without the DJ so all tastes can be met.  The atmosphere was more fun with the DJ at the main pool because he was facing most guests in the pool or in the chairs in front of the pool.  The setup at the beach pool was less optimal because the DJ was out of sight to most guests by being completely on the side.

Beach Pool:

Main Pool:

Pool Near Fitness Gym:

Food at the pool was decent but it was mostly fast food for example fish tacos, (vegan) burgers, fried seafood, etc.  Andaz had more healthy / fine food choices at the pool.

Overall

Overall I was quite pleased and impressed by W and it beat Andaz in several aspects for us, including the service, the pools, the beach, and the views from the room.  The quality of the hardware was roughly similar except that at Andaz I could get a guaranteed suite at time of booking using a Globalist Suite upgrade which is a strength of Hyatt’s program relative to Marriott.  That said, the entry level room at W normally comes at a material price discount relative to Andaz for most dates; if you book a suite outright at W you do not necessarily end up paying a lot more than at Andaz for the basic room (plus Globalist suite upgrade) so even on that aspect I would say W seems to offer quite good value for the money.  I wish they could improve their breakfast offerings to be closer to Andaz’s level and this is something probably relatively easy to change. Bottom line is I can recommend W as an excellent new option in Costa Rica.