Boris Nemirov

Review of JW Marriott Hotel and Resort &...

I stayed at the JW Marriott Guanacaste with my fam...

I stayed at the JW Marriott Guanacaste with my family over the Christmas week (Dec 21-30). Overall, I have mixed feelings about this resort - while the property is beautiful and the pool area is very nice, the rooms have tiny beds, the service is very inconsistent, beach is not usable and room cleaning is atrocious. A bit more on each below for additional details.

The check-in process is very inefficient and way too long. If there is one person ahead of you, you can expect to be waiting for at least 15 min and there are only 2 check-in desks. The property itself if gorgeous and the pool is large with plenty of chairs around. The room was OK, but had two double beds for a family of four - that is just absurd. How can two people fit on a double bed? It was extremely uncomfortable to sleep and I think that JW could afford queen size beds (there is plenty of space to put queen beds in the room). I was paying $900 per night and was not able to sleep comfortably.

Also, housekeeping was awful. One day, we came from a tour at 5PM to our room and found that it was being cleaned. During cleaning, all our bedding was laying on the floor (including our pillows!). When the maid was done changing the sheets on the beds, she simply picked up the pillows and blankets off the floor and neatly placed them on the bed!!! So we were putting our faces on pillows that were on the floor!!! So much for quality room cleaning. The bathroom was also pretty dirty when we first checked in, with the shower clearly not cleaned properly. Definitely not what you expect from a JW.

The beach is essentially there for you to walk around only. There are no chairs and nowhere to sit or lay down. There are lots of rocks everywhere, so if you want to go in, there is only a small area where you can do so. Going to this property means you will be using the pool only and you should not count on the beach - beyond being there to look at.

Service is also very inconsistent in the resort. Some folks are very nice and friendly, always eager to help. Others never smile and seem upset when you ask them to help or generally do their jobs. The Mansita restaurant buffet is boring, limited and always the same for breakfast - the servers are good, but the cooks simply do not care. They do not keep an eye on the buffet to see if something is out and needs to be replaced - you have to go tell them - and then wait 30 min for that to happen. The pancake lady always looks angry. Anything you ask her is faced with a grunt - she never says anything back to you - just turns away. Very unpleasant. We had dinner here once as well, which was simply terrible.

The other restaurants are OK, though still hit or miss. Azul Grill is great for lunch, but the Italian restaurant it becomes at night is a joke - limited menu and tasteless food.

The resort location is also very far away from everything and the Hacienda Panilla on which the resort is located requires you to drive for 4+ miles just on the property alone - so going anywhere is a 20+ minute ordeal. Sabanero (steakhouse) was good, but highly overpriced. Tamarine was decent in terms of food (sushi was awful), but service was very slow and inattentive.

Personally, I was disappointed with this resort and expected more from the JW. If I was to ever return to Costa Rica, I would not stay at this JW again.