JW Marriott Hotel and Resort & SPA, Guanacaste Review

Nice resort, but you have to go on some dirt roads to get to the resort!

DON'T MAIL ANYTHING!!! Absolutely lovely hotel, but front desk does not sell stamps to send postcards to the U.S., and we were directed to the hotel gift shop -- where we paid $1/each for 5 postcards, and an additional $2.50 per card to mail them (which they said they would handle). Two months have gone by, and no one has received their postcard.

Private, beautiful, not a bad room in the hotel. Excellent restaurants , delicious buffets. Spectacular sunsets. Great resort.

This is a nice place but it needs some attention. Many little things need fixed or improved. A Kuereg style coffee pot in my room didn t work and I got no help from my call to the front desk. Also 1 pod of regular and 1 pod of decaf in a room with 2 double beds. With a little improvement in management this could be a wonderful place.

Beautiful place, nice facilities, friendly staff, although at the moment the menu in restaurants is quite limited ...

Very nice and recommendable hotel. The bad thing is that there are no close places to go

Fantastic ocean resort. Three restaurants, two pool side grills, one decent lounge, white sand and an incredible pool with a ton of chairs.

This is a place where time seems to stand still.

View of the sunset is spectacular.

The hotel is beautiful, the restaurant is extremely expensive for the food it serves, the rooms could be bigger! Especially the size of the beds and don't forget anything anywhere in the hotel,
Complicated because the hotel has everything to be wonderful but the staff do not help

Great so far. It's been top notch from the moment we walked in. Food and drinks are expensive, but honestly it should be expected. The view is great just about everywhere in the place. The staff has been amazing and we've really been taken back at the experience.

The JW in Guanacaste is a gorgeous hotel. The pool is huge and I was very impressed with the room.

I had a very frustrating experience with the service provided by the hotel. We started on the wrong foot - I arrived around 130pm after scheduling a $300 shuttle from San Jose to the hotel (note that I scheduled this through the transportation service that is affiliated with this hotel). Check in is at 3pm, so I expected that I might have to wait for my room. When I arrived the front desk, the person that handled my check in told me to wait at the desk (rather than going to the pool or a restaurant) because my room would be ready in about 15-20 minutes. I ended up waiting for 90 minutes with no real updates. I typically don t mind waiting for a room, especially if I am arriving before check in, but the front desk handled it poorly by making me wait. Once I was finally given my keys, I found that my luggage had been moved from a luggage cart to the ground and no one offered to take my bags to my room or show me where to go.

Later, we booked a day trip to go white water rafting. This was booked through the hotel travel service. I was told that we would have a shuttle ride to our location and that we would be gone for 10 hours - no one mentioned that we would have a 4 hour shuttle each way with a total of 1.5 hours of rafting (and a 30 minute lunch).

Finally, when we got back from rafting, we went to an on site restaurant. We waited for 1.5 - 2 hours to receive our food. We asked for bread 3 times and didn t receive any until after our meal.

When I raised all of the above issues at check out, the on site manager offered to do nothing to help us after all of these issues. I complained about this to Marriott afterwards and was offered 5,000 bonus points at Marriott (worth the equivalent of 1/7th of a night at this hotel). They followed up with an offer of 10,000 points. Eventually I was able to discuss this with the general manager, who gave me a fair amount of compensation for our issues, but it was incredibly frustrating that it took so long to get to that level.

The GM made a point of telling me that this is not up to the standards he expects from his hotel and asked me to reach out to him personally if we ever decide to return to this location.

My rating reflects the quality of the service - I was very impressed with the actual hotel.

Stayed here in the off season for our honeymoon. So beautiful. They let us pick our view. The wait staff in the bars amd breakfast were so polite and accommodating. The tour specialist organized our transportation for us. The room sercice was oddly affordable

LOVED this hotel!!! We had so much fun and the staff was so friendly and helpful. Also loved that the pool was open 24 hours. The rooms were beautiful and clean and the beds were so comfortable. Grateful to have experienced such a wonderful hotel.

Incredible, the best vacation you could have, this place is one of the best in the country to vacation peacefully !!!

Beautiful hotel to stay and enjoy a magical place. The pool is incredible, the beach, the place. Everything is perfect.

While I d like to give this place 5*, esp when one pays $500/night, I just can t.

1 - As an ambassador they don t upgrade you to suites. Even when they had suites, they removed them from inventory and said no, they aren t there and had to close those rooms due to covid. If you want a suite, book a suite.

2 - The service is lacking. While there are some nice people, they need better training. We were at the pool and for two hours had not one person came to take our order. We had to go up and find someone. They have no assigned locations so they just randomly walk around.

3 - Even when were able to order, the person who took our order disappeared. I had to go up to the bar and ask where our food was. They offered me a plate which just sat there and I said no thank you. They finally brought us the food and it was cold.

4 - lastly, we were here while they sold access to the property to locals. While I understand needing more revenue, it would be good to have a focus on the staying guests.

While I understand this might be first world problems, if you want a 5* resort you need to invest in your people. Training training training. Check list. Assigned duties. Etc. this place could be so much better with a solid management team who understood process, training and investment.

A beautiful resort with wonderful staff and very nice rooms. Beach access is great and the pool is terrific !!

The best holidays with my family I have spent in this hotel

What a beautiful place! The rooms are very clean and modern and new and the view from the pool to the beach is amazing. You are steps way from the Pacific Ocean.

Nice ambience, Big pool, friendly staff. And best of all for me was Kids play area. Kids loved it and they spend most of time there

Amazing resort! The staff was super friendly and very accommodating. The rooms were amazing and the pool was spectacular. The beach isn't that great because it's quite rocky.

My husband and I stayed at JWMarriott in the beginning of November. The whole trip was amazing! The hotel staff was so hospitable from the spa to the restaurants. They accommodated our special requests like a breakfast box to go so we had food for
our early morning excursions. We had so much fun I have shared our experience with over 100 people. I highly recommend this hotel.

It is a hotel where peace and tranquility connect with the sea, a special place to relax and release stress

If it's your kind of thing it's probably great but too large & out of the way for my liking. Huge bedrooms, great pool but sadly not the best service I've experienced despite the 5 stars.

Beautiful place to enjoy the beach at any time of the year.

This resort is amazing. It's peaceful and relaxing. Shuttle services and excursions are available. Restaurants are nice.

Very convenient, and also the restaurants are delicious. In front of the beach

The staff was incredible! Rodney, the Bellman, was attentive and kind. The Concierge, Linnette, was super helpful. She was extremely professional and knowledgeable. She helped us with excursions and transportation. The Marriott at Guanacuaste is a fantastic place to stay.

Beautiful place. Service is exceptional. The rooms are great and the facilities are wonderful. The beach near the hotel is not one you can swim in and the hotel is argueably kid friendly. There are some kid activities, but other hotels in guanacaste are better for families. Food is EXPENSIVE and not great.

Discover the essence of Costa Rica with a luxurious experience at the JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa. The hotel is located on Mansita beach, surrounded by the splendid biodiversity that distinguishes Costa Rica and very close to Tamarindo Beach. The facilities of the JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa offer everything you need for a first-class vacation and offer free parking, concierge staff, room service, as well as game rooms and free high-speed Wi-Fi connection. The modern rooms and suites in Guanacaste offer private balconies overlooking the gardens, pool or the sea, as well as other luxury amenities. Adjacent to the hotel is the 18-hole golf course overlooking the Pacific Ocean, designed by Mike Young. For your relaxation, take advantage of the treatments of the JW Marriott Guanacaste Spa, recognized as one of the five best in Latin America by the magazine Spa Magazine; and to stay active during your stay, the resort offers a modern gym equipped with cardio machines, free aerobic classes, bike rentals, kayaks, infinity pool and outdoor hot tub. The hotel also has the JW Aventure Kids Club to serve the smallest of the family. In addition, our hotel offers five restaurants and two bars, including the Blue Grill restaurant located in front of the beach, Tamarine with Asian fusion cuisine, Sabanero where you will enjoy the authentic Guanacastecan barbecue and Nau Lobby Bar with a variety of sushi and cocktails. If you want to hold a meeting, wedding or other social event, the luxury resort in Guanacaste has 4 event rooms and wonderful outdoor facilities, as well as planning and catering professionals to organize an event in style. We look forward to an unforgettable vacation at the JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa.

Outstanding! Friendly and speedy service, beautiful location and delicious restaurants! Will stay here again when traveling to Costa Rica.

The hotel is Marriot. It has class and glamor. The beach leaves a bit to be desired. Also for those who have these Brazilian beaches it is very difficult to find other beautiful beaches

In this period it suffers like all tourism in general ... always nice though ..

This place got some style! Service, location, rooms - just great!

Excellent place, we enjoyed ourselves too. Cute yoga class

This hotel is absolutely incredible. Beautiful location, grounds, rooms, ammenities. I would come back again for sure!

Very nice resort, high end service and excellent rooms. The pool is open 24/7 and it's huge. Both the asian fusion restaurant and the steak house are great! The beach looks great in photos, but it's honestly so-so. We visited in period where the low tide was straight in the middle of day, making the ocean pull back over 150 meters, uncovering endless field of rocks that basically make it impossible to enter the ocean. Very little shade too. Getting to the resort is a bit of a challenge as the roads are just horrible. Overall, it's a great destination for people who don't plan to move out of their resort a lot during vacation.

Beautiful beach front resort with a very large swimming pool, hot tubs and plenty of people serving drinks.

A place that reminds us of our culture. The style of the Hacienda in the old style makes you want to go back to the past and see how they lived in those times that will not return.
A wonderful landscape close to the beach.

Gorgeous grounds and pool. Wonderful buffet with fabulous desserts. Beautiful room and comfy bed. Loved our stay. Wish it was longer.

Amazing grounds and amenities. Spa was great, pool and Beach area spectacular. People and staff are amazing. Reason it is not a 5 star review is the service at the restaurants. Staff is warm and friendly, but lacking on attention to detail and timeliness. Not a bad thing if you are sans kids, but was a bit frustrating with 3 little ones. With that said, I still give my recommendation.

Excellent place.nature to the maximum.beautiful place

Great service and perfect view to see the sunset from the hotel pool and beach!

Great vacation spot! Staff is very friendly. There are several restaurants which differ in food which is a plus. They also prepared fresh fish we had caught for dinners and lunches which made the experience even better!

We had a wonderful experience at The JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort and Spa. Everyone on staff was very prodessional and accommodating. We celebrated three birthdays on 2/7 at Sabanera Restaurant. Even with having a party of 40 people, they took us early. Raquel was our wait person and she was so professional and accommodating. She made sure everything came out hot and perfect. Food was delicious. The restaurant provided us with a cake and sang Happy Birthday. It was a special night.
My husband and I went back on the 11th for his actual birthday and once again we had a wonderful experience. Santiago waited on us and he also was very professional, pleasant and attentive. Again great meal and wonderful staff.
One other waiter I would like to mention was Randall from Azul Grill. He was very pleasant, great to talk to and again accommodated our every need.
It was a great vacation and I would definitely come back.

The price is worth it. First attention a wonderful buffet suitable for any taste. Pools in optimal conditions. The restaurant has an excellent seafood menu.

Very luxurious. Great place to stay. Infinity pool looking out on the P acific Ocean.

Nice place. Excellent service. Weather was not really good but that is a different story.

Beautiful resort, fabulous food, amazing pools. . . Paradise!

I promise, it is one of the most beautiful resorts in all of Costa Rica. The best part is the staff because they are all very friendly and absolutely wonderful. One of the most relaxing places I have ever been. It is far from everything, but it's a nice place to just relax. Unforgettable experience.

Excellent and beautiful place to stay. Delicious food

Very beautiful resort on the beach, away from city life.

Great stay, you would expect nothing less from a JW Marriott. Thanks to your staff for an amazing stay!

Best customer service I had in a while beautiful place.

Excellent service, comfortable facilities and in excellent condition, decoration and environments according to the expectation, good food, prices according to the luxurious environment