Best Western El Sitio Hotel

Where do I start? I met a friend who was in town for a holiday and I hadn't seen him in over a decade. We met at El Sitio when a mutual friend actually owned the casino there, two decades ago. So, it was only logical we met there again (plus, he was spending the last night in the country at the hotel). We went to the restaurant for a drink and a meal. I ordered pasta with shrimp and mushroom and he ordered garlic shrimp with salad and white rice. Both meals were mediocre, disappointing truly. But what was worse than the meal was the customer service from the staff! My pasta was tasteless! Actually, it tasted like beef broth, no salt. I asked the waitress if she could take my dish back and ask the cook to fix it at least by adding some salt or bring me parmesan cheese and spicy oil instead. No, she did not do that. She called the cook to come to the table and she did not taste the dish and said it was done the way it was supposed to be done, so no problem at all! There were some packages of parmesan cheese on the table (they showed me) and brought the hot oil after requesting it a second time, and believe me, I had to add like four packages for my pasta to taste like something edible. My friend's meal was also mediocre but he chose not to say anything. We paid, even TIPPED!! Before finishing the meal, he went back to his bedroom to get some souvenir for the waitress, while I waited. He said he had one for me, too (a handkerchief or something like it). Really nice of him... ||Anyhow, since he's flying out tomorrow morning, and the rain stopped and I had to go back home on my motorcycle (I had my helmet with me at all times) we decided it was time to call it the night. But before bidding farewell, he asked me to go to his room to pick up the souvenir and see if the coffee he'd bought for his wife and daughter was good enough, otherwise he still had time to go and get more or better coffee before the supermarket closed. So, we were heading to his room when I (just me, BTW) got stopped by a security guy and was asked to go with him back to the front desk. As I am approaching the receptionist the guy tells me "The thing is... The guest just paid for one person, not two. You have to pay extra to spend the night". EXCUSE ME!!!??? By then, I'm in front of the receptionist and the lady also assumes I'm gonna be spending the night with my friend and repeats the same argument the guy told me. I interrupted her and told her I was just collecting some souvenirs he was giving me and that I was on my way out. When I'm telling her that I see my friend just reached us and asked what was happening, I explain to him the outrageous claim they were falsely accusing me of and he goes nuts, too!!! I mean, it's understandable they thought of that, for sure!! But they could've and SHOULD HAVE handled the situation way better before jumping to conclusions!! They could've asked me if I needed to use the restroom, and offer me the one closest to the front desk, or they could've been honest to me and politely asking to my face "I'm sorry, do you plan to spend the night, too?" Jeez!! So many options that did not include insulting me! ||Mind you, they saw us upset and I felt humiliated, and even though I had explained myself, there was not a single apology for the "misunderstanding". So, basically i wanted to spend some time before my friend left the country and another 10 years would go by without seeing him, but instead of having a truly pleasant time, I was insulted, and not appreciated as a paying customer (I had invited my friend for dinner, I was the one initially paying but he then insisted on picking up the tab). ||Now... funny story. A couple of years ago, a Welsh friend of mine was also staying at El Sitio, my reccommendation, funny enough. I went to the room where my friend was staying like three different times, to run some errands very quickly, in two different days. Nobody stopped me, nobody charged me extra money cuz I went into the bedroom... Why?? All I can think of is... because my friend, Gaynor Reader, was a woman, not a man. I will not be reccomending this place anymore!!! I was excited to finding out that the hotel was still owned and managed by the same family (the Parapini) and I have fond memories of the place when I worked as an interpreter at the casino, but those memores have been replaced, sadly.

Thank goodness we were only here for one night. The bed was extremely hard so it was hard to get a good nights rest. Honestly we stayed in Air B N B’s in Costa Rica that were $40 a night for the two of us that were WAY better than this. No refrigerator or microwave in room. They did have a restaurant that included a buffet style breakfast which believe it or not we couldn’t find anything edible I asked for butter for my toast and the butter was harder than the bed 🥴. They do have pools, a decent gym , a nice playground for kiddos to play at and of course the peacocks that come out to visit are really the reason that this place gets any stars.

We booked our last night in Costa Rica there to have an evening in the Casino and a nice buffet breakfast in the morning before heading to the airport. The hotel is beautiful and the pool area is gorgeous. The rooms were great.(except weirdly no faceclothes) However, the casino was closed and no mention of it upon booking and highly advertised as hotel and casino. And, the buffet breakfast consisted of cold eggs and a bunch of carbs. No meats. When asked if more eggs were coming staff just pointed at the cold ones in the near empty pan.

We stayed at the Best Western El Sitio in Liberia, Costa Rica for the night of August 28, 2025.|We had chosen this hotel as online it stated that it offered a free airport shuttle that started at 5am, and since we had a 730am flight home, it sounded perfect.|We had stayed at numerous Best Westerns throughout the years, and we thought the standard would be consistent with other BWs in Canada.|Upon checkin, we were told they did not offer a shuttle, and offered to arrange a taxi.|We pulled up the website, and showed the staff the information regarding the shuttle, that they did offer one and it started at 5am...she said they have never offered that.|So lets remove that OFF your website maybe???|We made our way to the room, and were thoroughly disappointed in the standard of room.|We honestly felt as if we had stepped into a Norman Bates motel episode.|So extremely dated.|There was a phone on the night table, but absolutely NOWHERE to plug it in, so I guess it was for show!|We had waters, drinks and food that needed refrigerated, but even though there was a spot for one, no mini fridge was there.|We had had a long day, a long drive, and wanted a nice hot shower.|But nope, we couldn’t even get luke warm water.|The AC was hit or miss, realized the remote for it was not working half the time.|King size bed was HARD AS ROCK, with no blankets. We had a top sheet with a very thin cover blanket.|No additional blankets in the room.|We walked around the property after getting settled, as we were going to find something to eat.|The pool area in the back of the hotel looks amazing…. From a distance….|Once we were closer, we realized BOTH pools were covered in debris from the trees. The water was filthy!|Both pools were not swimmable…..|There were numerous staff wandering around the property, and though we have no idea what their actual jobs were, picking up a skimmer and cleaning those pools would have been great!||For what the price was, we were beyond disappointed in your hotel and would not recommend it to anyone travelling to the Liberia area.

Good location! Awful breakfast. You can stay at the Hampton Inn by the airport for the same price. This was the second time I stayed in this hotel. Worst than last time! Never again! Noisy. Cleaning needs improvement. Food at the restaurant not so good. Old facilities. Stay away from this place!

Only 2 stars because the restaurant is terrible. If I could give the restaurant zero stars I would. It drags the rest of the hotel services down. The free breakfast is not bad if that's all you're going to eat. The staff were friendly and helpful but the food at lunch and dinner is below mediocre, tasteless and expensive. I rarely give bad reviews, but the owners and customers need to know just how bad this is. If you're driving, there are close by restaurants that get great ratings. There are beautiful though very noisy peacocks all over but if the servers don't notice, they can and did jump on the table that unsuspecting diners are going to eat off of. The restaurant is open air which allows tiny biting flies to dine on you and of course has no air conditioning. The extremely harsh ceiling lights in the restaurant make you feel like you're being interrogated in a prison.

We chose this hotel for the night before our departure. It's got on on-site bar resteraunt, roaming peacocks and a nice pool. Great value for the cost. The negative is that the beds and pillows are hard. |The rooms were big, the staff were very kind and helpful. Next door is a shopping place with grocery store and resteraunts. |Overall, I do recommend staying here. It was safe, clean and a great value.

Pretty dismal room. Noisy and woke up to some very sizable insect flying around. Worn towels. Three pillows. Bed was HARD as a rock! We were led to think they had airport shuttle and laundry and neither are available. Restaurant- food sub par but the waitress was very sweet and responsive.