La Villa Hotel

The staff at the hotel were great, friendly, patient with my very, very poor Spanish and even helped teach us some more words. The room was large, with a king bed, sofa, two rocking chairs and lots of storage. The grounds were lovely and the pool was very large. The restaurant served a variety of good food for breakfast. Dinner had less variety but what they served was still good.||The only thing that I found strange about this hotel was that they rent the pool out to anyone during the day so it can be full of young kids and teenagers and quite busy and loud, especially on the weekends. This makes it not very pleasant as a guest. When the pool is quiet however it is lovely. The only other issue was when we arrived there was what looked like blood on the bathroom floor. When we told the manager about it he was very apologetic and sent somebody to re clean the bathroom. After that the bathroom and room were cleaned daily.

The first thing to note is that making a reservation through their website is useless. After reserving a room, you will receive an email confirmation of your solicitation. The warning can be mistaken as room confirmation, so beware. Room confirmation it is not. Good thing I called the hotel to check because the man who answered the phone said he never received anything. So I confirmed a room over the phone with him. When I arrived I was given room S6 all the way at the end of the hallway. Upon entering the room, the air conditioning and television were both on blast so I thought of it as odd. It was the first time I walked into a hotel room with the television on. Surprisingly, I opened the bathroom door to see the shower head dripping a steady flow of loud drops. Perhaps that would explain why the television was on to drown the noise from the faulty shower knobs. The dripping became worse every time I took a shower. By the time I went to sleep the noise from the constant drip could be heard through the bathroom door and, believe it or not, outside of the room door. It was that loud. The hotel staff did not attempt to fix it. You can tell that this is an issue that has been there for a while. The room is neglected since so much of it is worn out and unsightly. Cheap pillows and old bed sheets. They need to clean the build-up of black mold around the shower. The rest of the facility is pretty nice. It resides inside a residential neighborhood surrounded by private homes. Once you drive inside you will notice a large parking lot and an entrance into the facility. Walk through the entrance and you will see a large pool to your left. To your right is the hallway to the concierge. The entire place is decorated with fancy wood furniture and traditional pottery. It creates character and adds to the experience. Pay attention to the details. Fancy wood everywhere, especially the ceiling of the restaurant. The framed pictures of the country from decades ago are nostalgic. Interesting that so much money would go into buying expensive items for the facility but nothing seems to be spent to improve the rooms. I will return only if there were no other rooms available at nearby hotels. Overall, this is a decent place especially for families.

I was in Panama this past August (2006) and on the way from Chiriqui to Panama City, I wanted to stop and see the peninsula. Found this hotel on a website and booked reservations by phone. Character, charm and hosptaily were unmatched. I saw this old Spanish Colonial style inn and imagined it would be the kind of place I would want to run if I were in the hotel business. The restaurant was good and breakfast was a good deal at 2bucks. I booked the most expensive deluxe room that they had for $45.00. I presume that August is off-season because they were not busy; only a few other guests in the hotel. I hate to criticize because I got so enjoyed the authenticity of the experience and the extreme friendliness of the staff; but a couple of times I couldn't get water pressure for a shower. I slept very well in the bed, but it took some effort to get the A/C going. Overall, it was a good experience to acclimate myself with the people there. They didn't make me feel awkward or stand out. One final thought, if you dont' speak Spanish, bring an interpreter and/or some Berliz tapes because they only speak Spanish!!!!|

I usually do not write a bad review however this time I must. We arrived at the hotel late in the evening and were greeted by a lady who would not or could not smile and then we realized that no one of the staff did. The dinning room, a full dining room at that, had no wine on cocktails just beer. When we went down the menu with the server three quarters of the food was not available.|| I will not go into further detail than to say the hotel itself was very quaint, the room passable, but the service and the food left much to be desired. Everything from not receiving cutlery for our breakfast to no secure bolt on the room door made this an unusually uncomfortable stay.

Villa Cortez by far exceeded my expections. An exceptional building. Staff so helpful and pleasant. Evening dinners silver service standard high with friendly service grounds delightful pool and environs immaculate comfortable and set in a garden of plants and birds. Rooms very spacious and comfortable I had to move I felt unsteady climbing into a bath beautifully set in tiles and colourful arch. No handles I have a balance problem. Visited reception First class assistance and a move next day To a Room with a shower. I enjoyed a lovely quiet week in a lovely environment. Just what I needed and made friends with the blackbirds. Journey with tui. Seem less well organised until Tenerife airport escalator not working. A plane load of people struggled. I along with others couldn’t. Shocking. Woman finally got up yes she had a key and yes the key fitted and the escalator came to life. Not a warm welcome Bad show Tenerife airport. The only black mark.

Fair prices for chitre. The rooms are exactly like they are shown on the pictures. The hotel is clean and the stuff friendly. There are rooms form low budget to luxury available. The pool is also very nice. So we can recommend that hotel!

Very friendly and accommodating staff. Pool is drained, bar is closed - both probably due to covid-19. The room is quite dated. Bathroom and bedding are long overdue for an update.

I have stayed at the Hotel La Villa several times in the last 3 years. The prices keep going up but not necessarily the improvements. I have stayed in the 'motel' part ($39 per night) and it is quite basic but adequate- the AC units are noisy but functional, the beds clean and the showers have hot & cold water. There is a dresser & hangers for your clothes. You can pick up ice in a small insulated cooler from the restaurant. There are several TV channels, mostly in Spanish but an occasional one in English. ||||This year I upgraded to a room in the main building (same as the motel - 2 double beds, bathroom, TV & AC but with slightly newer furnishings and better maintained) for $49 per night. I'm not convinced it was really worth the extra money but it's closer to the swimming pool, restaurant, bar & Wi-Fi. ||||The rooms all have a sliding bolt lock. They will only give you a single key. There is no in-room safe or even one at the desk as far as I could tell. ||||The restaurant service is good just not fast. Breakfast will cost $3 & up, dinner $7 & up. Coffee is $1 and a nice cold beer is $0.85. The pool & bar area is clean & spacious. While I was here there was a water shutdown in town but the hotel still had good water pressure. ||||There is room service (I did not use it) and the telephones in the rooms actually connect to the desk (which they did not do in the past). However, you need to know some Spanish since almost no one speaks English. ||||There is plenty of parking for cars. If you don't have a car Tio Tom's Taxi stand is a 5-10 min walk away. $3 will take you to the El Rey mall in Chitre, which has groceries, multipurpose shops, McDonald's, Subway, etc restaurants. $7 will get you to the beaches at Playa Rompio & Monagre.