JW MARRIOTT GUANACASTE RESORT & SPA

I wanted to take a moment to recognize the outstanding service we received during our recent stay at the JW Marriott Guanacaste. Our experience with the staff was truly memorable. A very special thank you to José Aguilar at the pool. José went above and beyond for our family. He took the time to give us wonderful recommendations and helped us plan an incredible day that became one of the highlights of our vacation. His friendliness, knowledge, and genuine desire to make sure we had a great experience really stood out. We would also like to recognize Maylin at the restaurant. We received excellent service from her and had such an awesome time. Her warm personality, attentiveness, and hospitality made our experience at the restaurant especially enjoyable. Thanks for the coffee! ♥️ We also want to recognize Kevin. His communication and language skills were excellent, and he made us feel very comfortable and welcome. He was friendly, helpful, and a pleasure to interact with. Finally, we want to recognize the entire JW Marriott Guanacaste team. Everyone was welcoming, helpful, and professional. The excellent service from your employees was one of the best parts of our stay. We will definitely see you again soon! ❤️

Our stay at the Marriott turned out to be disappointing for many reasons, the biggest being the road closure. I was not ready to drive an extra 30 minutes one way each day for all the activities. The hotel handled the information about the closure really poorly. We got an email, and the TL;DR was "we are really excited that the govt is fixing the road, but it will add 30 minutes to your commute" — a day before the check-in date, obviously too late to cancel or make a change. If I had known about the road closure, I would have switched to another hotel. Some guests told me that their children threw up while driving through the bumpy dirt road. Due to the closure, every activity felt harder, because it was so hard to get out of the hotel. And the Marriott is too far from the airport and other places to begin with. The hotel promised us an upgrade, but they rescinded the offer later. The hotel has no Costa Rican restaurant; they offer some Costa Rican breakfast items only. I wanted to try Costa Rican food for lunch or dinner, and there was nothing on the menu. I did not travel from the US to Central America to eat burgers. Lastly, I tried to do a bike ride that the hotel offers, but the bike had a flat tire, and that activity ended in disaster, like a lot of things at this hotel. The food is also too pricey and not that good. The swimming pool was always dirty, even first thing in the morning — it looked like they were not cleaning it enough. I would not recommend staying at this hotel, and I say that as someone who has stayed at Marriott hotels across the world and likes the brand.

Definitely would stay again. We have been super comfortable during the entire stay. The rooms are impeccable, spotless, and the towels are of very good quality, the kind that are a pleasure to use. The hotel beach is very quiet and you can see the sunset perfectly. If you are more into pools, you have a ton to choose from. By the way, I found it impressive to see someone from the staff cleaning the lounge chair cushions one by one, something I had never seen in my life and that says a lot about the hotel's maintenance. The gym is very complete, with very good quality machines. Also, the hotel organizes several activities that we wanted to sign up for, but with so many plans in the area, we didn't have time to go. The breakfast is quite good and is very complete. To add a mini "but" as a totally personal opinion: it would be great if they removed the placemats from the tables, since I find them a bit unhygienic, but anyway, that is just my own observation within a wonderful service. Best of all, without a doubt, the staff. They treated us wonderfully, but a special mention goes to Andrés (who was almost always at the entrance of the breakfast restaurant, although we also ran into him at the restaurant). He is a charming man: we chatted with him a bunch of times and he recommended great places for us to visit. As a practical note for those who are going to go now: there is roadwork on the highway and you have to deal with a detour of about 35 minutes, but it seems that it will be ready in a few days (by mid-August).