W Costa Rica - Reserva Conchal

I had high expectations for W Costa Rica, but the experience was deeply disappointing. I traveled 30 hours to be here, jet-lagged and exhausted, only to be met with zero hospitality - no welcome drink on arrival, no welcome amenities in the room, and not even basic complementary essentials like water, tea, or coffee provided. To make matters worse, there were no tea or coffee cups, just cheap paper cups that felt completely out of place in a so-called luxury resort. How pathetic! Who drinks tea and coffee out of paper cups? There were no slippers either — how do they expect guests to walk barefoot on cold floors? The final insult was the surprise extra charges that appeared only after booking, making the entire management feel more like a team of scammers than hospitality professionals. Truly unacceptable; the entire management team needs to be replaced. Every room must have slippers. Proper coffee and tea cups must be used not paper. This was the worst experience ever — worse than a 1-star hotel. This poor experience is absolutely worth a refund — and frankly, the entire management should be fired.

I really wanted to love this hotel and give it a better review but this place is a hotel with luxury prices but not luxury services. Every single thing is a significant overcharge and yes I know that is to be expected when staying at a higher-end hotel but it just became grating. Luxury prices for every single damn thing. This hotel gave me a headache with how much they nickel and dimed us. For example, the hotel is very isolated so you really need to make an effort if you want to eat or drink offsite and they really gouge you on food and drink prices. As another example, it's not convenient to get around the area without using a hotel transportation service (Uber is technically not legal in Costa Rica so it became a buyer beware scenario if you wanted to rely on Uber) and the hotel transportation service charged nearly twice what Uber would charge for any trip. As a bit of a last straw for me, the hotel wanted to charge us $195 for a shuttle to the airport after we checked out. When I pointed out that the estimated cost of an Uber for the same trip was ~$90 (we took an Uber and it cost ~$92) I was told "Then take an Uber." Which given how much we were already paying out the nose for the room and board was really a nice slap in the face. We even tried to haggle to $140 so we'd be splitting the difference and they could not have cared less. I didn't want to fight over $100, but we were already paying a lot to stay here and them wanting to overcharge us for transport to get to the airport when we were leaving felt like a chef's kiss to the constant price gouging. Unrelated to cost, there is a hotel golf cart service that is supposed to be convenient but we had to wait at least 10 minutes almost every time for one to arrive and it just wasn't worth the wait or convenient at all. Then we'd get to the front lobby and see several carts idling so not sure why this system didn't work better. Also the hotel WiFi was hilariously unreliable, but I didn't judge that too harshly given the hotel is in a nature reserve. On some positive notes, the vast majority of the hotel staff were incredibly friendly. No complaints there. Special shoutout to the staff (waitress/waiter, bartender, and chef) at Latitud 10 Norte (and will be giving that restaurant a 5-star review separately as well). The pools and beach we had access to were also pretty solid (note it's a public beach). And the nature reserve that the hotel is located in is beautiful and it was amazing seeing the animals freely roaming around there. But the negatives overwhelmed the positives for me. I will never stay here again. I love W Hotels and hope my next experience at a W is better or I'll reconsider staying at W Hotels in the future.

Bed bugs. It’s been 4 days since we returned and I still haven’t gotten a satisfactory answer from management on their investigation of our room for suspected bed bugs due to bites my husband and I came home with. I have been back and forth with management and still no information just a request to please be patient. If you think you are dealing with bed bugs, time is not your friend. I don’t know what is taking so long.

Staff at this hotel do not care about guests’ safety. They will walk in to your room during the day without knocking (while you’re changing!!) and then management will gaslight you into thinking it’s your fault. No apology, no compensation. Absolutely abhorrent treatment. Do not stay here unless you’re okay with having your privacy violated and then be blamed for the incident. Ruined our trip and we will never ever be back.

I don’t write review often however I absolutely want to do it for this W hotel Reserva Conchal! The hotel itself is beautifully situated on a reserve, and the rooms buildings are built as if they were part of this reserve/forest. We spotted deer grazing right next to the room. Rooms are designed well and bathrooms are spacious, and each room has a balcony. (we stayed in Standard room, superior room and a suite) We read some reviews before checking in and thought the food would not be great so we ate out for the first few days, however we were wrong as the food in the hotel (cocina de mercado and zona azul) were delicious! We also did the Cerviche making class and joined on some exercise programs, and the kids liked the children program they designed. The staff are always friendly and authentic. We extended our stay and loved every minute of it. I would wholeheartedly recommend this wonderful W Hotel.

We had an amazing week at the W reserva conchal. The property as a whole and especially the beach are truly stunning. We were a group of 11 total, 8 adults and 3 children. We had 2 infants under 6 months old. We stayed in the 4 bedroom residence which was perfect for our group. The staff went above and beyond to keep the house clean and add little touches for the kids, such as play tents and tiny bathrobes. The staff was what truly made the week special. We had 2 private chef dinners at the residence, and cannot rave about the experience enough. Jefferson and Lilly were our chefs, and made us the most fantastic dinner, with so much food that we had leftovers for days. Our favorite meals on the property were the private dinners, by far. Jefferson and Lilly are outstanding. Someone who truly stood out was Maria. She was our server our first night, and we had mentioned it was my mother’s birthday. By the second night, she had brought my mother a beautiful customized tote bag made by her daughter. It was so unexpected and so thoughtful. She went above and beyond to make my mothers birthday special I also want to acknowledge Julia from the kids activity center, and the dedicated golf cart drivers who remembered our names and which excursions were were doing each day, and helped us with lugging our strollers around the resort: Gregory, Kaylor, and Gustavo- you guys are amazing.