Hotel Presidente

Rooms are clean but small and the air conditioning was inefficient. We were too warm during the night. Front desk employees were efficient but not super friendly. Next time I will choose a different hotel for the price. There is also a fair amount of street noise early in the morning.

Both the hotel and customer service team were exceptional.

Andre in particular was extremely friendly and helpful with any queries.

Would highly recommend a stay here.

The location of this historic hotel is perfect for seeing everything downtown San Jose. What a lovely oasis in the middle of this is busy, hectic city. Spent 2 nights here. The staff are professional, friendly and helpful. Our rental car was safe, parking in the secure lot. Our suite was beautiful, overlooking the city with a little sitting area outside on the terrace. Everything from the lobby, to the rooms, to the restaurant are kept immaculate. There is street noise from being located in central San Jose, but things quiet down substantially at 10pm. ** Kutos to all the staff, but Amanda, front desk, was so helpful and accommodating. ** We ate at the restaurant 2 times and see my review there. Would stay here again, for sure. Great stay.

One on the best hotels I’ve ever stayed at! Super friendly, helpful and extremely considerate. Everyone from the staff was extremely helpful and friendly which was super nice. The room was spacious comfy and extremely safe. The hotel asthetics was amazing and beautiful. Truly one of a kind hotel and would 1000% recommend for people to stay at.

After a 14 hour journey this was our first hotel in Costa Rica, it has a very unimpressive entry before you hit reception but from then on it was great.

Reception staff are friendly and efficient, the rooms are clean, comfortable and modern the restaurant has the option of in and outside and the food was excellent, well priced.

We only stayed one night but it was a nice place to be.

A really good, high standard hotel to choose if you must stay in central San Jose. Large clean rooms with excellent helpful staff and a great roof top bar overlooking the city. The hotel felt safe and secure and the self service breakfast was good. checkout at 12 and baggage storage available with about 45min taxi to SJO.
It's no fault of this nice historic hotel, but the local streets are an unatractive shopping area, which is a bit run down but felt safe enough and is near some nice small parks, museums and the few surviving old buildings. If you want to buy Costa Rica souvenirs there are plenty of shops close by.

The staff were all very welcoming and friendly. The room was a good size and had a mini fridge and a hair dryer. It was very humid though and the A/C struggled to regulate that. There is a rooftop restaurant and there are restaurants and shops within walking distance. It's also walking distance to museums.

The rooms are very clean and basic but comfortable, the whole hotel ambience is fun The breakfast is good and the hotel is in in such a great location and the restaurant in the hotel is fantastic the best food we had in San Jose.

Excellent hotel! Beds were super comfy, rooms were clean, the hotel esthetic is very charming. The service was wonderful checking in and out Louis M was very helpful, and the gentleman the transported our bags was very nice. Food at restaurant was delicious (highly recommend the passion fruit ceviche). Would definitely stay here again!

A really nice hotel with great staff . Highly recommend the rooftop restaurant. Great breakfast buffet. Nice & central in San Jose .

The hotel is located in a great location. It's close to museums & the squares. They offer an average breakfast with the basics. The rooftop restaurant has very good food. The staff is very nice & friendly. The rooms are very, very clean, but very basic. We enjoyed our stay.

Lovely hotel with an outstanding location! We stayed three nights before joining a Costa Rica group tour. The location was amazing, walking distance to the national museums, the national theatre, and one of the best restaurants in San Jose ( Silvestre). The rooms were simple but well-appointed, with really comfortable beds. Breakfast was wonderful and we appreciated the coffee available all day. The public spaces in the hotel were all lovely and we really enjoyed the rooftop bar. Service was outstanding, Amanda at the front desk was great! Every employee we encountered was professional and welcoming. Overall, a great stay!

Everyone at Hotel Preaidente was so friendly and courteous and helpful.
Thank you AMANDA for the friendly smiles and for the recipe for Pinto Gallo.
Thank you JUAN for all of your help with tours and rides.
We loved Costa Rica and will be back!

Pleasant ambience, good food, good room, comfortable bed. Friendly efficient staff.
Good secure arrangement for luggage after checking out.

Hotel Presidente is located in the middle of town and easily walkable to the pedestrian shopping street, all museums and lots of restaurants. However, it’s very quiet inside. The rooms are large, fresh and immaculate and air conditioning and showers are refreshing. Staff is very helpful and the decoration is lovely. We didn’t get a chance to eat at the 5th floor restaurant but heard it was beautiful and delicious. Breakfasts had much variety and were in a nice setting. Wouldn’t hesitate to return!

The valet parking worked well and we made our way to room 505 which we were allocated. We felt it small , cramped and looked into a brick wall. Reception helpfully let us change to 301 which was spacious and looked into the Main Street. Breakfast was a good selection buffet . We too like another previous reviewer had to leave a day early and couldn’t get a refund. But at least the receptionist tried for us and was apologetic when management said no. We just put it down to a hazard of travelling. Would probably stay here again if returning to area and wanted a central hotel with parking

The room had more outlets than 4 people would need. Nice room, spacious bathroom. Friendly staff and good food.

Located off of central Avenue. Great location.

We stayed here for one night before traveling to the Osa Peninsula and one night after returning from the Osa Peninsula. We arrived late afternoon due to length of time getting through customs and traffic from the airport to the hotel was rush hour. ( normally 35 minutes, but rush hour was 90 minutes). We booked directly with the hotel and so they upgraded us for the first night to room 505 which was lovely. We also made reservations for the first night at their roof top bar/ restaurant which was really nice with great food and delicious drinks. The hotel also had free luggage storage so we left one suitcase with our travel clothes and coats with them since we were going to the rain forest and Sansa airlines had weight limits on luggage.
We used the hotel van for pick up at the airport and transport back to the airport both times. It was a little pricey, but nice for getting back to the airport and not waiting on an uber. The hotel recommended using an uber when we returned on Sansa airlines to get back to the hotel and that worked well.
When we returned to the hotel after visiting the Osa Peninsula, the staff member assigned us a room in another part of the hotel. This room was ok, but it looked like the typical airport hotel room and so we called the front desk to see if we could get room 505 again. It was available and so we switched rooms immediately. We were tired from our trip into the rain forest so just cleaned up and headed up to the rooftop bar/restaurant around 4 pm. We enjoyed the late afternoon weather with delicious appetizers and drinks before calling it a day. The next morning, our flight was early afternoon so we were able to enjoy the hotel’s delicious breakfast buffet. We would recommend staying here with a room like #505.

I’m extremely disappointed with my experience at this hotel. A medical emergency forced me to leave my stay early, and despite providing documentation and explaining the situation, the hotel refused to offer any refund. It was a stressful and unexpected situation, and instead of showing compassion or basic customer service, the staff were rigid, unhelpful, and dismissive.

I understand policies exist for a reason, but good hospitality is about treating guests like human beings—not hiding behind fine print when someone is dealing with a genuine emergency. I recommend reading everything before signing. They also charge for people who “might” stay at the hotel ahead of time regardless of whether that person(s) shows up. I left feeling unheard and taken advantage of. I will not be returning to this hotel or Costa Rica, and I strongly recommend booking elsewhere if you value flexibility, empathy, or even the most basic level of support during unforeseen circumstances.

Having been twice before ? This time we found this hotel very poor!!!
1 food quality and choice was awful ,6 tureens.
2 staff miserable not very nice .
3 They charging 1 ero 40 c for ice!!
4 rooms basic cleaners nice.
5 would i come back here again??? No never !! Gone down hill ,
There are cheaper and better places with hellos up the road better and cheaper