Gate One Tours booked our stay at the Hotel Europa. After I read the reviews on this site, I was almost ready to back out. Now I feel the hotel has been unfairly tarred.
1. It is easy to get to and from the airport, and is centrally located, within walking distance of several museums.
2. The staff is friendly and helpful and speaks English well.
3. The rooms we stayed in (which both overlooked the pool) were clean and comfortable. There were 2 large beds, a TV, hairdryer, and air conditioner - they all worked. There was no odor, and no bugs.
4. The breakfast was good and ample. We had toast, orange juice, scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, and pancakes.
5. We walked all around the surrounding area in the late afternoon and early evening. At no time did we feel unsafe or threatened in any way. The streets were busy with families and people of all ages.
6. Most of the common areas of the hotel had been freshly painted.
7. There was free wireless internet on the ground floor and the first floor. In the lobby were 2 computers; use of them was free.

However, overall the hotel was a bit shabby, things like cracks in the tiles by the pool, flaws in the vinyl chairs, an occasional stain in the rugs.

If that is not the kind of thing that would bother you, the Hotel Europa is a fine budget city hotel.

when we arrived we were given a the key to our room. went to open the door and it was already occupied by another family! bathrooms were terraible and sheets seemed like they haven´t been updated in years. service ok, your def fooled by the lobby, it is an historic place but from the pictures on the walls it seemed better 100 years ago! breakfast was ok but don´t be fooled you only get one trip to the buffet! outlets didn´t work and lap shades were dirty an the crooked. suggestion sleep on top of beds! pillows we didn´t dare use! and watch out for the streetwalkers!

We were Booked into this Hotel for our first night and our last night of a 10 night stay in Costa Rica.

This was not our choice, We booked thur a travel agent in USA. they inturn used the travel agent in Costa Rica , "Asuaire".

We asked for non-smoking room , we were asured we we be getting a non-smoking. The gave us a room that reaked of stall smoke. We could not sleep, the smell was so bad. The bedding smelled, drapes, carpet., towles. If our travel agent told us ahead of time, they did not have non-smooking rooms, we could have stayed elsewhere. The shower door barly hung in place, We were afraid the glass was going to pop out if we touch it.

Very, old, very worn, T.V. only had fuzz. no channels. I was afraid to touch anything. We were forced to stay here, they did move us to a different room, but the same. Stay somewhere else. This is a dive. Sorry I can't tell you how much a night it was, we were on a package. All the other hotels in the package were 1st class as promised.

Safe key was $3.00, Breakfeast was included. Good.
Staff was pleasant. Internet was free. Located in the downtown.
When we were dropped off, we were told do not leave hotel and walk south it was not safe. I make it back to hotel before it gets dark. It was not a safe area. This was real comforting to us.

We stayed at the Europa hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica from Oct 16 to 23, 2007. The first room was an outside room with street noise and streetlamps shining through the drapes; unable to get any sleep. The management was co-operative in moving us into one of their renovated rooms overlooking the courtyard/pool which was much better. The dining room and most of the hotel staff was very professional. It would have been a satisfactory stay if we had not had an unfortunate incident on check-out.

The manager confronted us with not paying our phone bill; we had not left a $10 deposit to open the phone line, so the phone was inoperable to us. Someone had charged $16 worth of calls to our room; switchboard said they came from our room and had to be paid by us. Without investigating, the manager threatened to call the police and make us miss our return flight.
He admitted it was the second incident that day and finally agreed to call one of the numbers on the bill, of course the person answering the number did not know us. This took an hour and a half to resolve and was all done in the lobby in front of all the guests and staff. We have reported it to our booking company to alert them. We don't know if the internal problems at this hotel have been resolved and don't want other travellers to end their vacation, possibly missing their flights.
Elyane and Brian