My wife and I stayed at the Europa Hotel January 17 & 18, 2005, forced to find a new hotel due to a power outage at our previous hotel. We walked the downtown streets at night getting hotel prices and luckily a friendly employee at Hotel Morazan directed us to Hotel Europa where he offered us a $42 per night price. Hotel Morazan and Europa are owned by the same company. Hotel Europa is old (built in 1911), but the room and bathroom was clean (pest free) and all the employees were very professional and helpful. They showed us the room before we reserved it, which was nice of them. Final price was $49 total per night (including taxes). Charged it to our MasterCard. The price also included cable tv, hot water, phone, American breakfast, covered parking for our rental car). The room also had a small safe for $3.00 extra per night.

If you walk in without a previous reservation mention to the reservation desk attendant that you were sent from hotel Morazan and mention the $42 rate and see if it works for you. It worked for us with no problem. Also make sure to ask for the parking and breakfast tickets.
The price is $70.00 per night if you don't ask for the lower rate.

Hotel Europa is within walking distance to the Museum (of gold, jade, art), theater, banks, souvenir shops (La Casona) and restaurants.
Enjoy,

Over Easter Break 2004, I traveled along with 28 classmates and 3 teachers to Costa Rica. We enjoyed a 10 day adventure, with the first 2 and last 2 nights being spent at the Hotel Europa. It is located in what I would call a less touristy part of town, but still not freightening. The accomodations were comfortable, clean, and cheap. There is a small casino and restaurant on site, as well as an (outdoor!!) pool. The food was terrible, but you are always only a block or two from a huge area of downtown with shops and restaurants galore. The food everywhere else in the country was great, except here. We even ended up going to a KFC one night. The staff was very accomodating, and a small tip went a long way towards clean rooms everyday. Overall, this was a good budget hotel in San Jose, but make sure you know some spanish before going there!!