This hotel is good... comfortable, good staff, good price... the only downside is the location... not in a good neighborhood... but, taxis are cheap and you can easily move around

After reading several bad reviews, I almost cancelled my reservation at the Santo Tomas - I am so glad that I didn't!!! The hotel is housed in a beautiful old plantation home and is lovely. The staff were so attentive. As soon as our taxi pulled up they helped with our bags and made us very comfortable. They also made us breakfast extra early before our flight, called a taxi for us two times (once for dinner and once for the airport), and were helpful at every step of the way. The room was very nice and clean, and the bed was very comfortable. There is a small pool with a jacuzzi on site, which we did not use, but it looked very nice. There is also a small exercise room, which did look fairly outdated.

I would recommend this hotel to anyone.

After reading a few positive reviews and believeing the hotel was prefectly situated for a short, one-night stay in San Jose, I was disappointed by what was offered for a relatively high cost. The hotel's neighborhood is a dump. No question about it. Prostitutes, skinny dogs, flith, noise. There is a reason this hotel has a gated, secure entrance. I did not feel safe to walk around at night, wihch defeated the purpose of staying in San Jose for the night. The room and hotel facilitites were disappinting as well. The room was small, the breakfast miserly (some fruit and dried, old pastries), and you should expect to bring your own shampoo (the staff is quick to direct you to a nearby store). I feel the hotel takes advantage of tourists charging what they do to stay in a ghetto. But the staff speaks English and is friendly.
As other do, we stayed in San Jose only one night before heading out to Arenal and Monteverde. The hotel is far from the airport, and the drive is confusing (Costa Rica doesnt use street addresses, and rarely graces you with a street sign, so directions are hard to follow). San Jose is also the opposite direction from the airport (really in Alajuela)of the road leaving town to Arenal, so much time is wasted driving into and out of San Jose just to see a dump of a city. Save yourself the trouble and stay close to the airport, I am sure any hotel there would have been much nicer and safer (and cheaper).

I stayed a number of times at the Santo Tomas and really loved the friendly staff and the quaint atmosphere. I told many friends about it. It is on a borderline street-a little sleazy, but the hotel itself was very nice inside and seemed secure. My boyfriend pulled his truck up outside to load his bags as he was leaving. No one was there to help him, as had been the case earlier with me as i left for an earlier flight. They do WARN you to NEVER leave a bag in the street etc., so it is necessary to have help to keep the locked gate and heavy door open as one is loading or arriving. He got everything inside but neglected to lock one door in the back. By the time he went iside and returned (10 seconds) a knapsack with all his important papers had been stolen. Okay, HE left it open. But no one was there to help or watch his luggage. It is not a cheap hotel-maybe $100 a night. They should have someone to assist visitors. When we repeatedly called/emailed and tried to get the help of the hotel manager to assist us, as we suspected this shady character in the store next door, they tnever even wrote back to us. All we asked was if thery would please just look around to see if the guy had thrown the knapsack on the street somewhere and call the police to make a report. They would do NOTHING. I tried to contact the owner. No response. The manager. No response. No one would ever talk to us. It was very strange. Needless to say, we will never go back. i wouldn't trust the place-they might have been a part of the whole robbery itself.