I stayed at the hotel for the July 4th weekend and I was fine. I did not have great expectation because I know what I paid. The room was clean and spacious. I stayed in room #10 and did not see any insects. The neighbohood is not the greatest but I was always in my room from 9:00 pm to get ready for my daily tours that start early. The only negative thing I can say is the wall are super thin. What ever happen in Vegas trully did not stay in Vegas. The staff were very nice and helpful. Josue and Yvette
are super nice.

I would recomand this hotel for travelers that are on tight budget if you want luxury accommodations extensive guests services this one is not for you .

I've just spent eleven nights in the Hotel Santo Tomas and thought it was a pretty decent place. It doesn't look to have been built as a hotel and each guest room is unique. So what I have to say about the room I stayed in (#10) might not apply to any or all the others. In deference to those looking for a reason to rule it out, I'll start with the derogs.

No A/C. The ceiling was very high (probably 10') and there was a ceiling fan. In early May it wasn't unpleasantly hot but I wouldn't want to be there in August.

Noise. If there were guests in either of the adjoining rooms, and they were carrying on a normal conversation, eaves-dropping was mandatory. Some nights street noise was intrusive but usually died down between 11 and midnight.

No mini-bar or fridge. The staff does maintain a pitcher of drinking water and two glasses in the room.

Mucho mosquitoes. The window above the bathroom was one of those glass shutter affairs that neither seals completely nor has a screen. If I spent much time in the room before bed (and under the covers), come morning, it was normal to find six to 10 mosquito bites on my arms.

Insufficient drapes. And this applies to the both the transom and the window above the bathroom. If you have trouble sleeping in a brightly lit room, you're not going to sleep much past 5 a.m. this time of year.

Bathroom not really a room. It was just a walled-off partition at the far end of the room, and the dividing wall only goes up about eight feet, far short of the ceiling. The bathroom itself has a trellis where its ceiling should be. To put it discretely, what happened in Vegas didn't necessarily stay in Vegas.

Crummy pillows. They just weren't much support. The ones I had when I first arrived also were very lumpy so I asked they be changed. The staff changed them without complaint but the replacements still didn't offer much resistance when I put down my head.

Unsafe in-room safe. It was just a locked wooden cabinet. You probably could prise it open with a table knife.

Hot water. I only turned on the shower's cold tap once while I was there. The water was never cold (not even uncomfortably cool), but neither was it that hot. Except that once.

Smoking in the restaurant. It's per mitted nowhere else in the hotel except the restaurant.

But like I said, I enjoyed my stay. So now for the good stuff.

The hotel is actually rather homey. The staff was helpful and friendly. Where my Spanish fell short, their English always took up my slack. The wireless Internet was quite zippy. The room was tidy and always spotlessly clean (as was the entire hotel). Food in the restaurant was decent to good, and reasonably priced.

I thought the location was good. Many of the major downtown attractions are within a 6-8 block walk. As are many good restaurants and at least half a dozen city parks.

I roamed around the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night and never felt threatened. Yes, prostitutes were a common site but they also were common on the sidewalk in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral. Considering prostitution is legal in Costa Rica, I think it might be somewhat misguided to associate their presence with criminal activity. And if you're concerned about muggings, taxis are dirt cheap; have the hotel staff arrange door-to-door cab service for you.

We stayed in Santo Tomas in San Jose on our first and last night in Costa Rica and it is a very decent, pleasant hotel.
The hotel is located in a charming old property with absolutely beautiful tile floors. Rooms are not too small with a decent bathroom and breakfast served in the morning (fresh fruit and pastries).
The staff in the hotel are very nice and helpful.
The location is not great - but i think it is more of a characteristic of San Jose than of this particular hotel. One can see that this city does not belong to the prettiest and safest - i do not think it is worth spending too much time in San Jose!

My husband and I stayed there for 1 night in February 2008. The hotel is located right in the middle of San Jose so you can access the city easily.

The rooms were pleasant, but we found a 2" cockroach in our shower. One of the hotel employees killed it unflinchingly, but we're from NYC and had never seen a cockroach that big before.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant which was very good. The staff at the hotel was friendly, but they forgot to serve us our breakfast earlier than scheduled as we had requested the day before.