The highlight of this hotel is the staff: all the ones we spoke with were warm, courteous and helpful. The bedroom was decent, the cable t.v. was a nice perk. There are no safes in the room but there is a safe in the lobby which you can use free-of-charge, which helped me feel at ease in a city setting. The bathroom was clean, although the florescent lighting brought back memories of my work bathroom. My biggest concern was the highly suspicious pillow that made my face itch and break out in these tiny bumps. But I had endured less-than average luxury for the travel prior to this in Guancaste so I wasn't that concerned.

The area is not the most welcoming...it reminds me of downtown Los Angeles where the wholesales fashion market is. It's sorta depressing.
But again, I was only there for a night so I didn't get to fully explore the capital. I had a room next to a garden which was pleasant but since we were there for a few hours in order to catch a flight back to the U.S., our expectations were not so high.

To sum it up, this is a great hotel for a stopover since it is centrally located. I heard from another American traveler that the restaurant and bar is great (I only got a peek though and it looked nice).

The only good thing that I can say about this hotel is just about the staff because the rest is horrible. The rooms are decorated without any taste, the area is full of prostitutes and they think that every single guy is $$$ + the area around the hotel is NOT safe at all (during the night). Please people, barrio Amon is the best place to stay and find a good deal with a hotel (Kekoldi Hotel is very cute and cheap), and also is walking distance to everything. I left the next the day from El Balmoral and believe me NEVER AGAIN. PLEASE PEOPLE DON'T STAY HERE!!!!!

My girlfriend and i stayed in this hotel last year for a couple of days. i liked it because of the location, being in the middle of downtown San Jose. Our last night the power went out for about two hours, so we had a little bit of difficulty getting ready in the dark. The management sucks! When it comes to solving problems, they play dumb. We were not compensated!
Our most recent trip, we made reservations about 1 month in advance, we called three different times to ask some questions and we came to find out that each time they didnt have our reservation. When we made it there I noticed they remodeled the dining area, which looked great. But the rooms looked in worse shape than the year before (diffinatley not the way they make them look online). We had a situation were they would not let my girlfriends brother come up to our room. It was a group of my friends staying with us...we had two rooms next to eachother and we were all getting ready to go out. My girlfirends brother who lives in San Jose came to meet us to go out with us and was stopped in his tracks. I asked why he could not come up and they said it was hotel politics. I argued with them for a few minutes and their idea of working it out was to charge me for an additional person (even though he was only coming up for 15 minutes) for the 3 nights we stayed there. When asked to speak to a manager, i was told to come in the morning and when i came in the morning...guess what? "no manager"! I would never stay in this place again. They also make it feel like a compound! When you come to the hotel at night, the entrance is locked and caked with security.
I found a different hotel and had a great experience...its called the BRITANNIA HOTEL

The Hotel Balmoral lived up to the other reviews that I read. It is located on Central Avenue - right in the midst of all things good and all things bad. There was a 'bouncer' aka security who was ever present at the front entrance. I was told to put my gold necklace inside of my shirt and to take my earrings off. I am from NYC and I am used to taking precautions and being aware of my surroundings. I put my chain inside but declined the suggestion of taking off my earrings . Note - there were 'bouncers' all over the place in downtown San Jose - not just in front of the hotels!) However, I have seen worse and been in worse areas. (both at home and abroad) I did not at any time feel threatened or in any kind of danger. I liked the location of the hotel for the time that I spent in San Jose. One day before Puerto Viejo and one day after. Shopping, restaurants and museums etc were within walking distance. Now for the rooms! It would be classified as a typical low end hotel room in the states. Small and with a musty smell. The TV and AC worked fine. The bed was ok. Only 1 pillow and I like 2! The worse part of the accommodations was listening to other people taking showers, their conversations and the toilets flushing! The walls are paper thin. The free breakfast in the hotel restaurant was quite good. We also had lunch there and it was equally as good. No real complaints about the hotel. I was not in NYC / ATL or LA . It is not the Hilton . I did not plan to stay more than a couple of nights. So it was fine. And I would stay there again - but only for a couple of days - before and after!