Westin Playa Conchal, Costa Rica

• Arrival Experience and Room
• Resort Amenities
• Dining

Arrival Experience

We were very excited to be trying out the Westin Playa Conchal, having received a huge recommendation from our friend @Saianel. Perhaps that increased my expectations, but, our arrival experience was less than stellar.

We arrived around 1:30pm, after the hour or so drive from the Liberia airport. We were nearly immediately welcomed at reception, however the overall process of checking us in took a good twenty minutes.

Checking in at the Westin Playa Conchal

Part of it could have been, that we had a 3 night stay, with 3 separate confirmation numbers, I get that can be complicated. Of course, after the 20 minutes, the receptionist tells us that the room is not ready, and that housekeeping was in the room cleaning it “now.” My response was “ok, how long are we talking?” and her response was that the room would be ready at 3pm. It doesn’t take an hour to clean a room. I later found out that there were only like 4 rooms taken in the Royal Beach Club towers, which left a bad taste.

Lobby of the Westin Playa Conchal

Lobby Bar

So, we did as recommended and grabbed a light lunch at the buffet. We then returned at 3pm on the dot, to find that there was only a single receptionist. There were 3 couples waiting in line, all of us ostensibly just to get our room keys. Finally, we were able to convince one of the gentlemen at the porter station to help us. This took another 20 minutes.

Let me be clear: The arrival experience leaves much to be desired.

Royal Beach Club – Pool View Room

We were very happy to have received a space available upgrade to the Royal Beach Club. This is a mini-Adults only resort within the larger resort. There’s a dedicated restaurant, pool, pool bar, and lobby/lounge.

Upon arriving, the gentleman who drove us to the tower—the hotel has shuttles, as the property is sizeable–showed us around our room, and highlighted the different features. As he opens the mini-bar, he shook his head and said that the mini-bar is usually much better provisioned. It had but a few minis. He immediately called, and folks were by to resolve things quickly.

Of course, this isn’t a big deal, but I was left wondering, what on earth took over an hour to clean, when they couldn’t even ensure that the room was properly provisioned?

Aside from that, the room was wonderfully comfortable.

Our first Westin Heavenly Bed!

Closet:

Where’s the “lock” button??

The bathroom was a nice size, with a stand up shower, a soaking tub, and a private toilet.

Of note, with the Zika concerns, bug spray was included as an amenity. This was a very wise move, and we ended up needing to request more bug spray during our spray. The cost is minimal, but the perception, at least that we received, was that the hotel accepted the fact of Zika and wanted to keep their guests safe. Sends a great message!

Patio:

Conclusion

Overall, the arrival experience needs to improve. It wasn’t just us. But, once you get past the arrival experience, things are really nice, with nice attention to detail in the rooms — aside from the mini-bar. I think the inclusion of bug spray may make my list for the greatest hotel amenities.