Casa Chameleon Hotel at Las Catalinas

Our stay at Casa Chameleon was beyond superb. All staff members were attentive and friendly. We were consistently addressed by our names and greeted by all staff we passed. When issues popped up in our room (the air conditioner and hot water not working), they were fixed expediently. The front desk staff was always there to ensure our requests were fulfilled - from activity and restaurant reservations to contracting rides for us to various locations. The property itself is a destination. The view from every single vantage point takes your breath away. The room was one of the most romantic I have ever stayed in. We had a luxury villa. The view was incredible, and the veranda was where we spent most of our time. It was so very private we felt like we were on a honeymoon. Although it was not a sunset view, we had sweeping views of the ocean, enhanced by our own little plunge pool. I especially loved that view from the window-walled shower. My only complaint about the room is that the bathroom was not very private. As there was only a partial wall between the bedroom and the bathroom, any noises in the bathroom were easily heard in the main bedroom. Also, be forewarned that there is no television in the room. During our visit, only the Sentido Norte restaurant was open. We enjoyed the variety at breakfast each morning, and I so miss my daily green juice now that I'm home. The staff at the restaurant was attentive and personalized each visit, remembering our names and preferences. All meals and drinks at the restaurant were terrific, and that view! Las Catalinas is a growing town with several restaurants to satisfy a variety of palettes. This was especially welcomed, as one of the hotel's restaurants (Las Pampas) was not open during our stay. We found we could either walk to Las Catalinas via the trails at the rear of the property, or you could request a ride from the hotel. There was sometimes a wait to return to the top, but we understood that due to the construction patience was necessary. Construction was present throughout Las Catalinas, as well as at the hotel. However, our villa's location at the rear of the property kept it out of earshot of the jackhammers, so we were lucky. Finally, when the airport was closed and we were stranded for 3 extra days, the staff was kind and accommodating, leaving us without a worry in the world. They updated our length of stay and rearranged our travel to the airport without our having to ask. Our (extended) vacation at Casa Chameleon exceeded our expectations! We hope to return some day!

Given the high cost of this hotel and our expectations going in, it is hard to think of another hotel anywhere in the world where we have been so disappointed. Everything was just off, from the rooms, to the food, to the service. Note that we don’t have unrealistic expectations for where we stay and we do not often give negative reviews; just check the reviews of the other two hotels we stayed at during our otherwise wonderful trip to Costa Rica – they were fantastic. This was the opposite – our two-night stay was truly underwhelming in every way. Deceptive and false advertising. Before I get into the details of our experience, I want to highlight the single most disappointing thing about this place was the fact that we reserved what was called an “ocean-view” room. In fact, there was practically no view of the water. Only when standing on the far side of the room could you see any water whatsoever and that was just a partial view through the vegetation to a shore. I immediately called reception to see if we could get switched to an ocean view room as we had reserved. He said he would check and get back to me. Hopeful that we could change rooms, and not wanting to disrupt the room we were in, we did not unpack and instead waited for a phone call. After 15 minutes, we had not heard back so I called again. We were told by a different person they were looking into and would get back to us. We waited another 10 minutes and … nothing. We went to the reception area to find out what was going on. When I politely voiced my concern that we were not given a room with a view of the water as advertised, they repeatedly said we had booked an ocean view room not a villa suite. I told him that we realized this but that we expected an “ocean-view” room to have precisely that – a view of the ocean. He explained that because it was the end of the rainy season, a lot of vegetation had grown and impeded the view. He said the hotel was at capacity and we could not be switched but offered to try to move us for the second night or, alternately, they could offer us a free meal. We quickly realized that most of the grouping of rooms (which are separate little structures) in our section of the property (rooms 1-6) probably had no significantly better views than ours, so we accepted the meal. From the descriptions on the website, and particularly the photographs, this is nothing short of deceptive advertising on the part of the hotel. Truly a bait and switch. As to the particulars, things went wrong from the moment of arrival and continued through the moment of our departure. Check in. Upon arrival, we were seated in the lobby with a customer service liaison to give us the lay of the land. However, less than 100 feet away from the lobby, there was construction on an adjacent building with a jack hammer going non-stop. It was impossible to hear anything or even focus. When we told our liaison this, he flagged down a manager who was passing by and asked him if he could get the jack hammer to stop. The manager, without making any eye contact or offering any apology told him he could not stop it. (I speak fluent Spanish – perhaps the manager did not know I could understand him.) This was disappointing but I gave him the benefit of the doubt that there was nothing that could be done. It was only later that day we found out that the adjacent building that was being worked on is owned by the same hotel (apparently, it is going to be permanent residences adjoined to the hotel). Why would they insist on jack hammers going off in middle of the afternoon during prime check in time, and why wouldn’t they suspend it for just a few minutes to complete the process, or at the least have alternate arrangements planned? Finally, the liaison took us to the restaurant so we could actually hear him as he explained the property to us. Explanation of the property. Once we finally go to the restaurant for check in, things continued to go sideways. We were asked for our passports, which we had left back with our bags in the lobby since we were not told we would need them. Our liaison said he would go get the bags for us at the conclusion of our meeting so we could get our passports (spoiler alert: he never did). The explanation of the hotel’s amenities was poor: basically a two-minute run down and having us scan a QR code to get more information. Unfortunately, the QR code linked to an online guide which was essentially only what is contained on the website, and in some instances was outdated. For example, we were told that one of the restaurants featured a fixed course menu, so we asked about. Our liaison referred us to the online guide. However, after he left, we checked the guide and it was not current as it still listed an old a la carte menu for the restaurant. Other features of the online guide were practically worthless. We asked about hikes in the area, and again were referred to the guide, but it lacked any description about the hikes, and was nothing more than a complex map with print so small it was next to impossible to interpret. We asked about the ability to rent a kayak in Las Catalinas, the very small town below the property. Our liaison said he did not know and did not bother to say he would follow up to find out. (We later discovered there is a shop in town that others quickly pointed out to us.) Had our transfers wrong. We previously, via email, had arranged transfers through the hotel to leave at 6 am on our departure date to catch an early flight. Realizing that this hotel was disorganized, we wanted to confirm the hour of our transfers. Sure enough, they had it wrong and insisted we had booked at 1 pm (despite the fact I have an email where we had confirmed at 6 am). They were quick to change it to 6 am, but we had no confidence at this point that this would be done correctly. Location. The best thing about this hotel is the pool and restaurant area and the commanding, almost 270 degree view it has over the water as the hotel sits on a promontory above the town of Las Catalinas. The road down the hill is under construction and there was no path to walk it, which means the only option to get to town is to get a driver to take you down the hill in a golf cart. While cart drivers were always available, going down the hill took 10 minutes each time due to traffic going up and down the one lane road. Coming back, you need to call for a cart and wait at the bottom, which sometimes meant 15 minutes milling around. The town of Las Catalinas itself cannot even really be called a functioning town. It is a planned development community which, for reasons unclear, is taking decades to complete. Construction is going on everywhere. Only a small part of the planned development is finished with maybe six restaurants and the mentioned kayak and bike rental shop and a very small (and wildly overpriced) grocery store. The primary beach is fine, albeit a bit rocky. The smaller beach, reachable at low tide, is a lot less rocky. Room. The room was very small. Apart from the bed, there was a closet and a night stand and nothing else. No chair or couch or desk. The only place to sit was on the small deck/lanai. The lanai had a pleasant-looking small plunge pool, but the water was too cold to enjoy, and the entire lanai area was very shady as it was enclosed on three sides, almost like a cave. As a result, we spent no time on the lanai. Also, the doors to the lanai had to be latched and unlatched with bolts that secured into the floor. These did not release easily and it was a pain to even bother to go outside. The bathroom area did not have a separate toilet area so there was no privacy. This issue was compounded as there was no mirror in the bedroom so the bathroom area was always in high demand when getting ready. The décor was disjointed. While the pool area and parts of the room try for a SE Asian vibe, other parts of the décor are rustic beach style, like the trellis-style towel rack, made to look like driftwood, and not large enough to hang towels. One of the bathroom sinks was badly cracked. Signage to the rooms is terrible, and the little signage they have is poorly lit. References on the signs are to names of rooms, but all the staff refers to the rooms by number. This made for a couple of frustrating trips wandering around in the dark as we tried to return to our room, which we knew as room #3, but which is never referred to as such on signs. No one ever told us the name of our room, so we had no reference point for the signage available. The first night we did not receive any turndown service. The second night, someone brought a welcome snack and drink (with a welcome note) in the early evening. They clearly didn’t realize that we had arrived the day before. We wondered if anyone on staff was even communicating anything with one another or receiving any direction at all. Restaurants. The food was decent (not great) but service and ambiance was inconsistent at best. Even the great views from the restaurant could not make up for it. Music consisted of soft jazz/muzak 24/7 that was played too loudly. At dinner, a live saxophonist did his best Kenny G impersonation, breaking out of a tune to play happy birthday every once in while table-side, only to return to the verse he was on in his original tune with out break. That was at least entertaining, I guess, kind of like a Saturday Night Live skit. At breakfast, we waited a very long time to be served. We finally had to flag someone down. I ordered oatmeal which came with yogurt and fruit. However, when it arrived, there was no oatmeal. When I pointed this out to the waiter, he said it was at the bottom of the yogurt. When I showed him that it clearly was not, he took it back. My wife ordered chorizo and eggs. The chorizo was cold. The staff was nice – it just seemed like they lacked any orchestration or direction. Check out. With all the things that had gone wrong, the night before our departure, we checked with the front desk to reconfirm that our transfer would be at 6 am. They said they would send someone to our room (which was down two sets of staircases) at 5:50 am to collect our bags. Sure enough, the next morning, we waited until 5:55 am and nobody had come to collect our bags. So we walked up to the reception where there were 4 staff members. None of them apparently knew of the prior night commitment to come to our room to collect our bags. They sent one person to do so, while the other three remained in the lobby area not doing much of anything. At least our driver was there and we had a safe journey to the airport with his pleasant company. In summary, our experience at this hotel was truly frustrating. The staff were generally kind, if not well informed. However, it appears that the hotel suffers from an extreme lack of organization, consistency, and management. The descriptions of the rooms is nothing short of false advertising. It is like they concluded that the superb views of the general area from the hotel and a handful of awesome pictures on the website can hide all of its flaws. It cannot. This was truly one of the most disappointing hotel stays we have ever had, particularly given the price that was charged.

We were welcomed to the resort by staff with cool, scent towels, fruit skewers and a lovely drink. Great attention to every detail. We took a couple of steps away from the lobby and were knocked over by construction noise. Our joy was crushed as we looked up to see massive building and a decimating hole in the Costa Rican coastline. We were thankful that our villa, room 1, was guarded against the disappointing visuals however our first morning we were awakened at 6:14 am to the sounds of construction - not anything close to the sounds of nature we were anticipating. We were celebrating our 40th anniversary and were splurging on an upscale resort. What disappoints me most is that we were not informed in advance that the resort was under heavy construction. I believe we purchased a stay under false pretense/false advertising. I’m not sure what can be done to remedy this experience - at a minimum please inform your upcoming guests of the true product you are currently selling.

Beautiful resort! Our sunset room with the plunge pool was perfect. (depending on which one you get be prepared for lots of steps) The staff was incredible! Everyone was kind, called us by name, and provided wonderful service. When we had trouble with our air conditioning, then jumped to fix it so we weren't inconvenienced. Highly recommend!

We stayed for 8 days in early August and are looking forward to coming back next year. Staff — very friendly and helpful. Thanks to William, Rose, Bryan, and everyone else! Property — immaculately maintained resort overlooking a beautiful bay. Amenities — great restaurant, great bar (make sure to do a sunset happy hour), and great pool, all with fantastic views of the bay. Morning yoga classes are very relaxing. Looking forward to trying the spa services on our next visit. Excursions — Casa Chameleon has chosen exceptional vendors for their excursions. We took a private surfing lesson, went on the El Viejo River tour, and did a catamaran snorkeling tour. Would recommend all to everyone. Location — right above the small resort town of Las Catalinas. Has a nice volcanic sand beach, several good restaurants (if you go to Ponciano, make sure to say hi to Ricardo the cat), shopping including a small grocery store, and well maintained hiking trails with beautiful views of the area (on the trails, keep an eye out for parades of tiny hermit crabs much further away from the water than you would expect).