Prior to our trip I called and spoke to the son of the owners to make them aware of our upcoming trip and late arrival. Our flight was not arriving until 7:40pm into SJO. The private transportation service I made plans with told me it would be 3 to 4 hours from the airport to Selvita Lodge. I repeated this twice to him and asked if he could please be sure to note this in our reservation. He assured me he did and he himself would be available upon our arrival between 11pm and 12am. As soon as I landed at SJO and had cell phone service I sent an email to the lodge giving them an update on our arrival status. I told them we were on our way from the airport.
Upon arrival, after a full day of traveling, we were greeted with a locked gate and a pitch black parking lot. I climbed over the gate and used my cell phone to make it to a door that I hoped to be the front desk (but appeared to be a house). I knocked on the door several times. No answer. Luckily our transport van was still waiting and had WiFi so I was able to make a phone call to the number I had called previously. The owners answered and came outside to inform me that our cabin had been given away to another family because they did not think we were coming. At this point our transport van had left. Awesome.
The family had been searching for an empty room and could not find one...the town was fully booked for Easter. You can imagine my reaction. They said don't worry we will take care of it. So we sat on the front porch and watched a poor mom, dad, and 2 young kids get kicked out to the streets at 11:30pm.
We finally get in our room, which still had the sheets from the prior tenants and no towels for a hot shower, which I was dying for at this point. But guess what, no hot water. So to bed we went, knowing we had to be up for a volcano hike in the morning. The next morning, we had hot water. On the hike we went. It rained the entire time, which is expected in the rain forest. No problem. The problem occurred when we got back to the cabin at 10pm (cold and muddy) and again had no hot water. At this point I thought maybe they only allow you to shower with hot water in the mornings. After an hour of them 'trying to fix it' they moved us to another cabin.
This cabin was right on the road...with alot of traffic noise, had NO bathroom door, and the bathroom sink was not attached to the wall. So every time we would turn the faucet on the sink would fall into our hips. But we had luke warm water right? Oh yeah, and the AC actually worked in this room . The first cabin it barely worked. Luckily there was a ceiling fan.
I would have loved to write an amazing review about my experience here like all of the rest of the reviews I read in my researching hotels, but I had quite the opposite experience. We ended up cancelling the rest of our stay there and moved to the La Fortuna Downtown Inn which was so much nicer and CHEAPER. And as for a view of the volcano from the cabins...maybe if climb a tree...let me know how that goes. . OH YEAH and upon departure, guess what, he 'found' the email I sent from the airport. It was sitting on the office desk as I was checking out.
If I had to add a pro...the family was nice and tried to help but the place needs some TLC.
