For travelers looking to stay in Jaco Beach finding a large chain hotel is not really possible. Aside from an all inclusive Best Western resort, there are just vacation rentals, hostels, and small local hotels. The Hotel Los Ranchos is one such property. Coming in at around $75 a night on Expedia, does this hotel live up to its outstanding 9.2 review score on that site? Let’s find out.
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Hotel Los Ranchos Location
Jaco is probably the largest beach town in Costa Rica but it is not large at all. everything is concentrated along one avenue running parallel to the beach. It’s hard to pick a place with a bad location in a place like this and the location of Hotel Los Ranchos is quite good. an easy walk to the beach and just a block from anything you may want. You can walk from one end of the town to the other easily in 15 minutes so location is really not a factor at all.
Hotel Los Ranchos Property
The property at Hotel Los Ranchos is quite nice. It almost feels like a little compound, secluded from the outside. It also sort of feels like living at Melrose Place. The hotel is comprised of a swimming pool at the center of the property, surrounded by quad-plex apartment-type buildings. The pool is not so large but is very nice and does a lot of heavy lifting in giving the place a tropical and relaxing atmosphere. A public lounge, picnic tables, guest parking and a grilling area round out the grounds.
The staff is very friendly and helpful, almost too much so. You can’t walk past any of them without receiving a gregarious Buenas Dias! and them asking whether you need anything at all. The room was made up daily and breakfast is served directly to your room at the time you specify (from 6:00-9:00).
The place is very pleasant and it doesn’t take long to start thinking of the other guests as your neighbors. But it is not without some drawbacks. If those “neighbors” have kids who want to play loudly in the pool every room will hear every bit of noise they make. If your neighbors are a bunch of weirdo Germans who want to pump techno music until 10:00 pm, you’re going to hear that too. Finally there is a large condo project being built right next door to the Hotel Los Ranchos and the construction noise goes on all day. It begins at 7:00 am and it is definitely loud enough to wake the guests. This is a large project that might continue for the next year.
Hotel Los Ranchos Guest Rooms
The rooms here are large and they have “good bones.” If they were configured and furnished differently they could easily serve as studio apartments, which they may have done in a former life. Things are dated here, but well cared for. Hotel Los Ranchos is certainly not luxurious but it is comfortable. The beds are fine but the bedding is thin and could stand to be replaced. The TV is not so great with no English channels. But perhaps most importantly the AC blows cold.
I would have greatly preferred an armchair and/or a desk over the wooden bench provided. Each room has an outdoor seating area that’s covered from rain and overlooks the pool. This is the only logical place to enjoy the in-room breakfast. It’s a very nice feature with a light at night but guests trying to enjoy it will find themselves battling mosquitoes before too long.
The windows are quite large and unfortunately the curtains don’t black out the rooms, so they are filled with light when the sun comes up. During my visit in late September sunrises were at 5:30 am.
But the poison pill of the Hotel Los Ranchos is that the toilets can barely flush anything. There’s a sign in the bathroom asking guests to put used toilet paper into the provided (covered) trash can. As an American that’s just a non-starter for me, and I ended up having to flush several times each morning to put down one bit of toilet paper at a time. If I had known about this before booking I would have chosen a different hotel.
Choosing a Jacó Beach Hotel
Would I return again to Hotel Los Ranchos? No, I wouldn’t. Because of the toilet and the noise. Would I recommend it? If you think those things aren’t issues for you the hotel was otherwise great. Of course it’s budget friendly as well. But if I were returning to Jaco I would probably search the map and book whatever looks good to you. It’s all kind of a roll of the dice in this little beach town.
