I have just returned from a weeks stay at this hotel and want to advise people that when visiting panama knowledge of spanish is essential. None of the reception staff could speak english and you need to wait for people staying at the hotel to help you interpret if there a no english speakers around you are in trouble. This amazed me until I tried the Meridean reception and the Inter Continental Reception and they suffered from the same problem reception staff with no english. Very few people in panama have a nodding aquaintence with english. Other than this the hotel was good value for money and on the whole staff were very friendly even though they didn't have a clue what you were saying.

I spent 3 nights there in Feb 2011. I have no complaint about the hotel. It is not pretentious and just delivers on the basics. For the price ($55 p.n.) it is decent value. It is about a 15 - 20 minute walk to a decent nightlife area or a short taxi ride to Calle Uruguay / Argentina, etc. The staff speak practically no English and tourist inforamtion is generally very hard to come by in Panama so make sure you have done your research in advance. I only had breakfast one morning and it was good / tasty and served quickly. There is free internet - 3 PCs. The room was quite basic but quiet and comfortable. I would have preferred a safe in my room but did not have any difficulty with any of my valuables and the chambermaid was very efficient and attentive.

Having stayed in the Hotel Baru Lodge I had to get another hotel while my apartment was being arranged. At first I was really worried by this hotel, it seemed dingy and dark and in a bad part of town compared to Baru. There are no safes in the room and although the doors lock you could quite easily pop them open if you so desired. The lights in the rooms are really dim for some reason, I have no idea why they don't have brighter bulbs. The hotel isn't in the best part of town, Calidonia is 5 minutes down the road, and I'm told to avoid that place as a foreigner. Having said all that the rooms are kept very clean and there is a fair sized pool out the back. There is a reasonable restaurant in the hotel that does a fair range of food at a good price, this closes at 11pm and they do room srevice. There is a laundry across the road and a very small shop where you can buy water and snacks. I would only reccomend this hotel for a couple of days stop over. It is value for money though, so if you want somewhere cheap and location isn't an issue for you then this hotel would be fine. The staff seem cold at first but after they know your face they warm up a bit. They have an armed guard on the door at night.

This hotel is just not good. Incredibly noisy street location with thin windows (I had to wear ear plugs and still could not sleep well). Terribly outdated and BASIC (if you know what I mean). This is a place you would be embarrassed to bring your wife and sorry you actually paid for it. The ONE thing I will admit - it was relatively clean.