WE didn't think the Albrook deserved the bad reviews, but it's not fabulous by any means. It was a good, clean, decent place to stay with reasonably friendly staff and it was a good home base for our first few days in panama. Nice location in the better residential district of the old canal zone away from the crazy driving and busy City, yet close enough to taxi anywhere. Also very close to the regional airport which was convenient, and they kept our big bag when we flew over to San Blas - no complaints at all. Breakfast was an ok buffet, price included, dinner/lunch ok, but nothing to write home about. Room was very small, and a little musty, but perfectly acceptable. Little pool was most often empty.

We stayed at the Albrook Inn for one night in Jan2011, we had another two nights booked for our return to Panama City a week later but decided to cancel due to the experience we had on the 1st visit.
The hotel is in a nice quite residential area which was partly the reason we booked to stay here along with its proximity to the domestic airport as we though although there won’t be a lot to do in the evening at least we will get a decent night’s sleep.
Things started to go badly when we arrived at the domestic airport when the cab that the Albrook Inn we had booked did not arrive. This was not too much of a big deal as we just took another cab to the hotel. On arriving at the hotel all looked good as the hotel is in nice landscaped gardens and it seemed like it would be a very pleasant place to stay.
On check in as soon as we said our names instead of being greeted with a hello the lady at the front desk barked at us “You are the ones who made a mistake!!” And trust a sheet of paper in our faces which meant nothing to us but apparently it was all our fault the taxi was not there for us. May be we did make a mistake I’m not sure as I couldn’t really understand what the point was she was trying to make but I don’t feel this is a great way to greet customers.
After being told of for a bit longer we were given the keys to our room which was very clean and ok value for the price and with a nice attached bathroom so no complaints about the actual room. Unfortunately the room was opposite the laundry area of the hotel which was very noisy and was kept running until about 1.00am this is not a great way to spend an evening when you have been travelling all day and need to get up at 5.00am the next morning to catch a flight.
Also having arrived at the hotel at 9.00pm we were hoping to at least be able to buy some snacks and drinks at the hotel to see us through to the morning but nothing at all was available, the receptionist told us the water was ok to drink in the room – it turns out that would normally be the case in Panama but due to the recent floods it is not advisable. We did have a walk for a good mile around the hotel looking for shops or a restaurant but were unable to find anything.
The following morning we had a fairly decent breakfast at the hotel which was included in the room rate. After this my girlfriend asked reception if she could access her bag that we had left in storage to collect on our stay booked for the next week, the receptionist responded by rolling her eyes and saying “Do you have to”.
It’s a shame that a couple of things really gave us a negative impression of this hotel – the telling off and the eye rolling & the water incident were all from the same member of staff and the noise from the laundry which could be solved easily as this could be a really great budget hotel. But due to these things we cancelled our next visit. Prior to this we had stayed in L’Estencia which was much nicer but full on this occasion – hence the stay at The Aldbrook.

We really enjoyed our stay. Staff was very friendly.
The only drawback was that when we settled the bill in the evening, there was nobody around that spoke english.

We stayed here mainly because of its close proximity to the domestic Albrook airport and because our Lonely planet gave it a good review.

First they arranged to have a driver pick us up at the airport--something we were willing to pay extra for just to have the convenience--the driver didn't showed up and we were waiting for an hour after arriving--we should have just taken our own cab but we were feeling discombobulated after our long trip, that was stupidity on our part. Finally the airport staff took pity on us and phoned up the staff at the hotel who sent the driver.

Our flight arrived quite a few hours before check-in time of 3pm and we could hang out in their restaurant. The restaurant was wonderful and the restaurant staff were really nice. However we had 3 hours of waiting there and because the neighborhood is residential there is *nothing* around nearby to explore so we were stuck there waiting. In my experience every other hotel that I have arrived at early has allowed me to check in early as long as the room was ready. In this case even though all the rooms were ready (we watched the maid going around and preparing all the rooms) we were made to wait for an extra 2 hours until 3pm--this is just bad customer service.

Finally when we got to our room--number 117-- it was on the ground floor behind the staff quarters and kitchen, completely small and dingy with one tiny high window--as a result it had a really musty smell--definitely NOT worth the wait or the price.

We were tired and wated to take a nap--however there was someone in the back, right in front of our room fixing something with what sounded like a jackhammer.

Finally I will say that there is no reason to stay close to Albrook airport--most domestic flights to San Blas or Boca leave really early in the morning at a time when there is no traffic around and it would take you hardly any time to get to Albrook airport no matter where in Panama city you were staying! Too bad the Lonely planet is full of bad advice.