We couldn’t decide what title to give our review: here are some of our alternative options:
-THEY HATE TOURISTS
-NOBODY SHOULD GO TO CASA CORCOVADO UNLESS MANAGEMENT & STAFF CHANGE
-THERE IS DEFINITELY NO PURA VIDA HERE!
-TRAPPED AT CASA CORCOVADO FOR 3 DAYS AT THE MERCY OF THE TERRIBLE STAFF.
-NEITHER ECO NOR DELUXE
We arrived at Casa Corcovado and went to our room around 2:30 pm. Our “Deluxe Honeymoon Suite” we paid for was surprisingly small and crowded. When trying to take a shower, we realized that the shower was only a drizzle in addition to the shower handle nearly falling out of the wall and the hard swinging shower doors – saloon style – were slamming us into the wall while trying to enter the shower (see other Tripadvisor reviews: we are not the first to be bothered by this). Upon requesting a bigger room, Carlos, the manager, showed us Room 3 and we agreed to switch once the room was made up (it was in serious disarray with armies of ants devouring some corpse on the floor). To allow housekeeping time to clean up we went on a hike. Upon return and in desperate need for a shower after a day on the road, on the water, and in the jungle in 75% humidity, we realized a strong chemical smell in our new room. When we inquired about this with Carlos he confirmed that it had been recently painted. I do not understand why he referred us to this room in the first place given this condition. To breathe these fumes would have made us sick; so we asked Carlos if he had another room available. He hesitated, looked with a frown for several minutes through his books (although we had earlier been told that we and another couple were the only guests for 14 rooms). Finally, after some back and forth we were moved to room 7 and were told that our luggage would be brought. Without luggage we couldn’t do anything; so we watched the sunset; took another hike; checked back with the room several times to see if our luggage had arrived; checked back with Carlos several times to let him know that the luggage had not been moved yet; checked back and forth again while trying to keep ourselves occupied – but the luggage never arrived. Carlos, who sat in his office playing computer games, only shrugged and kept telling us that ‘someone’ was on the way – for hours. Around 7 pm, we were getting upset. It was dark; we were hungry; and we were muddy from the hikes, soaked in sweat, and our wet clothes sticking to our body. Carlos again told us our luggage would arrive shortly and to just go ahead and shower for dinner. We showered – but there was still no luggage and we had no clothes. So around 8 pm, we walked back to Carlos, who was still staring into his computer, and he told us again that ‘someone’ would bring the luggage. At that point I told him that apparently none of his staff was following any of his directions and asked him to bring the luggage to our room himself. He finally got up to get the luggage. But apparently, without any of the help of the many staff on the property, it took him a while. Around 8:30 pm, a guide, Jacob, showed up at our room (which still had no luggage), because we had missed the orientation for the next day’s events at dinner (and the dinner we paid for too) to tell us that we needed to be ready for our Cano Island excursion at 7:30 am the next morning and that it was very important that we are punctual. We told him that we were very upset about the luggage situation and that we did not have any clothes to go to dinner with or to go to the next day’s trip. He then told us that he was sorry we had been moved initially to the freshly painted room; that the manager in San Jose knew that the room should not have been assigned to anyone; and that we should only talk to the guides, not to Carlos, because he was incompetent. We chatted for about 15 minutes. There was still no luggage. Jacob also kept repeating that ‘someone’ would bring it; but that there was nothing he could do. At that point, my wife asked him “Why can’t you get the luggage; you’ve been standing here for 15 minutes talking.” Jacob was appalled at the suggestion that HE should get the luggage – it is apparently beneath his dignity as a guide to do any such work. He kept saying that there was nothing he could do and that we must be on time in the morning. My wife told him that we could hardly go naked the next day and told him to get our luggage. Jacob then said “If you talk like that to me, I’ll go back to my room.” AND SO HE DID! After Carlos eventually brought the luggage we saw Jacob sitting in the employee lounge with his feet up watching TV.
It is clear that the current staff and management at Casa Corcovado could not care less about their guests. We learned that there is a high turnover rate and clearly inadequate training. There is lots of staff. Each seems to be assigned a particular task at a certain time – and beyond that they do absolutely nothing. However, you can always see staff lazily lounging around, chatting, sitting in the shade, watching TV. While they chat incessantly with each other, they fall silent the moment they see a tourist. The guy in the bar, Daniel, sits for hours in the bar – with no guests around - pouring his fellow workers drinks. However, when we came in he did not even say “hola” but just coldly stared at us. When we asked for a beer he slammed the beer silently in front of us then turned his back on us. That is depressing! When we came to breakfast or dinner, no one greeted us, no one asked what we want to drink – the staff just put the food in front of the guests and then disappear into the kitchen to chat some more. They served dinner while we are not even yet at the table. We were told dinner is from 7 – 8 pm. We arrived around 7:30 pm; by that time our food had been sitting on the table since 7 pm. It seems the staff can’t be bothered to serve the food when the guests are actually present. As guests, we feel we are in a hostile environment where the staff does only the most routine basic tasks but otherwise do not want to be bothered by the guests. While they have lots of time to socialize and rest they pay no attention to the guests. If a guest dares to bother them with a request they look impatient and irritated and are sure not to waste one second too many with the guests. Another observation is that when one makes a request, a frequent response is that one worker tells another worker what we want (although both are just standing around) rather than doing the task themselves.
As a guest one feels one is at the complete mercy of the staff. It is the guests’ obligation to work according to the staff’s routine or get zero service. For example, on the third day we were supposed to do our peninsula hike but we did not know when we should be ready in the morning. At the prior evening’s dinner no one knew. The next morning we assembled with another 4 guests for the tour but were told by the guide that we were with another tour but we couldn’t find our tour guide. We wandered around for a little then approached two guys who had been watching us from a distance. It turns out, that one of them was our tour guide Johann. He said that he had been at dinner at 7 pm the night prior to tell us the plan for the next day but since we weren’t there that that it was our problem. In other words, for about 20 minutes he sat there with another worker chatting, while watching us wandering around trying to find him.
We were on vacation! We have never been forced in any hotel to appear at only one particular time for dinner. There was no reason to show up at the Casa Corcovado with the strike of the clock at 7 pm to convenience the staff. The dinner was a dismal experience: bad food, lousy service, and a graveyard atmosphere. The dour attitude of the staff cowers the guests into silence and they speak only in hushed tones. Any funeral dinner would be livelier. Our guide told us that guests frequently complain about the bad service, especially that no one ever had to say anything good about Daniel who worked the bar and restaurant.
There is definitely no pura vida here! It is a depressing, distressing, and demoralizing atmosphere, notwithstanding the beautiful location and grounds. We couldn’t wait to get out of there. It seems that the staff resents being in the hospitality business and feels that it is an imposition to have to serve guests.
And while we are providing feedback, there are a few additional things management should know - we know we don’t need to bother Carlos or anyone else at Casa Corcovado with our feedback. He is playing on his computer again.
The food is bad. First day deep fried frozen tilapia with mayonnaise and iceberg lettuce. Who eats that these days? Our guide told us some long story why it is not possible on the peninsula to get fresh fish from the surrounding ocean: that would be too much work – somebody would actually need to catch the fish and deliver it. Bringing in frozen tilapia is easier. For our Cano Island picnic we were served Vegetable lasagna – which sounds delicious but was disgusting – an undefinable mush of overcooked squash thickly layered with cold processed yellow Kraft cheese slices. Processed cheese must be very popular with the staff; there were additional stacks of plastic wrapped slices offered for lunch each day. There were also for the sunset snack plantains covered with processed cheese slices. Interestingly, very few of the guests touch them – so they go back to the kitchen where apparently someone else enjoys them more. Management and the kitchen clearly need some training in providing healthy and tasty meals. So little of the food served was edible that we started eating our own snacks that we typically bring along in case we are delayed on a long hike: some nuts and raisins and a few protein bars. Normally, we toss these extra provisions out on the last day of the trip because we didn’t need them. This time, we ate the melted protein bars to not go hungry. On Costa Rica roadsides we get fresh fish, fresh vegetable, and fresh fruit every few kilometers – why not in a “Luxury Lodge”? If tons of processed junk food and canned food can be shipped in, why not some local produce and fresh fish? Casa Corcovado is neither eco nor luxury.
The water that comes out of our bathroom faucet was brown (see photo) and looks like a serious safety risk. In addition, the water pressure in the showers we tried was poor – some poorer than others. This can’t be due to lack of water. The peninsula has huge amounts of fresh water. Instead of showering in the brown water, we ended up showering on two of the days outside in the torrential tropical rainstorms that started every day around 3-4 pm and lasted till morning (bring a good book to read for those times).
The roof of our cabin leaked in three spots; worked around that not wanting to risk another room change.
We arrived at Casa Corcovado happy and relaxed looking forward to more positive experiences in Costa Rica. What we found was an extremely stressful situation that was oppressive the entire time. We tried right on the first evening to contact our tour company to get out of there, but were told that the internet and phones are down and that Carlos had no idea when they would be up again. We were basically trapped there for 3 days like prisoners at the mercy of the terrible staff.
Let us state it very clearly: we have in 40 years of extensive travel through 5 continents and many jungles and jungle lodges never seen anywhere worse service, more macho arrogance, less respect for guests, and more stupefying laziness. Eco is not an excuse for bad service. This is not eco tourism but eco terrorism.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
