Overall, we were very happy with this rental. We were traveling with 4 kids: one college age, one teen, plus ten and eight year olds. The building is pretty nice, very safe area with excellent security, and we felt it was a good value for the price, so overall we’re giving it 5 stars.
The door wouldn’t unlock when we arrived, which was annoying to be stuck out in the heat for a while after a long day of traveling, but as soon as Tony was aware of the problem, he promptly fixed the code (VRBO was also responsive and contacted him and would have set up alternative accommodations if he hadn’t responded so quickly).
Wifi was easy to use and pretty good.
If you’re used to American amenities, there are a few things to be aware of: water pressure in showers is low, toilets are a bit tricky—our kids constantly had trouble flushing and my husband had to take the back off to jiggle with it (and we've stayed in Central America before so they know not to put toilet paper in the toilets--they just struggled with the button mechanism).
Linens are not as nice as they look in the photos (pillows are lumpy and most didn't have pillow cases, only zipper covers). Fewer beds are present than it says (one king, one double, two twins--no sofa bed; kids were disappointed they had to share). Towels are super minimal—only 6 towels for 6 people, no hand towels, no wash cloths, no kitchen towels. None of these were huge deals for us, but they are minor issues that we wanted to report so that others know what to expect.
AC itself works great (better than the AC at the fancy resort hotel where we also spent a few days.) Each room has its own AC unit, but they're controlled by remotes and only one worked; that stopped working 3 days into our trip, so the units were stuck at a single temp from then--we'd prefer warmer day and cooler night temps and it got stuck on our "night" settings, but it wasn't a huge deal.
Our kids loved the lagoon! It is as nice as it looks in the photos and very well maintained—bring or buy some pool floats and water toys! Walmart is a 10 min walk or shorter drive, so easy to pick up water, snacks and drinks. We ate at a bunch of great local restaurants on or just off of Avenida 135–generally a 10 to 20 min walk. We didn’t rent a car, so we walked to lots of places. Uber is super affordable here and we also used that (not an option near the airport or busy tourist areas with taxi stands, but worked well for us once in the city).
