www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I travel to San Jose 2 or 3 times a year and this was my first stay at the Hotel Mona Lisa. I was there for 12 days and just loved it. The room was big, clean, had a large flat screen TV, internet, nice washroom and the beds were comfortable which is important to me as I have a bad back.I found the restaurant food good , average price for San Jose and the service quick and friendly.The staff were were friendly and always helpfull with a smile . I will be staying there again in February and with our CRT discount makes this a good deal. I`ve read a few guys complain about the Mona Lisa but then again some guys expect to much at his price. IMHO

I posted in another section about a problem I had at the ML. I liked the hotel and wish I could stay there again, but I will never go back. Like you, I enjoyed the room and the workers and for the most part, they were great. After confirming the room # that I wanted one week before my stay, I arrived to Helmuth telling me the room was taken for the next month. Ok..no problem, so they gave me a different room. As I'm walking to the elevator, I hear Helmuth announce my room number over the intercom...kinda weird, but I just carried on. Next, I get to my room and unpack all my shit in the drawers etc. After about 30 minutes, I finish and go to brush my teeth...now is where it gets creepy. As I'm brushing my teeth, I hear a noise above my head (It's around 2pm at this time). As I look up, (the ceiling is a drop-down ceiling) I see the phucking ceiling being pulled up about 4 phucking inches. WTF??? I step back and try to figure out what the Phuck it is. I take 2 steps into the walkway outside the bathroom and ANOTHER phucking ceiling section lifts up about 5 inches...WTF??? I call Helmuth and he sends up security. While I'm waiting, I go back in the bathroom and the mother Phucker gets lifted up again!!!!!. Security arrives and tells me it's a phucking CAT.....lol. Obviously when I leave my room, I take all my money and valuables with me. Well, when I come back 3 hours later, I go to open my safe and the phucking number doesn't work. I call the office and they send up a guy with a key to open it. I ask him why it didn't work and he tells me he don't know. Well, when someone opens it with a key, it resets the system and you have to code it all over again. Someone obviously opened that safe when I left only to be disappointed. I carried all my shit with me the rest of my trip. Other than that, I love the hotel.

Hotel safes aint all that safe. I had a situation at Veneto in Panama. I was out a couple of bills. I couldn't prove anything, so I had to to basically take it. I think its safer to leave it in a locked suitcase.

I agree with Joker. I've stayed at the Mona Lisa three times. It is one of the few American style hotels in the gulch. Large rooms. Chica friendly. Helpful staff. Quiet. And a bargain with the CRT discount.

Yatzie, sounds like the weird shit that goes on there.

I agree 100%....I wish this bullshit wouldn't have happened. I love everything about the hotel and wish I could make myself stay there. They have some shady tico's there right now from what I was told by a local. I hope they get it straightened out, because I would love to stay there again. I just can't see carrying all my shit me again for the entire trip. only other option is locking it up in the casino safe. I do like the idea of locking it up in your luggage....I'm just not sure how relaxed I would be if I left for several hours. That shit that happened to me was phucked up....I was on the 4th floor originally, so I'm assuming it's similar to an attic up above the rooms. I told them there was no way I was staying on that floor, so I moved down to the 3rd floor. Had a deluxe room and it was nice. When I went downstairs and talked to Helmuth about what happened, he phucking looked at me like I was crazy. After that, he never brought it up the rest of my trip. He didn't even ask me if I was satisfied or If I had any other problems. That's a shady mother Phucker if you ask me. Just my opinion, but some others that were on the property felt the same way.

Zunbake3.....I read all the other reviews about the place, but still gave it a chance. I wouldn't believe what happened to me if I wouldn't have seen it. It was phucked up...I'm brushing my teeth and look up and somebody's phucking looking at me through the ceiling. It was nuts. Then, I had to pack my shit up that I just phucking unpacked...and NOBODY helped me move my shit. It took me another phucking hour to move all my shit down to the 3rd floor. It pisses me off just thinking about it.

I just wanna say that this was my experience. I don't want to scare people from staying here because I actually like the hotel. I liked the guys working the door, the bartenders and the restaurant people. Guy helped me as much as he can, but his hands are tied. Just be careful and watch your shit. Having your shit taken out of a safe would ruin your vacation in an instant. It's just sad because it's probably only a few bad apples that need to be fired. When discussing my situation with the bartenders, they just stood there and shook their heads....they know some people there are phucked up.

Yatzie, you don't have to defend yourself. BTW, me and Guy Grand go back to the Dunn Inn days and are old friends, I know he hates me these days for being critical of the ML but I have to call it as I see it. Guy is the only good thing about the ML but you are right he has no control over the bullshit. I wish Guy will one day score a better gig. Sorry Guy, but I only stayed at the ML because of you. The service sucks, the beds are hard as rocks and Scubabum's experience of as few months ago could scare anyone away!

One story like Scubabums's maybe you can justify writing it off to shit happens and not pay attention. Two stories and its pretty clear something is seriously wrong with this place.
Never lost one thing or heard anyone say something shady like this happened at SL or LA in all the years i have been coming to CR.
This story is one of the most bizarre i've ever heard.
Way too creepy to be made up.

_________________
im way deep into nothing special
riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood

Just telling my story and how it happened. I wouldn't even believe it if it didn't happen to me. Everyone can make their own judgment. Checked in around 2pm and didn't even have a drink yet. The phucked up part is that AFTER I switched rooms to the 3rd floor and moved all my shit to a different room, I programmed my safe with my 4-digit number. I go downstairs for about 3 hours and the mother fuckers opened my safe as soon as I left. As I said before, my 4-digit code was not working when I came back, so I called the front desk. They had to come and open it with a key. The only way that safe resets is if someone opens it with a phucking key. They wanted my shit bad. The other part of the story that I got to thinking about is when I checked in, they told me that the room I requested wasn't available. Now, was that because they didn't have access through the ceiling in that room? Who knows? When they told me my room wasn't available at check in, they gave me a choice of 2 other rooms. I'm assuming those were the rooms that they could phucking come through the ceiling.

Yatzie, thank you for posting about your experience at the ML. Candid reviews such as yours help prevent other board members from having a really miserable experience. Several other long time board members, Scubabum and Orange, have also posted about big problems with their in room safe's. To me that's a deal breaker because I wont stay in a place that I can not store my wallet, passport and cash. Prior to Scuba's and Orange's reviews I was thinking abut giving the place a try but there is no way I would take that kind of gamble.

When the mona lisa was really after the crt members ( when the last remodel opened) guy was on here posting and answering questions .......lets see if he tries to make some sense of this mess....
I wrote a review of my stay.....reads like most but again had bullshit go down as I was leaving after a full checkout ,,,, the thug ticos follow me out to my taxi using their headsets asking front desk if I paid ....I told them to Phuck off.....

Looks like they targeted Yahzie from the time he checked in. $50 a night is a great rate but it seems like it's better to pay $30 more to stay at SL or LA where you know your cash won't be stolen.

Excellent point Hank, totally agree. until the ML resolves its issues, if you can afford the extra money, you are much safer and better off at the Amistad, SL, Dunn Inn etc!