TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Not recommended. Billed - and priced - as a top-line luxury resort, this property is unable to provide working keys, hot water, or basic housekeeping, much less any sort of hospitality or guest considerations. We were there with a group, staying in both the hotel and the villas. Our folks are veteran world travelers. We understand the wrinkles and bumps in the road. The issues with this hotel, however, go far beyond a few minor kinks. To start, on the day of check-in, our group’s carefully-planned room and villa assignments were randomly switched around by a manager with no explanation, causing chaos among the group, who paid for and expected specific room types and locations. I have worked in hotels and have had to move guests based on maintenance issues, etc., but always with clear explanations given to the group leader or individual guest. Our simple check-in experience became a four-hour ordeal. Another major issue was the lack of hot water - either sporadic or none at all for days - in at least several rooms and villas occupied by our group, including ours in the Azura hotel.. We travel a lot, and the lack of this basic service at an upscale, Western-style hotel like this is unacceptable for one day, much less multiple days, especially without any explanation or apology from management. Complaints were ignored, or met with blatant lies – “Someone will be right up to fix it.” Ours was out for 2 days, on for a bit, then out again, then on. A bellman was sent up with me who felt the tepid water and told me it was hot. A desk clerk told me to run it longer - is 20 minutes enough? One family in our group didn’t get hot water in their unit for a week – they finally got a maintenance person there and it took just a few minutes to make the actual repair. Management didn't care - no "I'm sorry." When I was making one of my many pleas, the woman at the desk haughtily told me "I have a room in the hotel and I have hot water," and then turned away to end the conversation. Room keys randomly stop working - for us as many as 2 to 3 times a day, (ditto for others in our group) and no, we are veteran travelers and do not keep key cards next to our cell phones. Each time this happens one must trek back to the front desk, stand in line (long because there is only one clerk on duty) , and get another key. Is this how you want to spend your precious vacation time? Power losses were frequent, and while that may be a larger grid issue, if it were my hotel and had guests getting stuck in elevators or have a villa out of power for a whole day, I would get generators. Sloppy infrastructure all around: door locks were broken upon arrival, in-room telephones rang to nowhere, light bulbs out, an electric blind fell out of the ceiling in a colleague's room, complete with showers of sparks, while in our son's villa, the door to the beach didn't work, which required an inconvenient detour. One of the swim-up rooms had old band aids stuck to the AC unit. There are no towels available at the Azura pool; you have to bring them from your room. Maid staff was too short-handed: we had to fight every day to get our room made up, and then there were no or insufficient towels, no coffee replenishment, no new glasses, requiring even more trips to the front desk. All tours and activities are routed through Guest Services, but there is only one person staffing the desk and the waits are endless. The phones don’t work so you have to do it in person. restaurant reservations are required for every dinner restaurant on the Azura side, but since the in-room phones don't work, this must be done at the front desk - another chunk of time standing in line. Some restaurant staff were delightful but others downright rude: refusing to seat people who had a reservation (with several empty tables available) because she was working off an outdated PAPER list.. On the positive side, the food was fine, the pools clean, and the ocean access terrific. On a more philosophical level, the place was an anathema to the whole Costa Rican philosophy of environmental sensitivity. No recycling, single use plastic for food service, and yes, they are still using the little single use plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner. And what’s the use of having a tub on your balcony if there are no privacy screens? The property’s location and basic architecture are gorgeous, which were overshadowed by the terrible service and maintenance. At these prices, one shouldn't have to spend every day of vacation fighting for the basics: working room keys, fresh towels, and HOT WATER. From our conversations with other guests and staff, this is not a unique situation – it has been going on for some time. I waited a week to write this to make sure I was cooled down enough to offer a thoughtful review. I rely on Trip Adviser comments and hope that readers find this useful.

The staff were very friendly and accommodating and the food was much better than we had expected. There are currently 3 a la carte restaurants for dinner and they are all very good. The only minor complaint is that dinner service can be a little slow. It is a small resort with only 75 rooms so you get to know people very quickly. The resort is very clean and staff are constantly ensuring it remains that way. This one one of the best vacations we have had in years! I definitely plan on returning.

Staff if very friendly and resort is beautiful. Service is extremely slow. Multiple times I’ve had to repeat myself for simple things to be done such as a clog in my toilet. Certain foods are good while others not so much. And this resort if advertised as adults only , this is not the case as the only place I haven’t seen a kid was in the restaurants. I was not too fond of this place honestly. My room electricity also kept shutting on and off every night . One housekeeping cleaned my room but provided no towels or paper towels. It’s too many things that need to be fixed in a resort that claimed to be luxury .

Ashley at Chill n Grill is truly exceptional and deserves special recognition. She works incredibly long days and nights, yet every single time she greets guests with a big, genuinely gorgeous smile that never feels forced. Even when her feet are clearly sore and the pace is nonstop, her energy, warmth, and professionalism never drop. She moves quickly and carefully, effortlessly covering all her duties while still making each guest feel seen and valued. Her attention to detail, positive attitude, and calm efficiency stand out in a way that is rare, especially in a busy resort environment. Ashley embodies what outstanding hospitality looks like. She is one of the best service professionals I have ever encountered anywhere, and she is a huge reason Chill n Grill, and Azura Beach Resort as a whole, feels so welcoming and memorable. Ashley, de Chill n Grill, es verdaderamente excepcional y merece un reconocimiento especial. Trabaja jornadas larguísimas, tanto de día como de noche, y aun así, siempre recibe a los clientes con una sonrisa grande y sincera que nunca parece forzada. Incluso cuando se nota que está cansada y el ritmo es frenético, su energía, calidez y profesionalismo nunca decaen. Se mueve con rapidez y cuidado, cumpliendo con todas sus tareas sin esfuerzo, y logrando que cada cliente se sienta atendido y valorado. Su atención al detalle, su actitud positiva y su eficiencia serena destacan de una manera poco común, especialmente en un entorno tan ajetreado como el de un resort. Ashley personifica la excelencia en la hospitalidad. Es una de las mejores profesionales de servicio que he conocido, y es una de las principales razones por las que Chill n Grill, y Azura Beach Resort en general, resultan tan acogedores y memorables.

Our reservation included transportation to and from the resort to the airport. We were not picked up at the airport as promised until 2.5 hours late. We could not reach anyone at the WhatsApp number the resort provided for customer service. On the way back we did get picked up at the correct time, but the van had hot air blowing the entire time and we were sweltering for over two hours. Our rooms were dirty. There were an inadequate number of towels. Beach towels were unavailable all day "in the dryer" and we only had washcloths and hand towels days 1 and 2. The staff was overworked, insufficient, and looked miserable to see us. You had to stand in line every day to make your dinner reservation for the night. Once you got to dinner, it could take up to 1 hour just to get water poured at the table. The food was mostly poor. The pool area had multiple lounge chairs without cushions, people "claimed" a lounge chair and then didn't sit in it for hours, there was one bartender for the pool bar, which ran out of glasses frequently. The beach was fairly dirty, you had to wade through seagrass and what felt like acorns before you got to sand. Definitely not one of the top beaches for that area of Costa Rica. I could go on and on. It was not a good experience to say the least. Don't let the pretty pictures of the resort fool you. The outside is pretty, but everything else is subpar.