Palmar Beach Lodge

Loved my stay here. Beautiful location right on the beach, the dorm was spacious and beds so comfy with double ensuite. Activities held every night and the staff/ volunteers were so friendly. Would definitely recommend!

Not sure where to start! First, there is construction work in the hotel and it makes the experience terrible. From 9am to 6pm, very loud noise at the bar and on the beach so impossible to relax or read a book without hearing jackhammer and saw cuts. Even if they offered a 30% discount for construction noise, this is totally unbearable if you’re looking to relax. Second, we faced a very poor service. Among the employees, hardly any gave us a smile during our stay. Reception is ok but at the restaurant, the experience is terrible (we had breakfast, lunches and dinners). Staff look like they are punished or forced to work. After 2 weeks in Panama, we had never seen that. There is a total problem of management. Finally, we couldn’t find beach chairs as they were all used (some with just a towel on it and nobody came back). We asked some help to the person at the beach bar who told us he would help us and finally didn’t do anything. Chairs were used mostly by afternoon visitors outside of the hotel. The worst thing is that the hotel asked for feedback after the first night. We had the elegance to share our experience to avoid writing anything bad on tripadvisor. While they asked for feedback on whatsapp and we gave them, we didn’t receive any apologies or any words from them until we were leaving the hotel at the last minute when they offered us a 30% discount on our extras. At the end of the day, you should totally avoid this hotel. This is one of the worst service I’ve ever received anywhere. Don’t waste your money. This is a mix of backpackers (dorms) and hotel, but the service is not even close to an average backpackers place.

The experience could have been good because the beach is very beautiful, and the wildlife and flora around the hotel are stunning. However, beyond the unbearable noise from the construction work, the quality of service at the hotel is atrocious. The staff is completely untrained. It seems that the manager, Rene Saturnino, is more interested in “revenue generation” than in “hospitality”. Making more money is clearly one of his objectives. Providing even the bare minimum of good customer service is clearly not. The level of service isn’t even up to the standards of a one-star hotel. The employees look like they are doing forced labor. No one seems happy, and it shows through the service. In the end, it makes the experience horrible, and it really ruined my stay. I really wish they would put as much effort into training their staff—teaching them to smile—as they do into their WhatsApp group, where they mostly suggest (paid) activities to do. In any case, I strongly recommend avoiding this hotel, which is completely mismanaged. Run away!