Hotel Punta Franca

Wish the hotel restaurant was on Trip Advisor. I have never stayed at the hotel. The restaurant is excellent. Chef Jose does an amazing job. Very personable chef who is hands on and he is passionate. Three different fish choices tonight. Panamanian flavor. Service is excellent. Restaurant setting is so romantic at sun set. Very special spot.

I booked this hotel just outside of Pedasi and found a great experience. There are some shortcomings, such as the access road, no fridge, no coffee pot or kettle in the room. But a great restaurant on site, albeit very limited in menu. Breakfast is included every day, The chef José is amazing and we always feel we get a great meal. They have two pools, which they need to clean better, but are great anyways. The hotel is located approximately 30 meters above the ocean but there is walk way or road that accesses the beach. The walk to the beach is not far and the Pacific Ocean has a tide swing of 2.3 meters, locals are fishing successfully in the surf at low tide, with a Rapala and two treble hooks, no bait. Everyone says no license is required and the hotel would more than likely cook the fish for you and everyone else if it is big enough. Very relaxed, it is Panama. Not a lot of English spoken, but they are awesome people. Weather very consistent, sunny and hot with a strong breeze every day +30C day and +26C nights, rooms are air conditioned. Beautiful property, currently doing some reno's but awesome anyways.

PROs- -very well maintained hotel for Pedasi -EXCELLENT and friendly service from Kelly in the restaurant and Gualdo at Front Desk. They really care about their customers! -comfortable room and very good air conditioner which does not smell -well kept grounds and landscaping -beautiful outdoor seating in the restaurant -views are spectacular -nice towels for both shower and pool area -reasonable prices CONS -we did not have hot water on the second day -the pool was GREEN so we could not use it -checkin and checkout way too slow and unnecessary paperwork -suggest on the breakfast to have nice rolls from local bakery vs plain stale white bread -improve the coffee... tasteless and watered down -only provided very small soap in the room..no shampoo/conditioner -need to put cushions on the outdoor chairs. Ours had nails sticking out so difficult to sit ... -difficult road to reach- full of holes and ditches so be careful Highly recommend this beautiful placeQQQ

It is rare I review a property prior to leaving. However, this one deserves special mention. I made a short notice booking, so the staff did not have me in their notebook. No problem it was short notice. No one spoke English, again no problem because it is Panama and I should speak Spanish. Using a translation program and a few words in Spanish I was able to communicate that I had a reservation. They called someone (presumably the owner/manager) who apparently also did not know anything about my reservation. I downloaded a copy of my reservation. They read it to the person on the phone then assured me it was okay. Then I waited over 15 minutes while they looked for the room key. A total of three different people looked in the office and elsewhere. I counted about 12 other rooms that were available (keys hanging on the rack) but they had me wait while they searched for a particular one. Eventually they returned with the lost key. Room was clean, acceptable size, nice view. However, it was dated and poorly maintained. Bathroom amenities consisted of two bars of soap. No shampoo, no conditioner, no shower gel. No hair dryer, or other amenities. First issue was the toilet did not flush. I fixed it myself. Bathroom fixtures are old so issues are to be expected, but they should make sure the toilet flushes before the guest arrives. Next issue: Air conditioning does not work. I took two trips in the rain to the bar (only place I could find staff) to deal with this issue, because they would not believe me that the remote was working. I took the remote so they could see it was working. However, they insisted on changing the batteries to the remote and sending me back to the room to test it. Like I told them this did not fix the issue so someone came to to the room and managed to get the unit to work (somewhat - we could turn it on and off, but thermostat would not control unit properly.) Last issue (so far) is no hot water. I got about 90 seconds of hot water in the shower. Tried in the evening and in the morning - same result. Went to discuss the issue with staff, but no one available to speak with at 6:00 am. On the plus side of things the location is beautiful, the food was okay and in my room the internet/WiFi worked. Overall it was an extremely disappointing stay. They are not charging hostel rates but I feel like I am staying at a hostel. I could stay another day, but will not. I do not recommend this property.

I understand how COVID continues to impact our world especially the service industries. I write with that in mind. I am always more fairer to the hotel or restaurant but more so now than ever. With that said, this place has stunning views of Pacific Ocean, flowers, just the overall set up. We are there all meals but one that we tried out chicken place in town. Food was good. It was cooked fresh so it takes time. I worked in restaurant business before. All in all good. Pools. 2 of them. Terrible shape. The water was not circulating. Not clear at all. If at least one pool rocked then I could say they are rebounding from COVID. The pool deck area was not cleaned at least daily. This was my biggest disappointment. This place is a gem. Is it in the wrong management hands? Not enough supervision for the employees? Air conditioning was awesome! Quaint room. Outdated furniture. But, there is some charm here. I can only hope the owner(s) invest some money to get good people in to turn this place around. Value for money spent is not there at this time.

Looked great in photos and reviews but not so much. One pool not serviceable, food was bland and fries were cold. Drinks were decent. View was pretty. That’s about all the positive things to say. We left airpods by accident and reached out to hotel but honestly, don’t think they had any interest to work with us. Tried to contact the hotel but no English spoken. Finally it was relayed to us they mailed them. We never received them and when inquiring where they were, we were ignored. Been a week and they are still there. Poor customer service and last thing, they began working at 8am to do work on an empty room next to us. Drilling and what not. While us all up and not happy at all. Won’t go back there. Not worth the money