Very nice room and fresh breakfast! Location is perfect, right on the end of Avenue Central plaza. Quick walk to shops, parks and Gold Museum. Staff was super helpful with bags, directions and taxi to airport. Highly recommend and will stay here again if I'm ever in San Jose.

I stayed at the Balmoral Hotel for 1 night in February 2023; I stayed with my husband and my mother in-law. We reserved the Belford Suite.

We arrived to the hotel a couple of hours before check-in, and sat in the lobby until it was time to check in. The hotel lobby area and adjacent seating areas were pretty tired looking. The seating was comfortable, but definitely worn. When it was time to check in, we approached the desk and were told that our room had not been cleaned yet, and so we would need to wait another 30 minutes. So, we sat and waited (~45 mins, to be safe) before approaching the desk again. Again, we were told that our room had not yet been cleaned, and it would be "another 30 minutes." We were irritated, but waited another 30 minutes. We approached again, only to be told that the room was still not available, since the previous tenant had locked their belongings into the safe and they weren't sure when it would be available. So, they offered us the choice of another suite OR the original room with the understanding that we wouldn't be able to use the safe. We opted for a different suite and were told that most of them were "not yet clean." This was at nearly 4 pm. Eventually, we were able to get checked in to another suite. None of the three keys worked in the door. It took three separate trips to the front desk before housekeeping let us in the room with the master key. Then, we were not able to leave until maintenance had arrived to reset the door locks and re-key our room cards. It was not a good start to our stay.

Our suite did what it needed to: provided us a place to sleep for the night. But it did not feel like good value for the money we paid. The rooms were pretty spartan and felt like a dormitory bedroom. The ceiling in our room had a weird black stain on it, the room smelled overwhelmingly musty, and the mattress definitely needed to be replaced (coming apart at the seams). The beds were incredibly hard, and both my husband and I woke up very sore in the morning. Somewhat ironically, one of the safes in our room did not work (would not close and lock).

The restaurant, El Patio, was...not great (will be reviewed separately). The area the hotel is located in is convenient for some of the museums, but is kind of seedy. It's safe enough to walk in the daytime, but none of us felt comfortable going out after dark. There is a shopping area on the ground level that was, at one time, probably nice, but is now completely shuttered (probably a victim of Covid).

Overall, we were pretty disappointed in our stay; it was definitely the only low point we had during our travels in this beautiful country. Everything in the hotel felt very dated, worn, and tired. It's clear that perhaps it was once a very nice facility, but in its current state, it's hard to recommend it as a place to stay.

Great location in the pedestrian area of central San Jose, close to all the key historic and cultural attractions and an excellent base for exploring this historic capital city. The Balmoral staff was very friendly and helpful, and the room was quite large, clean and had a full fridge and microwave plus lots of storage space An enclosed balcony overlooking the pedestrian street was a nice surprise, The restaurant was a large airy facility with a brick oven pizza area, a nice cafe and wine cellar with an open air dining area. Food was great both in variety and quality, at a reasonable price, with friendly staff. We truly enjoyed our 6 nights at the Balmoral