What People are saying
Clean, central budget hotel - will definitely recommend!
havfruen72 on 01/07/2016 19:41
Basic room w/ comfy bed, lovely big shower, air conditioning, TV & wifi. Everything worked, staff friendly and helpful, centrally located close to Avenida Balboa and Avenida Central. Metro station right around the corner, both supermarket and casino across the street, restaurant next door, bakery on the corner. The neighborhood is not upmarket, but I felt safe walking there during the daytime and walked through the street markets on Avenida Central down to Casco Antiguo often. (At night taking a taxi is always best when you don't know the area.) This hotel is definitely good value for money. I recommend, and will return!
HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE
ivy292 on 24/02/2016 19:51
Extremely horrible experience with this hotel. The bed linens were stained, had hair all over, and smelled like it hasn't been changed. There were a million bugs, bed bugs, and huge cockroaches in the rooms, all over the floors, crawling on the beds, and on the walls. There was leftover food underneath the dresser so that attracted all the bugs possible. Bugs got into my luggages and bags because I didn't know there would be so many bugs. The A/C did not even work properly and I couldn't adjust it so I ended up being really cold in the room. They also do not have good wifi, and you have to bring all your luggages up yourself. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. Save your money, time, and sanity and go elsewhere!!
Stay away, worst place ever
Dianalee_13 on 15/07/2015 03:52
Where to begin, the hotel is dirty and even the taxi driver was telling us that it's located in an awful neighborhood. We saw the rooms and immediately left the hotel (more to a motel in my opinion). I was horrified with the room and how dirty the bathrooms were. Here are photos for all to see. Stay away, not worth a cent of your money.
Basic Accommodations
cullen736 on 16/06/2015 06:11
Hotel Benidorm is conveniently located close to ...everything. There's a supermarket across the street, a casino, street food, fruit vendors, other hotels, restaurants, a laundry mat just a few blocks away, bank machines and even a police station at the end of the block.
I spent 7 nights there. The hotel itself isn't impressive to look at and could do with a facelift but the rooms are clean, strong hot and cold showers and working older a/c, and reliable wifi. The old TV in my room was abysmal as it was all static and noise, with not many channel choices. They are quite particular with their TV remotes and seem to think you will steal it on checkout (ran behind my taxi just to ask where I'd left the remote, ah mean...really?!!). The telephone also had faulty wiring and wiggling it enabled you to (sometimes) hear your caller. I reported the TV and the phone to the receptionist who sent a boy up to literally look at the devices, wiggle the wire, smile and leave the problem exactly how it was before he came. It made absolutely no sense to me. There was a lamp in my room, sitting on the nightstand, unplugged with no bulb, and I found that the overhead lighting was quite dull and inefficient. The beds were adequate but I had to purchase my own feather pillows as the flat lumps provided were impossible to sleep on. Asking for additional pillows yielded no results....like having the TV or phone sorted. There is ice at the end of each hallway and room service was daily and quite efficient, from friendly room attendants. I found only one receptionist - who worked the late shift - was able to speak basic English and she was also the most polite and attentive.
Breakfast is included for an additional $6 and I found the restaurant staff to be friendly and the breakfast adequate. The restaurant seems to be only open for breafast and maybe lunch and need to be refurbished as there are some leaky dripping a/c units and drab furnishings. The "bacon" served was actually fatty cuttings from a ham, not real bacon (I have a picture). No one told me about the advance and constant hotel payment policy and I was promptly told by the owner that I needed to pay up that day as he was told by staff that they had asked me on several occasions to pay and I didn't. That was definitely a lie as I would've paid if I had known of their strange policy (I had just stayed at Holiday Inn Express without incident), and expected I'd be paying upon checkout. From then on I paid every two days.
Hotel Benidorm is a basic hotel for short stays, but there are better accommodations with better rates in this same area that I will try upon my return to Panama in August. I would suggest that they have someone on staff that is bilingual, they get "do not disturb" signs, check the devices in each room more often and train their front desk staff to be more courteous to people from other non-Spanish countries.
Good Inexpensive Place to Stay in Panama.
craigmyr on 03/03/2015 21:50
A truly good place to stay is not necessarily one where no incidents occur but, rather, how the staff and management handle problems when they do arise... And they will arise sometimes no matter how many stars a hotel has. The staff and management of Hotel Benidorm are certainly poised and classy in dealing with the small irritants of life that sometimes occur. The staff is delightful and the manager is communicative and candid in his dealings with guests. That candid approached is very much appreciated by this traveler. The room was clean, the a/c worked (although a bit loudly), the staff helpful. The incident I reference was a result of my frustration with the key card not always working. The problem was that the staff members do not speak English. The solution was that the manager, who does speak very good English called me and explained the problem. Problem solved and I made some friends. Good place to stay and in one of my favorite neighborhoods, Caledonia. The hotel is also less than half a block from the super mercado (grocery store) and across the street from one of the cities casinos. Icing on the cake - - -walking distance to the fish market and excellent ceviche. All of that at an economy price, including breakfast!