This trip planning is so stressfull. After finally nailing down where we want to stay and confirming that they have room for our family we send 2 hotels our reservation form with credit card info and it seems to go to a black hole. No response! I tried repeatedly to fax the info to their listed fax number and it just doesn't accept the call. So reluctantly I emailed the form as also instructed but have not heard back after 5 days. They replied quickly to my questions about cost and availability so I know it isn't a matter of not getting the emails. They also have not responded to 2 additional follow-up emails about whether they received my res form. How on earth do you get a reponse/confirmation back. I know places are filling up so I need to know. I have to say that this is the most stressfull vacation I have ever planned and I hope it is worth it. I'm going to go chill out now.

I can't believe it. I just checked my email again as soon as I wrote the above post and got back an email from Arenal Paraiso that they have no room. I am so frustrated it isn't funny. I sent that info to them immediately as they needed my credit card to book my reservation and now 5 days later they tell me they have no room. All I can say is for others who are trying to plan their vacations during the so called slow time you better get moving or else the same could happen to you. Hopefully, Costa Verde comes thru for me in Manuel Antonio. Back to the drawing board again!

I'm very surprised. When I faxed my credit card info, I asked them to email me and confirm receipt. All did (except Tabacon but we went through an agent for that one and it turned out to be a big mistake) and also emailed me the vouchers at the same time. I didn't stay at Arenal Paraiso but Costa Verde in MA responded very quickly.

Sorry to hear about your reszervation problems...That's happened to me before too. Service is a tough thing to find in Costa Rica. Places with good service,starting with responding to reservation inquiries are very few and far between. No, it doesn't help that Costa Rica's popularity is higher than the number of hotel rooms now. I agree that there really isn't a low season anymore. The only suggestion I have is to check with centralamerica.com, costaricantrails.com or one of the costa rica hotel booking agencies. Sometimes they have a hold on rooms or purchase blocks of rooms in advance to re-sell. They might even have a room at Arenal Paraiso(if you still want to stay there).

Yes it can be frustrating at times. So I would like to add that sometimes it is best to call.

In defense of some of the hotels - unfortunately internet service in CR is not as reliable as we demand here in the states. I have witnessed the frustrations of the hotel personel frantically trying to access their email and not being able to for hours. To add to that they do not have the spam filters that we so fortunately rely on to weed out unwanted mail, therefore many times having to surf through hundreds of emails to find the ones that count.

While at Iguana Lodge (a lodge with only maybe 10 rooms) in Feb this year the owner showed me 400+ emails that day alone.

Their business does rely heavily on email and many are doing their best - so when in doubt, make the phone call.

wanatrvl: Our ISP (Racsa) is really experiencing some "growing pains". The service goes down for hours at a time and the spam blocker (as bad as it is!) blocks some emails for some unknown reason. dfarmer's response is 100% correct and I know this doesn't help your frustration. If I can make a suggestion to use a US based travel agency ie: Tico Travel (www.ticotravel.com) At least you'd have a contact stateside (that speaks English also!) Or as dfarmer suggested, call the hotel directly. Hope this helps ... good luck and safe travels.

Lisa in Manuel Antonio

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, I have made attempts at phone calls as well. Arenal Paraiso lists a phone number that "does not accept incoming phone calls." That doesn't matter because I no longer have any desire to do business with them. Costa Verde only answered the first time when we called to tell them our difficulty sending a fax to them. I'm afraid at this point I may have to use a travel agent but was trying to save money by doing it myself. I'm sure in the end it will all work out but it sure is frustrating...

Our two times using a travel agent cost the same as the prices listed on the hotel websites. Possibly we may have been able to negotiate a better price by talking directly to the hotel, who knows. Using the travel agent did not increase the price, but did eliminate the frustrations of coordinating everything.

You could also try Pat Hewitt at Costa Rica Travel Exchange, out of New Orleans. www.lovecostarica.com 800-256-0124. Pat owns a home in Monteverde as well, so spends a lot of time in CR. He also has a conceirge service in different areas of CR in the event you need assistance while in country. Several here on Fodors and the AOL board use his service, our one time everything went perfect.

So if you choose to use a travel professional, do a quick search here, several excellent recommendatios will be found.

So sorry to hear about this, and it is stressfull. From what I am told, the majority of hotels only operate through fax's , and even then it can get lost in the shuffle.

We have always booked our tours and travel plans with a local tour operator, www.acrtours.com and they always reply promptly to our request. Since they are based in Costa Rica, they have the ability to follow up and provide peace of mind to the client. We have referred their services often, and have never heard a bad report about them.

Good luck!

I suggest taking the hassle out of doing it yourself and let a professional handle your trip. We just got back from CR and we used Ralph at GaiaLink Tours, www.gaialinktours.com and had an excellent experience. He is NY based, but their main office is in San Jose. They can set up any hotel, arrange drivers and tours all at a very reasonable price. He is very prompt in all replies. I have booked trips on my own to CR before, but I found using a good tour company is the way to go.

Thank you all for your suggestions. We are now working with Pat Hewitt to finalize our hotel plans. Ralph from Gaialink also sounds like a good option but both were highly recommended so we had to pick one.