Hotel Benidorm Panama

“Very accessible to the Metro”

I always enjoy to stay in Panama City. The room service has been pretty good. Very close to the ocean. Accessible to different parts of the city great spot to travel around town. Accessible for family.

“Basic Accommodations”

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. … more

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.

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