Best Western Plus Panama Zen Hotel

My reservation was for 4 nights. The first two nights I had reserved with a Best Western Rewards voucher and the second two nights with Booking.com. I got there and my reservation that I had made months prior with the voucher had been cancelled. I nor anyone I know had cancelled it, so this was baffling to me. I was forced to pay for my first two nights, and they made no effort to reconcile the mysterious cancellation. I asked if they could at least match the price that I had paid with Booking.com, but they were unable to do even that. I also reserved a Superior King Room for all 4 nights, and instead got a room with two extra large double beds. They did not replace the complimentary water after the first night. They also made me change rooms in the middle of my stay. I had explicitly asked if they could assign me a room where I did not have to change, both when I arrived during check-in and in a request on my Booking.com reservation. They were unable to accommodate this either. The Breakfast was quite mediocre, and the service quite bad. The breakfast runs from 7-11, I arrived at 10 or just before 10 and they do not replace many buffet items without asking. There were very few pieces of fruit, the pancakes were gone and there was no syrup left. I asked them to refill the pancakes and it took them 20 minutes. On top of that the options are mediocre. Finally, they have yet to give me the bill for my stay. I indicated for them to send it via email and have never received it. less

I had a great time. The hotel is very nice and in a great part of town. My guest room was very comfortable, clean and I had a lovely view of town. It has a great infinity pool on the top floor, I did a bit of relaxing there while having a drink prepared by Armando the star bartender. The staff will go out of there way to make your stay wonderful! I highly recommend this hotel and will come back to them when I am back in Panama City. less

Room with King bed was comfy and well-appointed, staff was very professional, lobby was very urban/modern. The rooftop pool and bar were luxurious and resort like, with an amazing view of the city and sunset! Great cocktails! less

We spent four nights here at the end of a long trip in Central America. We had a nice corner room on the eighth floor. The first four floors are a parking garage. The rooftop pool was very nice. It is small and while we were there some Americans were loudly trash talking, but that wasn’t the hotels fault. Our room was very clean and modern. It could have used better lighting. The lights were modern LED lights and were very direct. Some lights that illuminated the entire room would have been nice. The shower was a wonderful rain shower, but I never got it to work properly for a hot shower. However, it’s tropical Panama so there was never a need to warm up. The neighborhood is great with lots of shops, bars and restaurants. There is currently construction going on on Via Argentina half a block away. This wasn’t a problem for us, but traffic in the area can be difficult. There is a metro station at Via Español about two and a half blocks away. On our first night at the hotel my wife became quite ill. Staff were quite helpful in helping us get to a hospital for urgent care. She was able to recuperate for the next few days mostly in our room. There was no follow up from hotel staff about her health. We would have appreciated a little more concern. Overall I can recommend this hotel even with the issues mentioned above. less

I wish I could give a higher rating to this hotel because the location is convenient, the rate we got for our 3-nights stay was reasonable and we were pleased to be able to check in early and got a room on a higher floor as requested. However, the room unfortunately was really dirty and neglected - it felt as if it hadn’t received a proper cleaning in several weeks, if not months. There was so much dust and grease on the furniture and the floor, fingerprints on mirrors and doors, a toe/fingernail from a previous guest next to the sink, a used hair-band near the bed etc. I do not know how the housekeeping department is run, but management should have a serious look into this since the corridors were also rather dirty (floors didn’t seem to have been vacuumed during our stay). So basically you constantly feel that you do not want to touch more than absolutely necessary and therefore I do not recommend the place. I have attached some photos in order to portray the filthiness. less