Book Donation Program for Increased Literacy

Approximately six months ago, we decided to find a worthy cause for La Rosa de America to support. Eventually, after receiving a suggestion from the owner of another local hotel, we decided to begin a book donation program. Achieving high levels of literacy in Costa Rica is very important to the government and by extension, the people. However, in reality, the schools have next to no books nor funding with which to accomplish this task. This results in a very difficult situation for the teachers tasked to educate their pupils.
We ask guests to fill up their reserve "souvenir space" in their baggage with books. Children's books, school books, English, French or Spanish books, and/or classroom supplies.
To date, we have had a very good response, collecting over 375 books in three languages. We have now donated to two local Alajuela schools and we are hoping to be able to donate a further 350 books by the end of the 2009 high season in April.
If you are interested in supporting this program, please visit our webpage devoted to this project at: http://www.larosadeamerica.com/page9/page9.html
We appreciate the thoughtfulness of all who participate in this program.

Hotel La Rosa de America hosts LSOP

For 13 busy days this November, we were the hosts to 21 of the best poker playing dealers around. Two LSOP tournament players stayed with us as well. In conjunction with another local hotel, we provided the accommodation for the Latin Series of Poker inaugural event held in Costa Rica. The actual tournament was held at Casino Martino's, just one kilometer down the road. The LSOP is a new tournament for poker players around the world and will include other exotic stops such as Cancun (Mexico) and Ecuador.

To host this group it was decided that the best way to be fair to all concerned and to provide the best service, was to shut the hotel to other guests for the two week period. Fortunately it was still in the quiet part of the low season. This decision was deemed necessary though because of the special needs of the dealers. Hotel hours were turned upside down and our "quiet" hours and breakfast hours were extended to noon. Being night owls due to their trade, it was completely normal to find a collection of dealers sitting on our reception porch at 3 in the morning having just gotten back from work!!!
It was a great time, and a new and positive experience for the hotel. Everyone enjoyed their stay - both guests and hotel staff! We are looking forward with anticipation to their return probably in May 2009.

New Services in our Day Spa

After almost three months of searching and too many interviews to remember, we now have a new Massage Therapist and Esthetician.

Karol has newly graduated from a three year program of Massage Therapy and Sports Massage. She has also obtained skills in a variety of other Spa disciplines such as alternative massage, facials (complete with skin analysis and targeted treatments) body wraps, and waxing. Karol is currently completing her training for the delivery of manicures and pedicures and we hope that she will be ready to offer this service some time next March or April.

As an added benefit, she is learning English so as to better interact with the majority of our guests who may not speak Spanish.
We have high hopes for our Day Spa this dry season. We have an new and expanded list of services that we offer and we have maintained the competitive pricing that seemed so popular last year with our guests.

New options include:

- Lymphatic Massage
- Aromatherapy Massage
- Reductive Massage
- Full Facials (Treatment Facials, Facial Analysis and Facial Masks including Caviar!!)
- Body Wraps (Chocolate, Volcanic Mud or Seaweed)

To complete the SPA overhaul, we will be refurbishing the attached bathroom area and the music sound system so that guests can more enjoy their experience.

If you are interested in seeing more details about this, a complete list of Hotel La Rosa de America Spa services or our Spa prices, do visit the Spa Website at:
http://www.larosadeamerica.com/page8/page8.html
We are also offering Karol's services as part of a package deal as indicated a:
http://www.larosadeamerica.com/page4/page4.html

All who come to our hotel are welcome to use our spa, provided that, of course the owner is not in there already!!!! :-)

More or less finished in the Reception area

Well, as is the story with most renovations, this one was no exception... AAGGG!!! :-)
We started small, with ideas of paint and a reshuffle of furniture in our Reception area of La Rosa de America. What actually transpired began with a new 9 foot copper lightning rod and new wiring throughout the reception area, office and sala. After that, came the computers. Formatting hard drives and dismantling of computers is always a memorable experience and this time it didn't disappoint either!
However, all's well that ends well. We now have a high speed internet connection, with wireless throughout the hotel on a well functioning computer! We will be offering this to our guests as a free service.
That was phase one. Phase two consisted of alternating between laughing and arguing over what was rapidly becoming a VERY challenging paint colour... Green. Wanting to bring the feeling of nature to the reception area without being gaudy, I introduced some artwork, wicker furniture and what was to be a nice green wall. During the course of the painting, the colour was changed not less than five times and it changed actual walls once! Now we have a temporary truce with the green wall in question and are polling guests as to their opinion!
We just took receipt of new curtains, and now hope to create a display shelving unit to show small artistic objects. This will complete the reception area.

In other news, we will be hosting 23 guests for the LSOP or Latin Series of Poker in November. This will be a major event for Alajuela with many high stakes professional poker players descending on the town of La Garita area for a two week period to test their skills.

Christmas bookings are about half complete now and we project that by early December that the two week Christmas period will be completely booked.

Our next project will be to purchase all sorts of Christmas decorations for the Hotel as all the old decorations went missing. This should be a rather fun experience. We intend to have an employee "decorating" party at the end of November so we can get everyone involved in the Christmas spirit!

One year of Hotel Ownership!

Well, it has been exactly a year since starting out on this adventure! Overall the year has been good with the hotel undergoing significant construction and maintenance improvements as well as the hiring of new employees, marketing efforts and a new website. www.larosadeamerica.com
These changes are now paying off as our last year was the busiest on record for the hotel.

Certainly making the cultural changes from living in a high paced Canadian lifestyle to the slower, "tomorrow" lifestyle of Costa Rica has been interesting but I am learning to relax! Definitely, the climate is fabulous in the La Garita area. Not too hot or cold. The wet season can drag on a bit but I now know that come late March, we'll be crying for more rain so really I can't complain!

The current activity at the hotel is centering around the complete face lift of the Reception area. New paint colours, artwork, upgraded wiring, wireless internet, new computers and a new nook for the sale of small locally crafted objects. We just finished the installation of a big "bodega" or storage area, and a complete redo of the main garden area with the emphasis of letting in more light to help develop a stronger lawn and encourage flowering plants.

Lots of work for the "quiet" season! Come mid December, things will be busy again.