My wife and I recently stayed here for 6 nights, while visiting Panama for the first time. We chose this hotel for several reasons: We wanted to be in the city and a relatively short Uber ride to all the sites and action. As Marriott Titanium elite members, we definitely wanted a place with a nice executive lounge and breakfast, and as recreational gamblers, we wanted to be near a casino.

We arrived very early on a Sunday morning, so I knew our room would not be ready. Leonardo at the front desk was very kind to store our luggage as well as give us a key to the lounge so we could have breakfast and hang out before the room was available.

After spending several hours touring around Casco Viejo, we arrived back to the hotel around 3pm and the room was still not ready. This was a bit disappointing, and we were told that they were waiting for a suite to be cleaned and open up. I noticed throughout the week there were not many housekeeping staff, so this could be the reason for a lot of “late check-ins”.

The room, once we arrived, was very spacious but definitely dated. I usually judge a room by how big and soft the towels are, if the shower pressure is strong and the comfort of the bed… and all three of these got an A+ from me. However, we did have some MAJOR issues: The cleaning folks did not do a good job cleaning the room, especially the bathroom (the shower and toilet wasn’t cleaned from the previous guests) which really upset my wife. Beware that unless upgraded to a suite, most rooms have the bathtub right in the middle of the room, separated by just a curtain. On another day, while my wife was getting out of the shower, a strange guest opened our room door – we found out that the hotel had given them the same keys to our room (2725) even though they were staying in 2726. This obviously infuriated me, and I went down to the front desk. I spoke to the director of rooms, and she of course apologized profusely and asked how she could make this better. She offered to comp us one dinner at one of their restaurants, which we settled for. Still, that was definitely the low point of the stay.

Regarding other aspects of the hotel, as mentioned many times in other TA reviews, the glass elevator system was awful. Having to take one elevator to the main lobby floors, then walk over to another set of elevators to take to your room was not ideal and got tiresome after a while. Obviously, that’s how the building was built, so they won’t be changing that anytime soon, but what they should fix is the way these elevators work. The wait time was very long the majority of the time, even for four guest room elevators, and they don’t operate efficiently. For example, while waiting to go downstairs, one elevator passed me going up empty and then a few minutes later passed me going back down empty. You also have to use a room key to go up to your room, and several times throughout our stay, the keys didn’t work, and we had to get them reprogrammed at the front desk - having to do this during a busy check-in or check-out time can test your patience. They also don’t ring when they arrive and the way they are set up, you really can’t see all four at once so sometimes it’s hard to see when one does arrive. Another gripe was that most of the hotel staff, who were very nice, did not speak English so it was a bit hard to explain a situation or ask a question. We don’t expect every staff to speak English, but for those who work directly with guests and have frequent interactions, should have some basic English skills. Also, and this is small I’ll admit but when staying at a JW, somewhat expected: There are plenty of staff standing outside the hotel and not one of them would open the hotel front door for you when entering or leaving. Again, not expected but a nice treat for what should be a 4- or 5-star property.

We did enjoy the nice breakfast buffet most mornings, and the same staff working there each day were extremely nice and helpful. However, most of the food and drink options were basic American and it would have been a bit more special if they offered some Panamanian breakfast food.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, my wife and I do love a good casino and the Ocean Club casino which is next to the hotel was not. They had a lot of machines, but very few tables and no poker which was really disappointing.

Overall, it fell short of what we expected from a JW (for example, the JW in Cabo and Cancun were absolutely amazing). If we ever come back to Panama City, we will look into other Marriott properties like the Marriott Panama or The Westin Panama which also have high reviews here on TA. Maybe next time we will pick a location outside the big city and one with some beach access.