Costa Rica’s San Jose airport is about to gain something no other airport in Central America has: a hotel guests can reach on foot from the terminal without stepping outside.
Construction is under way on the Moxy at Juan Santamaría International Airport, a $20 million Marriott-branded property whose developers and airport operator Aeris unveiled fresh details today. The hotel will hold 173 rooms and, according to Aeris, will be the first in Central America to connect directly to an air terminal, linked by a pedestrian bridge that lets travelers walk between their room and the departure hall.
Andrew Vickers, a representative of developer Expandd, said the property is expected to enter operation around the middle of 2027 — a few months later than the first quarter Aeris had targeted when it announced the project in December 2024. It will sit directly across from the airport in Alajuela and cover roughly 6,500 square meters (about 70,000 square feet).
The feature likely to matter most to travelers is practical rather than architectural. The hotel will house official airport kiosks, allowing guests to check in for their flights and print baggage tags from the hotel before crossing the bridge to the terminal. For anyone facing an early departure, a long layover, or a delayed or canceled flight, the arrangement collapses the usual scramble between an off-site hotel and the check-in counter into a short indoor walk. Airline crews, who cycle through the airport on tight turnarounds, are among the guests the developers have in mind.
Vickers described the concept as deliberately relaxed and pitched at younger, backpacker-style travelers, calling it “a design hotel with a young soul.” Guests will check in at a bar rather than a traditional front desk, and the ground floor is planned around social space: a lounge, a library, games, coworking areas, grab-and-go food, and a restaurant open around the clock, alongside meeting rooms and a gym.
The project brings together several hospitality partners. It is being developed by Expandd Development and overseen by AZ Hospitality Group, with design by Saballos Arquitectos and operation by Remington Hospitality, all under Marriott’s Moxy brand. Aeris, part of Grupo CCR, manages Juan Santamaría under a concession model.
For a country such as ours, that leans heavily on tourism, the hotel doubles as a statement about the airport’s ambitions. Ricardo Hernández, executive director of Aeris, has framed the project as part of a broader push to make Juan Santamaría a fuller service hub for the passengers who pass through it — one meant to strengthen Costa Rica’s image abroad and reinforce tourism as a driver of the economy, rather than treat the terminal as a place travelers move through as quickly as possible.
