Costa Rica Travel Help?

We will be traveling to Costa Rica late December to January this year and still need to book our hotels. We were wondering is it better to take a flight from San Jose to Liberia, Costa Rica to stay at the JW Marriott in Guanacaste for probably five days. We also would like to go to Arenal Volcano area for 4 days. We need some suggestions for hotels there as well. Any help with travel tips or hotels you enjoyed would be greatly appreciated! :)