Embassy Suites by Hilton San Juan Hotel & Casino — Hotel in Carolina

I would have to say I was disappointed in my experience at this property. 3 stars may be generous, probably it's more like 2½ stars but I'll "round up". The most important thing - the room's cleanliness, comfort, noise level, and functionality of technology - was fine. But there were some aspects of service that fell short, and not up to the usual standards I expect from Embassy Suites or other middle- to high- end Hilton properties.||1. Check-in time is listed at 4:00 PM. We arrived at 3:45 PM, thinking we might get into the room a tad early. But, in fact we were told it would probably be at least an hour and maybe longer until we could get into the room. The hotel, to its credit, allowed us and other guests in this situation access to the pool, but it is kind of inconvenient to change into swimwear in the single-stall restrooms next to the pool. At 5:15 PM, we still had not gotten a text message that our room was ready, so I stood in the line at the front desk, reached the desk at 5:25, and then after ten minutes of keyboard tapping, the front desk lady issued us our room key. No apology for the 90 minute delay in checkin.||2. On checkout day, I went to the front desk at 6:15 AM to ask about a one hour extension of checkout time (i.e., to get a noon checkout instead of 11 AM). The front desk guy said, "sure, no problem" and took down my room number. But then at 11:30 AM, the room phone rang and it was a hotel employee in a somewhat scoldy tone of voice informing us that we were past checkout time. Uggh. And no apology when I said that we had been approved for a late checkout (I suspected she doubted me). As far as I am concerned, when the hotel delayed our checkin by 90 minutes on arrival day, they should have given us at least 90 extra minutes on departure day, and probably more like 3 hours as recompense.||3. A letter in the room informed us that "housekeeping services will be limited tomorrow due to staffing shortages". No problem for us since we were staying only one night. But, sheesh, if you can't have guest rooms ready on time, and can't provide normal housekeeping services, then maybe you need to offer higher pay and/or better working conditions to attract and retain employees. Raise the room rate $5 per night if needed to pay for it.||4. The complimentary breakfast was disappointing; I've had better at "lower tier" hotel brands including within the Hilton family of hotel brands. Instead of oatmeal, the hot cereal was some kind of lukewarm goo. The only fresh fruit was unripe, sour, firm pineapple chunks. There was no orange juice. Custom omelets are offered, but the line for them is long (hey . . .why not hire 2 or 3 omelet makers?). And, there is this stupid thing where to enter the breakfast line, you had to have some kind of wristband (which we did not have, so we went to the front desk to get them). I mean, seriously, treating your guests like potential "impostors" who may be trying to mooch a free breakfast?||OK . . . is there something nice to say? Sure. So here are a few pluses:|1. The room was clean and comfortable, with crisp, snow-white linens.|2. Room technology worked - WiFi, TV, etc.|3. I like that soda is offered at the breakfast. Some of us get our morning caffeine from Diet Coke instead of from coffee, and usually we feel ignored.|4. Elevator wait times were very reasonable.|5. The swimming pool is very large and inviting.|6. It's a short 5-minute walk to the beach, and a lot, lot cheaper to stay here than at the hotels directly on the beach.|7. The decor in the atrium is lush and inviting.|8. The fitness center is sizable with well-maintained equipment. It offers towels and water. However, I wish they had more than one elliptical machine.|9. There is a large 24/7 supermarket a 3-minute walk from the hotel.|10. There are multiple dining options on the property, offering a nice selection of affordable food, including both traditional Puerto Rican cuisine and...

My wife and I spent a few days in San Juan for a mini-vacation during Spring Break. We very much enjoy the Embassy Suites hotels, so jumped at the opportunity. It was super close to the airport, so an Uber was inexpensive, though I wonder if there was a better way to get there... per the website, there is no shuttle. Walking is not an option. ||This Embassy Suites was a tad different, and kind of touristy, with an on-site casino (it is in the name, but I forgot about it since booking). There's a lot included in your stay: free breakfast, two free drinks per guest per night at an evening reception, and free use of beach chairs, towels, and umbrellas at the beach. It is about a quarter-mile walk to the beach, and you need to walk a bit more to get to the area staffed by Embassy Suites. What was cool is that the attendant provides you with the equipment and even "installs" your umbrella into the sand. ||We enjoyed our room - it was an Embassy Suites suite of course - and we got what we expected. We had plenty of room, and the bed was comfortable. Even though there are the classic Embassy Suites nature sounds, it was quiet at night. The shower was unexpected - it was clear where covered, and partially/permanently open. Good thing we like each other. Housekeeping was an area for improvement. They came to our room pretty late each day; it wasn't very convenient, and we had to skip it at least once. Somebody's room sevice tray/plates also was sitting in the corner outside our door for maybe the whole time we were there, and we saw a discarded towel near the elevator for about a day. Perhaps these were from rude guests, but within a few hours somebody should have seen this and taken care of it, as a matter of pride. ||One downside is you need to have a wristband to access any of the complementary stuff. They say you just have to have it on your person (not worn necessarily), and I did not think there was much enforcement of the policy, but it was a little irritating. ||I did spend an hour or so at the casino playing blackjack (when we were there, there was a $5 min blackjack table, so even if unlucky, you can play for a while if you like). ||There are onsite dining options, and we ate at the bar the first night because we showed up late. The food and service were super!! (Cesar if I remember right.) We went to El Patio restaurant a couple of nights into the stay and was less impressed (slow). ||It is my custom to leave information for traveling athletes. The pool is for lounging, not swimming laps. If you open water swim at the beach, know there are no lifeguards. There's not a great place to run, honestly. The advice I got from the front desk was to run back and forth on the sidewalk between the hotel and the beach. Um, no. I ran a couple of times on the perfectly adequate treadmill in the hotel gym but had to get out once. I planned a 3-mile out-and-back route on local roads. It was good enough, but there was lots of car and pedestrian traffic. I think there are some running trails in San Juan, but not close to the hotel. I tried not to worry about it - I got lots of steps exploring San Juan. ||The front desk was variable in helpfulness. I thought the welcome was great. At times, the front desk was simply too busy to help me. (I once was trying to buy some sodas, and had to give up after like 15 minutes of waiting.) ||I've been fairly critical in this review, but the positives outweigh the negatives. We probably would stay here again, though I might consider...

Embassy Suites in San Juan, PR runs like a well oiled machine. We booked two rooms for 6 nights. Pros: Staff at the front desk are always pleasant and available to help. Checkin process is a bit detailed but it’s not too long. They are well staffed so there’s no long lines for the front desk. Rooms are clean and maintained well. We noticed a stain on one of the sheets but the front desk had the room service take care of that issue. (As in any other facility, it’s always best to check the rooms first before bringing luggage in). Room service is offered on every other day (but for some reason we gladly noticed that they did it for almost all the days we were there). Overall ambiance, safety and cleanliness of the hotel is worth a special mention. Breakfast at this place was better than we’ve had in other competing hotel brands. Omelettes are made to order, so we have to stand on a line for this. One thing to note is that the lines can get long if you come closer to the last hour of breakfast. They tell you that right away. The first hour of breakfast (6:30 to 7:30 AM on weekdays and 7:30 to 8:30 on weekends) has the least amount of lines and then it gets progressively longer for the next two hours. If you don’t want to order omelettes, you can skip the line and go straight to the hot buffet which includes scrambled eggs and boiled eggs. Other items include: hash browns, tater totes, sausage links, bagels, muffins etc. We noticed that all these items are well stocked and it hardly ever runs out of any item.

Pool: this hotel has a large beautiful pool with enough space for a lot of guests to be in at the same time. Pool is well maintained and clean.

Beach: although this hotel doesn’t have a beach next to it, the beach is only a few minutes walk away. You can also drive there if you don’t feel like doing the 7 minute walk but parking near the beach may be hard to find. The Embassy Suites area of the beach is marked with Orange umbrellas. These areas are better maintained than the other areas of the beach. Cons: Parking is a bit expensive here. It costs about $21.50 per day to do self parking and about $25 to get valet parking. You do need to have your hotel room key, that is linked to the garage, to enter and exit the garage. While it is a good safety feature, it also becomes a bit cumbersome task since you have to place the card exactly on the spot they’ve designated for it on the machine. This process could use some improvement with a quicker machine that recognizes the hotel card. Additional costs added to room charges. We noticed that in addition to the room rate we booked for per night, there is a suite tax of about $45 and a Hotel Fee of $40 per night that is added to your final bill. So keep that in mind when you book this hotel. Expect an additional $85 to be added to your room charge every night! Cost. As mentioned above, the rate per room (over $300 per night and the $85 sub charges) makes this hotel a bit too pricey. Elevator access: as with the car garage, you need to have your hotel card handy for accessing the elevator. That becomes hard to do if you have your hands full carrying breakfast or other things. This technology also could use some improvement.

In general we would...