Abitta Condado — Hotel in San Juan

This was my second time staying at the Abitta Boutique Hotel, and I returned with high hopes after a wonderful 10-day stay in November 2023. Back then, I stayed in a double-bed room on the 5th floor and was impressed by the cleanliness, friendly staff, and the included breakfast. I even recommended the hotel to family and friends planning trips this summer.

Fast forward to July 2025, I returned for a 12-day stay with my daughter and granddaughter. While there were still some positives, unfortunately, the overall experience didn’t live up to my expectations.

🌟 Highlights from My 2023 Stay Friendly and Attentive Staff: Always warm, welcoming, and ready to help. Excellent Housekeeping: Daily cleaning with fresh linens, towels, and coffee. Comfortable Accommodations: Quiet, clean, and cozy room on the 5th floor. Great Pool Setup: Especially loved the separate kids' pool—perfect for families. Included Breakfast: A nice bonus with both hot and cold options at the gastropub.

✅ Positives in 2025 Staff: The front desk team remained fantastic—helpful and accommodating, especially when we needed to switch to an accessible room. Pool Area: Still a great feature, especially for families with young children. Room Size: Spacious and comfortable for our party of three. Aesthetic: The hotel still has a lovely beachy vibe, which I personally love.

⚠️ Areas of Concern Breakfast Policy Change: The complimentary breakfast is gone. Instead, guests receive a $25 voucher per room—not per person—which felt inadequate for a party of three. With high menu prices, automatic 20% gratuity, and taxes, we often paid extra even for basic meals. Even takeout orders included the automatic tip, which should be optional. Pool Safety: The area around the pool can get very slippery and more anti-slip treading is urgently needed. Noise from Renovations: We were informed about sliding door hours early morning noise and loud conversations from workers were disruptive and should have been disclosed. Inconsistent Housekeeping: Some days the bed was made but sheets weren’t changed; other days the floor was mopped but the bed left untouched. Major Safety Concern: On day 7, a male employee entered our room without knocking. I had just showered and was sitting on the bed—thankfully dressed. He stared at me for a few seconds before closing the door and then knocked. Since my Spanish is not great, I couldn’t understand his explanation. I reported the incident to the front desk, who apologized, but I never received a clear explanation or follow-up. I felt extremely unsafe and had to take extra precautions for the rest of our stay.

🧳 Final Thoughts While I appreciated the helpful front desk staff and some of the amenities, the overall quality and service have noticeably declined since my last visit. The lack of communication, especially regarding a safety concern, and policy changes left me disappointed. Sadly, I will not be returning to Abitta Boutique Hotel, and I can no longer recommend...

I am currently in the middle of my 9 day stay and felt the need to submit a review. I'm sure I'll update it with more photos, and final thoughts but initially, here goes...

Booking was simple. I even emailed back to the confirmation email address, letting them know that I was coming into town to work and that I needed to confirm that there was good high speed internet accessible from all the rooms as well as good cell phone reception. I was told yes that it wouldn't be a problem. Needless to say, there is a problem. The first night I was here I complained to the front desk that their internet wasn't working properly because my laptop would not connect to their Wi-Fi and showed the staff what it was doing. They called three different times to their support people and never got a call back. Miraculously it started working a couple hours later, only to start having the same connectivity problem the next day. I was forced to use my hotspot for the next three days until I used up all data available on my plan. Interestingly enough, my cell phone can successfully connect to the hotel Wi-Fi but my laptop will not even though my laptop will connect to other hotel lobby Wi-Fis nearby as I've gone to them in order to work during the day. Furthermore, if you need high-speed internet, this is not the place. I'm attaching a speed test of the internet and as you can see the speed is extremely slow.

I will say that the bed is acceptable and the AC blows cold.

Additionally, the phone in my room is plugged in but does not work and one of the lamps did not work because the light bulb was blown.

Also be careful if you're booking around the time that this review was made because if you're on the side of the hotel that faces La Concha Hotel & Casino, you're going to be right next to a construction site that starts work at 7:00 a.m. in the morning everyday. No need for an alarm clock at least.

I will say that the staff has been friendly. I also have felt secure as they do lock the main door and you have to be buzzed in. Feeling downside is, if you were expecting to have guests come in to visit you and hang out in your room, that's a no-no and against the policy of the hotel. You should probably know that ahead of time.

EDIT (After my trip was over) I do have to say that all of the staff was very nice and very accommodating. The first few days I was there I remember seeing and hearing the front desk staff tell people that there was no availability so I figured there was no reason to ask to switch rooms and figured my "discount" rate I found online was probably because of the construction... BUT with a few days left in my trip, I decided to ask the front desk if they could please move me to the other side of the hotel and they did. It made a huge difference and I was able to conduct my business phone and zoom calls each morning. Thank You guys! Ending on a good note,...

We booked a reservation at this hotel in Aug/17 for our Dec/17 (Christmas week) cruise. Following the two hurricanes, I wanted to give them some time to figure things out and then proactively reached out via their FB page in early Nov/17 because their website said that the hotel had lost power. The person running their FB page told me to call the hotel directly because he is not in able to assist with reservations. Fine, np. I called and spoke to Monica in mid-Nov/17. She told me the following: (1) They do have power and most rooms are currently occupied by the army/federal government (their website still states that they don't in order to discourage locals from booking rooms); (2) At the time of the call, all the Dec/17 reservations remain valid but are subject to a risk of cancellation as the army/federal government may decide to extend their stay in December; (3) They will inform everyone by end of Nov/17 if their Dec/17 reservations are still valid; and (4) If I choose to cancel my Dec/17 reservation immediately in order to secure alternative accommodations (in a rising price environment!) instead of gambling on their uncertain reservation, I will be charged the full penalty for cancelling the room. I didn't feel like I had much of a choice as Monica reiterated a few times that the Dec/17 reservations were still valid at this time. The end of Nov/17 came and went and I thought - great, I guess everything worked out at the hotel!

On Dec 6/17 I get a message from the hotel via Expedia which claimed that they cancelled all reservations in November through Expedia (lost power) but that Expedia hadn't done anything to cancel. In a follow-up e-mail, I was advised by management that "all the OTA's were informed more than a month ago regarding" their loss of power. At this point, rooms in an equivalent location/quality hotel had pretty much doubled in price. We're now fine for our Dec/17 trip as Expedia was fantastic and was able to make alternative arrangements.

In conclusion, I'm very sympathetic to the very unfortunate circumstances that all PR residents and businesses have had to deal with in the last few months. What I don't appreciate is the way that the hotel's management chose to deal with the situation. It's one thing to have to supply rooms to government entities in exchange for a generator; there is no need to lie and imply that they don't have any power, no need to lie about how long ago they reached out to cancel reservations (I spoke to the hotel directly over the phone less than a month ago) and no need to prevent people from cancelling their reservations (and book an alternative when prices are still reasonable) when they couldn't guarantee the room in the...