Hotel Puerto Valdés — Hotel in San Juan

Updated to 1 start because I was promised a partial refund that was never issued. Would give zero stars if I could.

Booked this hotel last minute due to attending a funeral. The are some pros and cons but overall I wouldn’t stay here again. It did not meet my expectations and did not offer things listed on their site.

Their website boasts daily housekeeping, but we never had our room cleaned even though their website says: Disinfection and cleaning of every room daily. Other reviews mention this as well and that you have to ask for the rooms to be cleaned, but if it’s advertised on their site, then we shouldn’t have to request it.

The website also lists there is a restaurant on site, but I didn’t see where it mentioned that’s it’s currently closed for renovations. Which it was closed when we visited this week.

There are only three parking spots. The rest is street parking. And if you park on the street you have to leave your key for the valet. However we were never offered valet service so that seemed pretty odd.

The main issue is the noise. We were never able to get a good nights rest. The walls are super thin.

On our first night after a delayed flight and checking in at about 1am we were startled awake by what sounded like a busted pipe in our room. We found the pipe in question and while it was not busted, it did run for an hour and sounded like constant flushing. It was loud and made it impossible to rest and continued at various times throughout the night and day.

We did mention this and were told it was probably the AC. No attempt at resolving the issue was made.

And on our last night at about midnight there was the sporadic slamming of doors and constant noise at the front desk. The walls are very thin. We could not be sure if someone had checked into the room below us or if all the noise was coming from workers or other guests but the doors were being slammed multiple times an hour and the conversations were endless. Having to get up at 4am to catch our flight home and not being able to sleep was very upsetting.

I did email the hotel and ask for the manager’s information to discuss these and other issues but have not heard back. I was going to take a card for the manager at checkout but there were two men standing in the way of the business card rack when we checked out at 5am. They were dressed in all black and were chatting with the gentleman at the front desk. I could not tell if they were employed by the hotel or friends of the front desk employee.

There are some good points which I will be happy to share if I am able to speak with a manager and...

We want to be fair and acknowledge these employees, Joy, Joseph and the general manager(unfortunately I can’t recall his name). They are the reason we give a 3 star rating. We stayed in for 2 nights before we boarded our cruise. I wanted to take a shower the morning we arrived after our flight from Florida, and turned on the water and there was NO hot or even warm water. I tried moving the shower handle that controls the water temperature to several settings and nothing worked to change the temperature. I had splash water on my self because the water was so cold I couldn’t bare to get underneath the shower. I went down to reception, and explained to them the situation. The general manager came up and ran the shower water for at least 15 minutes and eventually it was lukewarm for my husband to shower. The next day when I wanted to shower we had the same problem, no warm water. We were told due to solar panels that this can happen? We find that it kind of odd, that they are an environmental friendly hotel and we wasted so much water trying to take a lukewarm shower. It is a big problem for our stay. Other minor fixable area’s to improve on: Please provide wash cloths for the bathroom. Provide a rubber mat for the shower, the shower floor was very slippery, we used one of our bath towels to put inside the entrance to the shower. The living room sofa the cushions keep sliding off the sofa when we tried to sit on it and watch TV. Maybe put something under the cushion(Velcro or grippers like they use to stop a carpet from sliding) to stop this from happening. I know this sounds silly however we had to fix it every time we tried to sit on it and even after we got comfortable it would slide again. There should be paper towels or maybe a hand towel in the kitchen so when we wash the dishes we used there is some place we can dry them. Black out or optional blackout curtains for the bedroom, it was difficult to sleep once the sunrise occured, although the window is nice and big it is not sleep in friendly in the morning with the sunrise and a thin sheer curtain. We travel a lot and OSJ is a beautiful city to visit for a few days before cruising, and we would love to recommend Puerto Valdes to our other cruiser’s friends however these issues need to be fixed. It is a very cute hotel and the staff we had is A+, and so many things going for it, hopefully the management will...

As a small business owner, I don’t give one-star reviews lightly, but the experience at this hotel was nothing short of egregious. Upon arrival, there was no one at the front desk, just a sign that read "No one at the lobby," with a phone number that was blocked out. We waited for over two hours before finally being allowed to enter our room.

When we got inside, the room was in terrible condition. The couch was soiled, there were strands of hair on the bed, and the baby crib was filthy. Needless to say, we were furious.

I will give credit to two employees—Janine (the waitress) and Joseph (at the front desk)—who did their best to handle the situation. However, the lack of management oversight was glaring. We were offered a free meal that night, though by then, I had no appetite. I asked if the offer could be redeemed the following day, and they assured me it could. However, when we went to the steakhouse the next day, they didn’t honor the original offer, instead giving us a mere 20% off. I was told that discount was standard for all hotel guests, not a special gesture for the trouble we’d experienced.

I expressed my dissatisfaction and was told that the manager had agreed to apply the 20% discount to our stay. Unfortunately, the discount didn’t cover the cost of the dinner we had paid for, and I had to repeatedly argue with staff to get the compensation they had promised.

The dinner experience itself was pleasant, and they did make an effort to make us feel special, but the failure to follow through on their word overshadowed any positives. To make matters worse, the 20% discount was not applied easily, and I had to chase them down to ensure it was honored.

Overall, I would not recommend this hotel unless they make significant improvements in both management and housekeeping. Management needs to take responsibility for their mistakes and honor their commitments. Professional housekeeping staff should be hired to ensure rooms are cleaned to an...