O:live Boutique Hotel — Hotel in San Juan

Only stayed one night. We were hoping for some luxury at a boutique hotel before leaving Puerto Rico. The staff is very gracious and helpful, we resolved most issues. But ultimately we did not feel it was worth the price. If it was a bit cheaper then maybe we would have had more tempered expectations.

To start, it smells like pool right outside the front doors and in most of the room. To be fair, it’s the tropics! Things are gonna be a bit damp. Nbd.

But then there was the room. We were in 204, while the photos are beautiful, the room had no windows!! It was a cave. Not a dealbreaker and technically should have expected it, no where said it would have windows and close inspection of the pictures confirms. However, I think when on vacation in the tropics, you somewhat expect a window. Okay again, not a huge dealbreaker. Kinda my fault for not thinking about that, but the photos were will lit and the room was not really. Like the overhead lights are a bit bright and then there’s not a lot of space between the bed and bathroom entrance so there’s no space for a table or lamp there so it gets dark. You can turn on the bathroom light but it also turns on a loud fan. I get that because of the moisture but also why have a bathroom without windows? Surely they would help w the moisture?

Anyway, in the back corner there was a small window facing a staircase and it was not really covered. We didn’t see anyone on it but it was just a bit odd and it felt like we didn’t have privacy. You can close the double doors but then you don’t have much space. And the double doors only have one curtain pane so it doesn’t even cover them. Also all the curtains are see through lol.

Our room wasn’t ready until just before 4. On Expedia it said check in was 3, so this was just a little confusing but they let us leave our bags and we went and had lunch at aria. And I could text with the staff which was a nice plus.

Once our room was ready we headed down. We were met by the cleaner who handed me a newly dried robe, apologizing for not having it in the room already. She said she’d be back in 15 with the other robe. She never brought the other robe lol. Nbd, my husband used towels.

But they had forgotten to leave a bath mat. This was easily resolved with a visit downstairs, and the cleaner quickly brought one. But they did forget it and you definitely need it. the tile gets very slippery. They provide slippers but I still don’t want the floor all wet if I can avoid it.

Then the shower, again no window but not a dealbreaker. Issue was the warm water lasted about five minutes at first . I had to go down and ask the staff who sent the engineer to come and check it out. Within five minutes he explained I needed to run the hot water tap in the sink at the same time and the shower would work. It did! But this is a huge waste of water and I’d expect a luxury hotel to have a consistent source of hot water without a hack.

When I checked in they forgot to send me the welcome text which contained the WiFi password. We expected it in the room. Again had to go downstairs and ask. I physically walked because the in room phone had been disconnected (perhaps to clean?) and I wasn’t able to figure it out. Once I mentioned it they sent the welcome text w the password. Not huge but I do expect this information to be printed in the room.

The ac was good but too cold when we arrived so I turned it down. Then at night I wanted it colder again and it never seemed to work? Like it stayed weak once I had turned it up then down. I regretted messing w it. But again was trying to conserve energy when we weren’t in the room.

The food at sage and aria is quite good. And the location is central in condado if that’s where you wanna be. Short walk to the beach.

The living wall is fake plants which is sad

Ok so just to wrap this up, the staff was helpful and attentive. But the room was just not quite what we expected and there were too many issues for us to consider this worth the price. Would not stay here again which makes me sad because everyone...

I am not sure where to begin with our stay at The O:live Boutique Hotel! From the second we pulled up to the valent to the second the valet shut my door after taking a few last pictures, the staff went above and beyond easily making this the best trip and experience of our lives!

Originally, we considered staying at one of the bigger hotels and enjoy the “resort-style” while in San Juan… then we came across O:Live Boutique! The more we looked at the pictures and the thought of a nice romantic getaway, that made our decision to cancel the resort and book at O:Live the perfect choice.

Little did I know, around six weeks prior to our trip my fiancé contacted O:Live to see about setting something up in our room upon our arrival so he could propose to me. When we arrived, we checked-in and talked to the ladies a bit before Georgina took us upstairs for our complimentary arrival cocktail. We talked to Cherlynn for a bit while Georgina went to make sure our room was ready.

Georgina took us to our room and when we opened the door, there were rose petals on the floor, a nice welcome note, red rose, a cute little stuffed pup that we named Rico on our bed, and champagne on the desk. While being in awe and taking in how amazing everything was, Chris popped the question and of course I said YES!!!!

After enjoying our champagne and celebrating our engagement, we went down to Sage for dinner. The girls downstairs ran up to me and congratulated us which of course, made me beam even more! We sat down for dinner and I believe Carlos (I’m sorry if I got his name wrong, I was too excited at the time to really comprehend his name) waited on us. The food was amazing, the service was impeccable and Audi (I remembered his name because he said it’s like the car) was very informative of what to do, where to go and how to get there.

After dinner we went up to the most beautiful roof top deck that we have ever seen! Cherlynn congratulated us and we had a few drinks before going back to our room. We were there Tuesday – Sunday and each day made a point to go up and enjoy the beautiful ambiance, the attention to every single detail they put into the deck and hotel, and of course visit with Cherlynn. I don’t want to call her a bartender, because she is so much more!!! She is someone we will never forget and hope to see soon!

After seeing the beautiful set up for a wedding reception on the deck one night, as well as the amazing staff and the perfection to detail of the hotel, we may very well be back and say “I Do!” there! It’s definitely a front runner for our special day.

If you are looking for a beautiful romantic getaway, look no further, you will fall in love with O:Live Boutique. They by far exceeded our expectations...

We just finished a four night stay and although we loved everything else about our trip to Puerto Rico, this hotel was one of the worst we’ve ever stayed in, especially for the high price point. First, we booked a partial lagoon view room. The description read “overlooking the lagoon.” In fact, the room overlooked the neighboring building. We could see a sliver of the lagoon when sitting in the patio, but the advertisement is patently misleading and was not worth the added price. We mentioned the view to the gentleman who showed us to the room and he pointed out the sliver of a view of the lagoon and said that was it. Second, the room itself was ok but the AC unit was directly over the bed so we struggled between the room temp getting too warm or cold. Overall, the room was poor designed such that the floors were constantly wet and slippery. Third, the rooftop bar was super cute but we never got to enjoy it. The one night we got back in time to go there we headed up and there was no bartender (at 6pm). We notified front desk and they said bar was open and they’d send someone up. We waited at least another 10 minutes but no one came so we went across the street to the bar at the Condado Vanderbilt. Finally, the real shocker for us was how this hotel handled our request for a late checkout. At check-in we mentioned that we’d like a late checkout if available. The front desk said to ask the day before checkout (no mention of a fee). The night before we were checking out we asked the front desk about a late checkout and she said 2pm would work (again no mention of a fee). The morning of the day we were leaving, we reconfirmed the 2pm checkout before leaving for lunch. We were set for 2pm (again, no mention of a fee). After we caught a cab, left the hotel, and were sitting having lunch, we receive a TEXT saying there’s a $75 fee for late checkout. Not a single one of the several employees we’d dealt with ever mentioned a fee. So we called the hotel and asked that it be waived since we’d already left. The hotel supervisor called back. She said that they could extend until 1 but not 2. When we pointed out that no one had communicated this, her response was basically to read the fine print in the registration. She was extremely rude. We had no choice but to leave lunch and return to the hotel. Their poor management ruined the last day of our otherwise lovely vacation. And to add insult to injury they handed us a highlighted copy of the fine print in their hotel form at checkout. Stay away from this place. Very overrated and hotel supervisor needs a serious lesson in customer service. Telling a customer to read the fine print is never the right answer. Training your employees to communicate...