Stay at Mare — Hotel in San Juan

The value of this hotel can’t be beat. Weekend rates for our room were under 200 a night, I also liked the location. It is a hotel in a city neighborhood, I never felt unsafe in our neighborhood but we were also two men traveling together. It is a twenty minute walk from the beach area and Loiza street is right around the corner and has tons of restaurants. Hotel is gay friendly. No issues with that. The little pool is cute. There is a common area that has a communal fridge and a second fridge stocked with water which was much appreciated. This isn’t exactly a hotel per se, there is no front desk and everything was handled via email (via English or Spanish) with gate and door codes and check in and all of that. A pro or con depending on how much human interaction you want to have with staff members. Property felt pretty secure with the door gate. This hotel is a hike from old town though so keep that in mind, you’ll likely need to uber to many places in San Juan. Amenities are otherwise pretty sparse, The rooms are spartan in terms of decoration and honestly our room could use some tlc. The door privacy shade was starting to look a bit frayed, the white walls had marks behind the bed that I wasn’t sure if it was the paint under it is something else and the bed frame was absolutely the worst. We are big dudes but I’ve never had a hotel bed make truly god awful grating noises when getting in and out of the bed. It felt like the frame was about to fall apart and even moving in the bed caused these ungodly noises, in addition, the metal frame corners were not very kind and I definitely skinned my leg more than once on the exposed metal frame corners, bathroom products were provided including moisturizer. Hot water was nice. Pressure was fine. I did not love the sliding door for the bathroom. Also the location of the paper towel holder was very strangely placed and very difficult to reach when doing your business. We didn’t have any issues with noise but you can definitely hear people outside if they are talking loudly and moving outside your room. Room overall is pretty small in size and the bathroom is cramped. Almost no drawer space, limited paces to hang wet clothing and towels, no safe, no chairs, no real tables or place to eat, and no real place to store luggage or clothes. AC did work nicely and the tv was functional. There is no cleaning service during your stay so if you run out of tp or make a mess, oh well ? There is a cleaning fee charged in addition to your overnight rate which I thought was a bit silly considering they only clean before arrival and after you leave. The room itself was clean upon arrival but it wasn’t exactly spotless. I.e. soap scum not scrubbed off the metal holder in the sink. Not a bad stay per say and we did have more money to go out and enjoy the city with the low nightly rates, however, will probably be looking at other accommodation options when we return...

I would not classify this place a hotel as it does not have a manned reception and everything must be done through email/phone. About a week before I arrived, I received an email with the building entry codes and lockbox code to my room. The property's proximity to the beach and nearby sites make it a great a choice for groups. I would not recommend staying here as a solo traveler. The one things that I want to express is the extremely thin walls. The first night I was there, I shared the spaces with a group of college age kids who threw a pool party at 2:30am. It was super loud and disrupting, especially since I had just gotten in at 11:00pm and was exhausted. From the moment I got in, I could hear everyone around at all times including people going in and out of their rooms, what they were doing in their rooms, people outside of the property, etc. If you're bothered by noise, and there will be noise, I recommend staying somewhere else. If you are staying here, I would recommend staying in the outlying rooms that are next to the shared kitchen at the back of property for quietness and privacy. I stayed in room 31 on the second floor for a week and put together a pro/con list. Overall Stay at Mare is not the best, but certainly not the worst.

The Good: Good price Good communication Wonderful location A nice clean room Great AC for hot/humid days Good pool area Nice shared kitchen space Internet access

The Bad: Horrible water pressure in room Extremely thin walls (you will hear EVERYTHING. Your neighbors, people in the pool, cars outside, coquis, the construction, EVERYTHING. I bought ear plugs because it was so bad and it be became difficult to sleep.) The photos from the website have mini fridges in some of the rooms. There is a shared kitchen but no mini fridge in the room. No additional room service/cleaning options. What you get is what you get. Your room will not be cleaned until you leave. As a solo travel, I'm not entirely sure I felt safe being in this kind of space by myself. The property itself is secure, however, the room doors upstairs were really flimsy and did not...

The place is fine if you want to save a bit of money, but don't bother with it if it's not significantly cheaper than your other options. I also would not recommend this place to anyone who isn't physically capable of defending themselves just in case.

The walls are paper thin so you will hear EVERYTHING. I could hear the courtyard all the way across the property. I could hear the person in a nearby room vomiting. I could hear TVs, music, alarms, and full conversatios. I could hear a woman being beaten in the next room by the man she was with. It is a guarantee you will be woken up daily by something.

The room itself is fine, just very basic. Wasn't super clean, but also not dirty enough to complain or anything given the price. There is a shared fridge and kitchen in the courtyard but most times I walked by the fridge was wide open. Someone's idea of a prank I guess. There's no staff present so several rooms had a lot of people in them partying. There's no real parking, so if you have a car you should expect to look for street parking a few...