The Gallery Inn — Hotel in San Juan

I understood when I made the reservation to stay at The Gallery Inn, that it was an older, unique hotel with small rooms. In actuality, this hotel was dirty and disgusting. When I was shown to my room, the employee couldn’t get the overhead light on. He told me they’d have to look into fixing it, and left me without the main light in the room. Fortunately, I took the time to test the dial switch on the wall as well as the pull chain, and finally got it working. I was surprised they expected me to just be there without the light working.

On the sheets in the bed in a couple places, I found stray pieces of hair, that definitely weren’t mine. I worry the sheets weren’t changed before my arrival.

Worst of all, there were three different types of bugs in my room. I had tiny ones crawling around, flying insects, and worst of all, a cockroach on the dirty floor. I was so upset and worried about it and the possibility of others, that I slept with the lights on (since they supposedly don’t like light), and barely slept.

Not only were there cockroaches, but the tile floor in my room was so dirty, I couldn’t walk around without shoes on.

While the bathroom was very small, with a narrow space to enter as you maneuver around the sink, the water in the shower was absolutely abysmal. They also only provided two bath towels, and no hand towels or washcloths. Also, I asked for an extra blanket for my bed, and I was given two top sheets.

Everything on the walls, which I thought were supposed to focus on art and color, was a mess. Some art had been taken down, and only the nails were visible to look at. The other art had paint from the walls splattered on it. I don’t know what happened, besides a bad paint job. The paint for the walls had dripped on the furniture, outlet covers, ceiling, light scones, baseboards, and floor. The paintings and the bed frame were crooked, as well as the tiny shelf in the bathroom. The towel rack brackets were falling out of the wall, and the toilet paper roll holder wasn’t on correctly. I don’t understand what cleaning actually gets done in the rooms between guests.

The mirrors were so antique, they were rusted, and therefore unable to be used for their intended purpose.

There was a nice view of Old San Juan from the rooftop patio, however the staircase to access the rooftop patio was so rickety, I was worried it would collapse at any minute. On the roof, the wooden bench seating was broken.

There was clutter an everywhere, and cleaning supplies were left out in the main hallway. Also in the main hallway, the floorboards were loose, and lifted depending on which side of them you were walking on.

They did warn ahead of time that the desk is not staffed overnight, but when I was up quite early to get out of that bug-infested hell hole to get to the airport, some guy who appeared to work there was wondering around, and passed me a couple times as I brought my suitcases down and returned my room key, but he never said a word to me.

I was excited to stay in a quaint, unique hotel, but this dingy, extremely dirty, disgusting place was the nightmare that had my vacation come to a crashing end.

It’s been almost a month now since I was there, and while I was told I’d receive my statement in the mail because I was checking out when no one would be working at the desk, I’ve yet...

As someone who prefers modern hotels, I highly recommend staying here at least 1 night to check it out!

The Gallery Inn seemed so unique and gorgeous from the pictures and various videos on Youtube that we decided to try it, and it was well worth the experience.

The courtyards were breathtaking! Full of plants, sculptures, paintings, and plenty of seating for a relaxing morning or afternoon. We couldn’t stop taking pictures. Hot coffee in one of the courtyards was one of my favorite moments.

There were also larger birds that were fun to see! I think their names are Rembrandt, Mikey, and can’t remember the last one. Other birds would also frequent the courtyards.

There was a piano in one of the common spaces that was fun to play.

The rooftop was also spectacular! 360 view of the old town, San Juan, El Yunque in the distance, and the ocean.

The pool among the ruins was cool to see, especially with the pleasant courtyard above with plenty of seating and the attachment to the Cannon Club.

Lots to explore and enjoy here!

We stayed in a Vista room, which ended up being the one right by the entrance gate. Initially, the room made us feel a bit weird, like we were staying in a historic museum home. We didn’t sit in the furniture (sorry!) bc they looked too old and dusty, but the bed was clean and comfy. The bathroom was a bit small, but also pretty clean.

We also had these wooden doors that had small sections that acted as windows if pulled open. The doors could be barred with wooden planks to lock shut from the outside. These doors opened up to a balcony with a view of La Perla and the ocean. Waking up to the ocean view and sound of the waves with a nice breeze was stunning.

Wifi in the room was pretty spotty, but sufficed when standing close to the balcony.

There was loud music coming from La Perla until 1.30am ish on a Wednesday night, so definitely bring ear plugs, which make the sound tolerable. Otherwise I recommend staying in a Colonial room, which faces in a courtyard (where we couldn’t rly hear the music), or maybe get placed in one of the rooms that faces into the town (might still have noise from clubs and bars).

I’m not sure if I would stay again because the style of the rooms doesn’t suit me, and the noise of La Perla was unbearable without earplugs. Maybe I would try a Colonial room again if I were to revisit PR.

Another note is that you can see the live music, swimming pool, above courtyard, and a little bit of the common spaces just by visiting the Cannon Club (vs. staying at the inn), There is a locked gate separating the rooms in The Gallery Inn for extra security that guests will have the passcode for. The front gate is also locked by code for added security.

Hopefully this helps someone in the future with their plans!

Overall, the courtyards, the birds, the live music, greenery, rooftop, morning coffee, unique swimming pool, staff, and history of The Gallery Inn was just amazing. Experiencing all of these things was idyllic and worth the few caveats I mentioned above. I...

Don’t stay in the family suite if you want lights and electricity. Such a shame I have to leave this terrible review of a place that we so loved visiting last year! We brought my mother for her 65th birthday and stayed in a two room family suite. One entire half of the suite had no electricity! The lights would flash and blink and gradually dim out to nothing. We had to just sit there in the dark unable to even charge our phones. We know it’s an old historic hotel- that’s what we so love about it! But no electricity and in fact dangerous electricity that could have shorted out or caused a fire is unacceptable. We brought this to the attention of the front desk on several occasions and were told oh yeah this happens sometimes, thought we had it fixed. Then we were told oh the electrician is here give us your keys and he will fix it. So then we were locked out of our room for over an hour. And they never fixed it!! We had to beg them to give us a hour extension on to our check out time to make up for the lock out which they begrudgingly did. The worst part of it all is that no one seemed to care in the least! The front desk staff barely could be bothered to say a genuine “I’m so sorry this happened, what can we do to make it right” All we got was a curt, dead behind the eyes “I’m sorry” - let alone did they even pretend to consider discounting the room or even something as simple as “why don’t you head up to our bar, have a drink on us while we try to figure something out” pretty much customer service 101.I’ve heard people complain about the place is dirty/moldy/musty/dusty- this is not that. We love the quirks and charms of this place. Electricity is a bare minimum basic need. Not too much to ask. Emails went unanswered. Until I had to call and say hi can someone please address my concerns??? and they sat on the phone reading the email and then said we are not going to do anything about this and hung up on me! It’s truly sad because Jan created an iconic place that I fear is now going the way of we don’t care about our customers the ones who make us what we are, the ones who pay the bills, the ones who funded her empire. We had loved recommending this place to friends, and thought it would be someplace we came back to every year. Sadly, unless someone from ownership or management contacts me to just genuinely apologize (and maybe train your front desk to show some human emotions) that’s all I’m asking for really, at minimum, we won’t ever return and will never...