DON'T STAY HERE! The rooms are sooo tiny and the whole entire hotel has a funny, mold like smell. The continental breakfast includes bread, and cereal with powdered milk. To top it all of THERE IS NO HOT WATER! And they had a drainage problem, it took hours for the shower to drain after one person used it, so if... more

i stayed there in april 11-14 2006 and it was nice. there is a strange smell indeed but it's bareble the staff in lovely. the breakfast needs some help a little cheese maybe, but above all i enjoyed my stay i will go back there more

Stayed for two nights here. Seemed like a decent place for the money from the descriptions etc and i thought they would have cleaned it up after previous comments. Also i thought the roof deck would be nice to relax on - until i booked in and they told me it was only open for breakfast!!! even though their web... more

After reading 2003-2004 reviews about the El Portal Hotel, I was worried but I took my chances anyway. The Hotel was a lot better than what people say. I stayed in room 702 and it was a nice clean room. The room had one large bedroom and a decent size bathroom. There were a total of two rooms that were... more

Black stuff on ceiling. Filth in the curtains. Windows didn't open. Smell in the room. Mirror doors with so much dirt on them it was hard to see yourself. Carpet needed cleaning if not that at least a vacuam. Not as if we had an early check in. Arrived 9.30 at night. was alittle creeped out to say the least.... more

We had a last minute stay in San Juan on January 1, when all the good cheap hotels were taken. We figured we could handle El Portal for one night, despite the bad TripAdvisor ratings. It was pretty bad, folks. Our room did not have hot water, and the shower was clogged, so after determining a hot shower would not... more

My family (8 of us) stayed at the Hotel El Portal in January of 2005. We had three rooms reserved through Travelocity - they didn't inform the hotel one room was to accomodate 4 people. The staff was very helpful and solved the dilemma. Four of us lost our luggage on the flight, due to a connector in Chicago and... more

I stayed at Hotel El Portal in March, 2004. Relative to other hotels in San Juan the price was right. It also has a good location, being fairly close to Old San Juan, the beach, and the bus stop. From the outside, the hotel is cute, as is the rooftop patio where they serve breakfast. The staff were pleasant and... more

Hotel El Portal is a horrible hotel. The rooms are small , the bathroom filthy. The TV doesn't work. The "breakfast" if you want to call it that...had flies on it. It's just a open spot on the terrace where you MUST SERVE YOURSELF. Food that is open to the flies !!! THe guy behind the counter was sleeping! The... more