We spent four days at this Hotel, and that's only because we were with a wedding party. We were ready to leave after the first night, but couldn't since when you book the room, you are obligated to PAY for the days booked, with no alternative to cancel. (This doesn't even sound LEGAL!) We had a VERY SMALL room overlooking the Caribbean Sea, but COULDN'T OPEN THE BLINDS/SHADES to enjoy the sunshine or the view! When we complained about this we were ignored. The staff does it's best to clean the rooms and the beach is maintained quite well, but we experienced power outages and the showers were barely a trickle of tepid water. I would NOT recommend this place to my worst enemy. Avoid this hotel at all costs! Pay the extra $$ and enjoy your stay in San Juan, which is actually quite an accommodating city in P.R. I wish I had viewed this site before booking this room. BEWARE!

I've been a world traveller on a budget for many years, so I've sampled more than a few bed and breakfasts, etc. In addition I've been staying in the Ocean Park area of San Juan for close to thrity years. I recently chose Hosteria on the basis of a one night stop-over five years ago, and was charmed by the warm wood and rattan interior and the delightful late-night staff. I must say that this particular stay was a disappointing one. The rooms (we stayed there on two different occasions as stop-overs to and from Culebra) were greatly in need of painting. They were not really clean--gritty-floor syndrome. The Ocean Park beach has declined in cleanliness to the point of un-usability! Not the fault of Hosteria, to be sure, but a problem nonetheless. The night staff were delightful, but the day staff tended to be on the grumpy side. The breakfasts were terrible! No fruit, over-cooked coffee, tough eating out on their wooden deck is still a joy. Go to Kasalta on McLeary for somne edible morning fare. Finally, the rooms are greatly over-priced for what they are. $250. per night can almost get you a roomn at the Normandie, if that's your cup of tea (...and why not?) Numero Uno down the beach a few blocks is a much better deal, believe me!

One big compliment: I left some clothes in the closet en route to Culebra and they had them for me when I returned. That counts for a lot!

It's sad - this was obviously a terrific hotel... once. The carved wood of the entrance and dining room is beautiful, the sand just outside the door is soft and inviting, the expensive restaurant serves still-excellent food. Past the lobby and dining rooms, however, buyer beware. The hotel is dying fast from a complete lack of adult supervision. The staff is made up of pretty 20-somethings, more intent on comparing tongue studs and tattoos than actually serving hotel guests. After we arrived, the indifferent teenager at the front desk gave us the key to our room and let us haul our own bags upstairs. When we opened the door, we found... other peoples' clothes and things strewn about. Oops! Back to the front desk, where the hapless clerk scratched his head for awhile before drifting upstairs to see what he could do about the situation. Twenty minutes and one very hasty clean-up job later we were again given the keys to the same room. This time it was empty, although we found a pair of sneakers under one bed and the pillows on the other bed still smelled of someone else's cologne. Oh well, too late to fuss over details -- our two small children and we settled down to sleep, after setting the alarm for the 6am wake-up we'd need to make our plane the next day. We were all sprawled half-naked and deep asleep on our beds when the locks on the door started rattling at about 1am. My husband just had time to spring up and grab the door before the couple who thought they were still staying in the room opened it with their key. Seems the front desk had forgotten to tell them about the change. Confusion ensued.
But don't get the impression that this one incident has prompted me to write a disgruntled review. We were in the hotel for a couple of nights one week before this incident, and the problem was the same: clueless staff, absent management. The first impression is great, but the longer you stay the more you notice how bad things are. That lovely soft sand outside the door? Full of cigarette butts and people's discarded napkins and lemon rinds, cause the hotel staff can't be bothered to give it a quick rake every morning. The delicious though expensive restaurant? In the morning, guests are treated to a "continental breakfast" of coffee in styrofoam cups, individual boxes of Frosted Flakes, and red delicious apples. And yes, the carved wood downstairs is beautiful -- but those shiny poly bed covers and foam pillows upstairs are kinda hard to square with the hotel's upscale rates.
I don't recommend.

We had a reservation for 1 night. When we arrived they could not tell us if our room was available. We went for a walk on the beach for 45 minutes and when we returned they still did not know. The desk clerk finally went and checked and said the room was "clean" and ready. We went to the room. It was in a hidden corner of the hotel with multiple locks on the door that were incredibly difficult to open. The outside area smelled of mold and bleach. Finally, we got in the room and it smelled no better. The bedspread had obvious stains. The room was one of their more inexpensive rooms, but for $110 a night I still expect basic cleanliness. We went back to the clerk and explained the situation and asked what else was available. He had another room that regularly goes for $189, he would give it to us for $150. We looked, we said ok. then he rented it to someone else. He then offered another room that he said when we saw it we would want to move in and not leave, it went for $239. After much discussion, he said we could have it for $150. We got to the room, it did not smell of bleach, there were not obvious stains, but the floor felt dirty, the bathroom smelled. We did not want to move in! The saving grace of the place is it is directly on a beautiful beach, but don't go there expecting a nice room regardless of how much you pay.