My husband and I stayed at this hotel prior to a cruise.
we LOVED Da House. Location was great. Rooms are small but very nicely decorated. We spent much time on the roof top terrace enjoying the night time breeze and some glasses of wine. We visited many of the local establishments in downtown San Juan which we truly enjoyed. YES-there is a bit of a noise factor due to the salsa club that is in the alley where the entrance of the hotel is...so if you know this would bother you-please do not stay here. I wouldn't want to have someone write a bad review about Da House since you would have fair warning about the noise factor by reading previous reviews.. We had an interior room-and let me tell you that when you close the wooden shutters the room remains pitch black-doesn't matter if it's day or night, it's dark. Make sure you have some sort of wake up call, since we really over slept. It did not interfere with our cruise departure since we did not leave until 5pm.
The staff are geat and we will definetly return to DA HOUSE in a heartbeat.

After reading a NY Times review of Da House from a few years ago, we knew we wanted to stay here.

Beware, the "Let's Go Puerto Rico" book marked this hotel incorrectly in the map of Old San Juan, which caused us a little bit of a problem when we were trying to find it.

Once we located it, we were so pleased and excited about our choice. I would say the style is eclectic contemporary with Old World charm. The beds are comfortable, appealing and pretty with crisp white linens and original artwork of local puerto rican artists. We were really impressed with some of the art and wanted to take it home with us, but we're really not at the economic level yet to be buying $2,000 screen prints. Some day.

We loved the hot tub on the rooftop that had a nice view of the city and the fort. We spent late afternoon up there and shared a bottle of wine.

(Sidenote about the wine: They have wine lists for room service on the bedside, but when we ordered on at the reception desk they only had one bottle - it was a good one, so we took it. But, then they had no glasses. Then, they had no corkscrew! At first, the receptionist told us to go to the restaurant across the alley and ask them to open it, but when I told her that was weird and uncomfortable, one of the cleaning people helped us at went and got it opened for us. They also rounded up some silly plastic wine cups which did the job. Anyway, problem solved. And when we checked out the next day I saw they had a new crate of wine glasses from our homestate glass manufacturer, Libbey Glass.)

Everything they say about the noise is TRUE. It is HORRIBLE, and if you want to sleep anytime before 3 am you should buy or bring really good earplugs (I recommend the silicon kind you can get at Walgreens at the Plaza del Armas.)

I would say that 2 days and one night in Old San Juan is plenty. We got bored and annoyed with sunburnt cruise ship dropoffs, the same 'ole souvineer shops and Peruvian knicknack and Indonesian furniture stores on every corner.

Here's what I would recommend doing: Take a trip to the forts. Wander around an take pictures of the old doors and people. Spend an evening checking out a nice restaurant. (We're not big nightlife people, but I hear it's good, too.)

The good parts first. This is a beautiful place, beautiful chandelier and original artwork everywhere. Reasonable price . Helpful staff . The problems. I blame myself for not requesting an inside room when I made my reservations, but I didn't and the corner room I had was extremely noisy. Not only was there partying most of the night but the first morning at about 7:00 some kind of work which involved picking up and dropping large slabs of stone started taking place on the street below my room. Blam, Blam, Blam! I had bought earplugs and also tried the ones they will give you, but not much help. Although the staff is very nice and helpful, this is a very busy hotel and you need patience while you wait for them to help other people. Do not underestimate the noise. I am not sensitive to noise but this is a lot of noise. The second night I took a pill. The stairs aren't great but I stayed on the second floor (where the lobby is) and I did make it up and down. Staff is really very nice, I give them five stars. I might even stay there again, I just would be sure to book an inside room. I think you might well enjoy Da House.

As long as your expectations are in check you will be happy at the Da House. The location is great, the rooms are very clean, and the staff is friendly. As mentioned in other posts, it is loud at night and the rooms are small and basic. The price can't be beat for the overall experience. We were in town one night ahead of cruise so it worked perfect. So was the Da House worth it - Da!