When we were looking for a hotel in San Juan, the main thing we wanted was a beachfront location. That is what we got here at the Hosteria del Mar, but not much else. Yes, the lobby is nice, the restaurant is one of the best in the neighborhood (coincidentally, the most expensive), and the beachfront patio is awesome. However, if you are not in a room on the beach, it is not as great. Our rooms were very shabby. I say rooms because we had to change rooms after we checked in, due to a bookkeeping error, which was very annoying. Each of the bathrooms had problems - the first one wouldn't drain, and in the second one, the shower did not work. period. But by that time we were so exhausted and sick of the change we didn't feel like moving again. Also, the A/C isn't great, the rooms were very humid, and oh man! What mosquitos! I have never been so eaten up by bugs. Finally, the free wireless internet wasn't working.

This hotel's only redeeming qualities were:
1) the free breakfast was a good start (fruit, toast, coffee cake, hot drinks, etc)
2) the people at the front desk, though incompetent most of the time, were very nice

Needless to say, we will not be returning, and we will not recommend this to friends.

Made reservations three weeks in advance at the front desk for a weekend stay. The same day we arrived we were told our room was unavailable and they had relocated us at a private residence back patio apartment. The residence was about three blocks away from the hotel and a street over the beach front. Paying for a hotel room at a beachfront hotel is not the same as paying for a “service” apartment, it was unacceptable. They should have called us as soon as they knew our reserved room was unavailable. No call, no decent accommodations, not even an offer for a rain-check. We were rudely dismissed without any concern.

We stayed here for two nights and had a very enjoyable stay. The restaurant is wonderful...it makes you feel like you're on a tropical island from the tiki-style set-up of the area. The beach is literally a step outside the door and the view is also phenomenal of the ocean. The food is outstanding....a little on the expensive side, but well worth it! Our room was not an ocean front room, therefore it was a little stuffy. I would recommend an ocean front room if available. But everything is clean and in order. The receptionists are helpful, you just need to ask them. PARKING...make sure you ask the desk how to get in to park because the hotel is in a gated-in community (for safety, i presume). Once you find the gate, not hard, it is very easy to navigate yourself in the area. Literally, less than 10 minutes from the airport.

The idea of staying at a quaint guest house right on the beach versus a big box hotel sold us to the idea of Hosteria del Mar. We fell in love with the place when we had dinner there in December. We were aware that Hosteria del Mar is rated as a two star hotel. We also read the reviews with the same issues/complaints coming up frequently. It was hard to determine if the management was addressing the problems since they do not reply on Trip Advisor. That being said, here is a synopsis of our 5 day stay there.

I arrived at the hotel in the middle of a torrential downpour, about 1:30 in the afternoon. I approached the reservation desk and I believe that a woman by the name of Nivia greeted me. She smiled and then told me that check in was not until 4:00. I explained that the taxi had dropped me, it was pouring rain, and i had all this luggage;what could I do? She smiled again and said that she didn't know what to tell me, but check in was not until 4:00. I would get very used to this smile. For the next 5 days, this smile was usually followed by a subtle insult, a snide remark, or NOTHING at all. This woman is not who i would use as the first face my customers see!! She remained totally unhelpful for our entire stay. She finally "allowed" me to put my luggage in an area of the lobby so that I could go to the bar and have a drink. She said that she would check to see when my room would be ready. NINETY minutes later she again told me that she would check on my room. Around 3:30 she gave me a key which signified the room was upstairs. I told her that we had reserved a beach front room on the first floor. She said that room was no longer available and that I had to go to the room upstairs.

Another staff member helped me get my luggage to the second floor. The room was decent, but the air conditioning had not been turned on and so the temperature of the room was stifling. Plus there was a musty, chemical type smell. I turned on the air and opened the doors to remove the humidity and the other peculiar smells. I stood out on the balcony and the view was spectacular. I went back downstairs and asked why the room on the first floor was no longer available. I was told the air conditioning was broken. I was told that if the air was fixed the following day, we could trade rooms for the rest of our stay. I asked to see the room on the first floor. The room was not as spacious as the room upstairs and it opened right up onto the deck of the restaurant!! I told the receptionist that we would keep the room we had upstairs. As I was unpacking, the receptionist called and said that she had two very nice rooms downstairs that I could stay in, but then she remembered that we were staying through Tuesday so she had to check and see if the rooms were available until then. She would call me right back. Forty minutes later I walked downstairs to find out if the rooms were available. Oh yes, they were. Same smile, You mean no one called you?" I looked at both rooms. Again, they weren't as spacious and they opened right on to the restaurant. Not much privacy or view!! But they did have larger bathrooms with a tub. I again told her that we would keep the room on the second floor. But I was puzzled. When I arrived at the hotel, there were no rooms on the firat floor and now there were two??

When I reported that my room had small bugs in it (which i can more than understand, this is the tropics) I was left a can of Raid--which explains the smell in the room. The room has no alarm clock, so we needed to count on wake up calls. Two of the 3 we requested never came, making us late for both our scuba dive trip and our plane out of Puerto Rico. The customer service was just lacking at many times, in my opinion.
We were given small, hotel size soaps for the shower and a slotted soap dish that would only accomodate a full size bar of soap without it falling out the bottom. Consequently, we spent a lot of time chasing the soap around the shower floor. Just another small annoyance that added up with the others to be a big annoyance. Our shower only had a small lip as a threshold and so if the shower curtain wasn't completely pulled into the shower, which gave me about 2 feet of room to shower, the whole bathroom was flooded. The size of the air conditioner was not ample for the size of the room. Consequently, it ran constantly making a whole lot of racket but never really cooling down the room.
Beach towels are $2 a day, but the chairs are free. the use of the in room safe was $3 a day. Why are the customers being nicked and dimed like this??

The restaurant is fabulous for lunch and dinner. Skip breakfast though. Charlie and Johanna were great servers and went the extra mile with a smile. A few others again shouldn't be in customer service.
Expect there to be a substantial wait for meals. But they are well worht the wait. The tuna, lamb, filet and red snapper were simply delicious as were the carpaccios and conch salad. The portions are certainly American sized. Try a sangria as well, yuumy and packed with a punch. Even if you choose not to stay at Hosteria del Mar, you must come to eat. Be prepared, it is a bit pricey.

The room was spacious and clean, but a little worn. The towels and curtains had holes and the bed clothes were definitely past there prime, but the room was cleaned daily. There was a refridgerator in the room which was very nice. The closet space was ample with plenty of hangers. There is also a desk with drawers and a chest of drawers. There is a TV and stand with more drawers. We relaxed frequently on the balcony, enjoying the view and the sea spray. The shower had plenty of pressure and hot water. The second floor allows for a lot more privacy. Some of the rooms are right above the deck of the restaurant but there still seems to be privacy.

I would stay here again, but would hope that some of the problems would be addressed. Especially the lack of customer service by some of the individuals on staff--the reception area and the servers in the restaurant. With just a little effort and some minor updates Hosteria del Mar would be our first choice very time.
Please feel free to contact me with any further questions or thoughts.