We had planed a stay on the south coast of Puerto Rico at a place we had never stayed before. After 1 night we decided we were not staying there another night. No choices, too structured and the rooms were not great, dark, hot, not good. We drove to the Ponce Hilton, and went to the front desk. We explained the situation and asked what they could do for us on a last minute rate. The desk person picked up the phone and called the General Manager of the resort. Told him we had no reservations etc. Bottom line is we got a King room on the executive floor ocean view for $135 a night including Breakfast and Snacks and Drinks in the evening. How many places do you know where you can show up without reservations and the clerk at the front counter has no issue calling the Resort manager to get you a special rate on one of the best rooms in the place.

We stayed here at the end of December 2007 for one night. The hotel has lovely gardens with fish, ducks, and turtles -- great for entertaining the kiddo. The pool is small but nice, and is saltwater. Because we were here for one night only, we didn't have time to enjoy a lot of the other amenities the hotel offers. If you're not into gambling, don't let the casino scare you. We didn't even know where it was until we were checking out. Unlike Las Vegas, the casino is behind double doors with a small sign, so it's easy to avoid. Our only complaint was that the hair dryer in the bathroom didn't work well, but it wasn't a big deal. Just a warning when traveling to Ponce -- nothing about the hotel here, but it is a buggy place. This was our second trip to the town (first to the Hilton) and both times, the bugs ate us up. Take lots of bug spray.

My boyfriend and I traveled to Puerto Rico to visit his parents but we wanted to get away for the weekend. This was the only place we could find with availability (even a month in advance). We were pleasantly surprised. The lobby was large and clean and the front desk personnel were helpful and friendly. We thought the room was modern and clean, and had a small fridge. Our room was ocean/pool view on the first level and we loved being able to walk right out to the beach. The hotel hosted a corporate family day on our last day and set up a huge tent almost right in front of our room. The crew was noisy constructing the tents, so we contacted the front desk and they offered a different room with a worse view, so we stayed. The pool was very small but clean with lots of kids around. We appreciated that the hottub stayed open all night. The sports bar by the pool served good (strong) drinks and good bar-type food. The lobby bar could be loud at night with the entertainment, The beach was windy and the sand was gray -- not overly exciting. We took the free shuttle over to the Costa Caribe Golf Resort pool one day -- they had a much larger and prettier pool, better chairs with umbrellas, decent beach, better poolside bar and slightly larger food menu, and a fabulous view of the golf course and mountains. It's worth it to go use that pool. Overall, we had a great weekend and were comfortable. It's a typical nice large resort. Staff was nice and the hotel was clean. We would go back there again!

If you can, go somewhere else in the Caribbean. Ponce, as a town, is pretty awful, with nothing to see, many abandoned buildings and little to do outside of going to the beach, which definitely has some shady people loitering around. As for the hotel, I'm sure it was nice... 25 years ago. Currently, it's tired and doesn't deserve the category 5 rating it gets from Hilton. As a caveat, I don't have a family, and this hotel is big on kid-friendly activities, and I didn't play golf, so individuals with those travel requirements may feel differently. But in a word, I found this hotel disappointing.

I have stayed at Hilton's in Hawaii (Hawaiin Village) and Barbados, as well at other hotels (Marriott & Sheraton) in St. Thomas and Bermuda. I found all of those hotels far exceed the quality of accommodations and service at the Ponce Hilton. The rooms here have turquoise industrial-quality tile (think nursing home), turquoise walls and 2 rugs on each side of the bed that look like they are from wal-mart. The luxury bathrooms you expect at such a hotel are non-existent. The bathrooms are utilitarian at best (think HoJo) - and were far exceeded in luxury and comfort by the hampton inn at which we stayed in San Juan. Room service plates sit outside doors all day and into the night.

Although the grounds are pretty, the only medium-sized pool does not have a seperate area for adults only (as they do in Barbados) and it is overrun with kids, both on vacation and local kids who presumably belong to Hilton's beach club. There is also no supervision - we literally saw a group of kids screaming profanities at each other and egging on two little girls to hit one another. No one intervened. Towels are hard to find and gone by noon. The one hot tub, which holds 6-8 people, had pineapple rinds both inside and surrounding the tub. The work out facilities, like the hotel, are outdated with only 2 rickety treadmills.

All of the Hilton's I stay at for work (52 nights in this past year alone) are superior to this hotel. Luckily, we used points to stay here and although we are disappointed, at least we did not pay hundreds of dollars a night.

IF you do stay here, one very bright spot is Nadine, the concierge who is extremely helpful, candid and friendly. Also we had a good meal at La Cava and although expensive, the quality of the food befits the price.