Please do yourself a favor and don't stay at this hotel. It's not clean, dark, and unfriendly. You may think from the location it sounds like a great place and deal, but it's not.

1. There is so much road construction and all the streets are one-way that it's almost impossible to get to the hotel even with a gps. Once you get there you find out you have to park your car down a huge hill, and walk back to the hotel since there is no valet.
2. There is really nothing to do in old San Juan, don't waste your vacay in this dirty old town.
3. There was only one elevator that was like a box... You had to close two doors to make it move in slow motion.
4. Our room had a balcony, but all night long you were hearing honnking and the garbage trucks at 4 am.
5. Our phone and safe was broken. As well, the tv was from the 90s.

I wish I had researched a better hotel and didn't waste 2 days in this dump.
:)

My husband and I stayed for 2 days following a 7 day cruise.
Very good location, unfortunate that the staff and hotel does not measure up to the location!
----Hair in the shower--GROSS
----Only 1 channel available on the TV
----Staff had a hard time explaining how to use the ancient elevator
----Terrible A/C

I read many reviews about this hotel before booking. I thought people were being overly critical. This was a super location. For $100 plus tax. How could we go wrong. Well, now I know. We stayed here for one night before our cruise. The lobby was full of people checking in and they had one person working the front desk. It took us over one hour to check in and get to our room. We had to go up the elevator in "shifts" because there was not enough room for two people and luggage. After touring OSJ all day we came back to find out that we had absolutely no hot water at all. The front desk clerk said nothing could be done because it was Sunday. We were also told that we could not change rooms because the hotel was full. The air conditioner was on high and blew directly down upon our bed. We could not adjust the temperature or get it to turn off. We were told the same thing, it was Sunday, nothing could be done. We were also told that there were no more blankets. We spent a miserable night. The next morning when we went to check out the clerk at the front desk said she had not been told about the lack of hot water and the air conditioner problem. We were so glad to check out and get to our cruise ship. Never again, I should have paid attention to the reviews I read before booking this hotel.

We had a pleasant stay at the Plaza de Armas and enjoyed its quirky imperfections. Housed in a 17th Century building in the very heart of Old San Juan, the location was ideal. The vintage elevator wasn’t working when we were there, but it was fun to wind our way up the narrow stairs – it accentuated the age and history of the place and reminded me of passages I’d taken to rooms above old pubs in Europe. But it would be tight with large suitcases.

While there, we learned that there used to be only one bathroom per floor until about 7 years ago, so the building has been completely retrofitted to include more convenient modern plumbing (each room with it’s own bath) fairly recently. We did not mind small rooms, or dark rooms, as we only slept there. Our adventure was outdoors, wandering the fabulous blue cobblestone streets of Old San Juan and surrounds.

Our room and bathroom were clean, we had hot water, didn’t try the phone (we have cell phones) nor did we try the TV – we came in exhausted from our wanderings each day and collapsed and are not big TV watchers.

The staff was always friendly and helpful. There was no restaurant or food in the building while we were there – but there doesn’t need to be. There are fabulous restaurants everywhere. For breakfast, we went a few blocks to the Hotel El Convento (a $350 a night place) and had a wonderful breakfast in a beautiful setting for about $10 each. It’s not the Ritz, it’s not a resort, and it’s not a boutique hotel, but it doesn’t try to be, so if that’s what you want, this is not the place. If you want to be in an historic property right in the middle of Old San Juan for a pretty good value and can be easy going if need be about minor inconveniences, the Plaza de Armas may suit you just fine.