La Terraza De San Juan

A quaint old hotel with perfect location in Old San Juan! We stayed in the 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment, which may have been a slightly different experience than a regular room here. Also, we kept up our Do Not Disturb sign and didn't utilize housekeeping, so can't speak to the quality of that. The good: - Clean sheets and perfect location for walking all over Old San Juan, an area which incidentally was spared from the recent water lock-offs. - Old quaint buildings mean creaky doors and signs of wear and tear, but it was all part of the charm. Felt aged but not dirty. We did not have issues with our toilets clogging, though one had a far stronger flush than the other. - This is an urban location -- the windows are for letting in light, not for an expansive view. We had both street-facing windows and courtyard-facing windows and felt no difference, unlike previous reviewers. The windows are all shuttered anyway, so they are just for light coming in through the shutters. Our bedrooms had two different doorway exits for safety, with windows in the doors to let in ambient light, whether or not they had external windows. - During the day time, the ambient city noise was part of the charm, and it was surprisingly quiet outside at night. - We came prepared with fly tape based on previous reviews, but never saw a bug. Did see ant traps in some cabinets, but no ants. (We've spent enough time in Caribbean kitchens to know what a feat this is!) - We can't vouch for the paid breakfast here, just because there were so many great walkable food options that we never needed to eat at the hotel unless we brought something back to heat up in our kitchen. - The 2-bedroom unit had 4 A/C units with their own remotes, so we didn't have the shared remote problem mentioned in other reviews. The A/C units do have a definite hum to them, but that was just white noise to us. - The small rooftop pool is nice and peaceful, but it's important you (and especially your kids) know it is for quiet relaxing, not splashing and playing, or you will be disappointed. The drawbacks: - We had two bathrooms with showers as well as a full kitchen. Of all of that plumbing, only one of our showers and no sinks had hot water. - We were only given 4 bath towels, 2 hand towels, 2 washcloths, 0 kitchen towels, 0 paper towels or napkins, and 0 bath mats for a full-kitchened room that sleeps 6 and consistently floods the hot water bathroom during showers. Getting more towels was an ordeal requiring multiple arguments and waiting for a load to finish in the dryer (ended up with a random bright pink towel). Suspect the entire property needs to buy more towels. Pool towels were easier to get, but you do have to go to the desk for them. - Our 6 person unit had only 2 normal chairs, 3 counter-height stools in various condition, 2 extra tall stools (purpose unknown) and no dining table (only bedside-sized tables [6 total], a coffee table and a kitchen island). We also only had 4 sets of silverware, 2 steak knives, and a random assortment of other dishes that almost never totaled 6 of a kind. Soap for the dishwasher was not provided, only liquid soap for washing dishes by hand. - The elevator is mind-bogglingly slow and not air-conditioned. Luckily, it's not a tall building, so we didn't use the elevator except to transport luggage. - The water (and therefore the ice it made) in the fridge tasted GROSS. We dumped out all of the ice and had the ice maker start over, but no improvement. Water from the tap was fine, so it's definitely something in the fridge. We improvised and made our own ice tray of a sort to freeze our own ice from better tasting water. - I can't imagine trying to deal with parking here, so don't rent a car. But I'm not sure why anyone would want to in such a walkable area with good Uber service. (We coincidentally once Ubered back to La Terraza with a driver who was married to the hotel receptionist on duty!) - The mattresses were very soft, which I like but which gave my husband some trouble. Net neutral. Hit character limit!

La terraza is one of the best Airbnb‘s I have stayed at by far. everything about it was super beautiful the whole aesthetic of the building the fact that we were so close to walk to everything and on top of that the customer service was amazing. I had a pleasure to meet. Please follow the owner of the building and just the attention that was given to the guest was phenomenal from the moment we checked in with the concierge Alfredo, to the drinks with Miguel and Janelly’s, and the check out with Marta. Everything was exquisite

TL;DR: PLEASE READ BEFORE BOOKING. Broken AC, electrical issues, dirty rooms, broken shower, inadequate refrigerator, mosquitoes, ants, and inaccurate room photos. Carlos promised to fix everything and apparently told management it was handled when NOTHING was done. Manager Deborah eventually fixed the room situation, but Joeliys was extremely rude and refused to let us speak with management. Overall, absolutely abysmal experience. Find somewhere else to stay. Please READ before you book, and MANAGEMENT READ this review! My friend and I booked our vacation through Expedia. If you book through Expedia instead of directly with the hotel, expect issues with refunds, accommodations, or adjustments if management isn't available, since they leave after 6. When we arrived, we were put in two separate parts of the hotel, but both were supposed to be Deluxe King Bedroom Balcony Suites. Carlos at the front desk greeted us warmly and explained the hotel policies. One was that you're not allowed to open any windows or doors. So we paid for a balcony suite but aren't allowed to use the balcony? I overlooked that because it wasn't the biggest issue. It's Puerto Rico in August, so obviously it's hot. I was told there were air conditioners because of how hot it gets. Then I got to my room. Everything went downhill. I was promised a king suite and got what felt like a studio. Half the lights didn't work. One had an electrical issue where it would turn on and off when touched. The AC said it was on, but no air was coming out. The floors were dirty, like nobody actually cleaned after the previous guests. There was barely any space for my things. The full sized fridge was actually a half broken mini fridge fighting for its life to keep the light on, let alone keep anything cold. The shower head was falling apart, tilted over, and leaking before I even used it. I checked my friend's room and she had an ACTUAL full-sized king suite with a full kitchen. Her floors were dirty too, with hair and jewelry left behind. I went back to Carlos and explained everything. He came into my room, felt how hot it was, and said he'd get it fixed. When I showed him the lights, he joked, "OMG, you have the special effect lights." Yes, absolutely special effects. I asked to switch rooms, but he said they were fully booked. He promised to take care of everything and even offered complimentary breakfast for the inconvenience. I came back later and NOTHING WAS DONE. The AC and lights were still broken. David was working the desk and was genuinely apologetic and helpful. Sidebar: David was actually the nicest and most genuine person working there. David said that Carlos never mentioned the issues and that he'd let management know. Since my room was unusable, I slept in my friend's room. Then her AC broke too. We were literally being cooked alive. The next morning I spoke with manager Deborah. She was great. She apologized and explained that Carlos had told her everything was taken care of, when apparently NOTHING had been done. She moved me to another room and said she'd refund the first night for both rooms. She also told me to come find her if I needed anything before she left at 6. That evening I tried to speak with her, but Joeliys refused to let me wait for the manager to finish her phone call. She literally told me, "I'm not going to let you do that." She was rude, condescending, and dismissive toward both of us. When I asked where this was written as hotel policy, her response was, "This is not hotel policy, this is just how I work." Then she went back to her phone like we were bothering her. I'm not gonna lie, she genuinely ruined the hotel experience for me. Every day I had to dread running into her, and when we did, she would blatantly ignore us. And then there were the mosquitoes. SO MANY MOSQUITOES. I never got bitten once during the rest of my trip until I stepped into this hotel. The new room also had ants crawling from the sink and shower. Between all of this, honestly find somewhere else to stay unless you want your trip ruined.