I just got back from San Juan Puerto Rico. My stay in San Juan was from Wednesday, March 24 through Monday, March 28, 2005.

I stayed the first three nights at: Hotel Iberia

I arrived at Hotel Iberia, on Wednesday, March 23rd at about 1:30 pm. I was shown to my room #206 by Israel. Later that day at about 3:30 pm I discovered that room #206 shower was only a “trickle” of water. There wasn’t enough water to shower. I contacted Israel and he came to the room #206 to inspect and observe the trickle of water coming out of the showerhead. I requested a room change. Israel said all rooms were occupied. I requested any means of showering possible. He said he didn’t have any alternatives. I requested to speak to the manager/ owner. He said there wasn’t any way of contacting him. He said Christopher the manager / owner will be here tomorrow (Thursday) and I could speak to him tomorrow evening. Israel also stated that tomorrow morning he would look into a room change.

The next morning (Thursday, March 24th) at approximately 11:00 am I moved from room #206 to room #204. Room #204 shower barely had an adequate water pressure to shower. Late that evening at about 7:00 pm I spoke to Christopher the manager/owner of Hotel Iberia. (Israel had already made Christopher aware that I wanted to speak to him and the nature of the appointment to speak to him). I requested Christopher credit my account $80.00 for the first night because there wasn’t adequate water pressure to bathe. He said no credit would be issued and that he was aware of the nature of each room. Evidently Israel was also aware of the nature of room #206 shower not having enough shower water pressure to bathe. Israel and Christopher deliberately rented out room #206 that does not have adequate water pressure to shower.

This place is NOT worth the gamble!

I stood at the hotel for 3 nights. I will see I have seen better but I have also stayed at much worse. I found the front desk to be polite and helpful. The rooms are very small but are kept pretty clean. I mean for the price, you can't ask for that much. The maid was very good at cleaning and organizing the rooms. Our airconditioner was fine the only thing that I found uncomfortable was the bathroom shower which I though could have been bigger.

For a small, budget hotel, Hotel Iberia is certainly adequate. My room was very small and basic, but for $75 a night, it was worth it. The room and hotel was kept clean. The person at the front desk was helpful in recommending restaurants and was very willing to call a cab. The location is great--easy walking distance to the beaches, restaurants, and bars of Condado, and not far from Ocean Park, Isla Verde, and Santurce. It's a relatively short distance by cab to Old San Juan (it cost $10-$12).

This weekend we reserved a room at this hotel for March 20th because we had a very important wedding to attend, our son's! We made the reservation by phone and considered ourselves very fortunate because of the long weekend involved. Our home is 3 hours away from the San Juan area so we were looking forward to our stay in the Condado area. You can imagine our outrage and disbelief when upon arriving we found that the hotel had rented our room to someone else! when I made the reservation, I indicated that I would be at my son's wedding in Isla Verde and that we would check in in the evening. Not only were the employees indifferent to our predicament, but they did not offer any consolation or solution to our situation. I would not recommend this Hotel to anyone. They obviously do not honor reservations nor do they care what happens to guests who have counted on fair practices. My weekend was ruined. Do not reserve.