This is a great hotel for staying overnight before or after a cruise. We needed a room with 4 beds to accomodate two children, ages 6 and 10. I was a little nervous after reading the comments on the cockroaches (and there are lots of them in PR!), but there was not a single cockroach in sight.. We knew that we were arriving late and leaving by noon, so we were willing to take the chance.
We were arriving Christmas Day, so I did not have high expectations on service, figuring everyone was off. The desk manager was very helpful pointing to a place for a 10 pm snack for us and kids. We had a room facing the street with two window/balconies on the second floor (room 206 I think, labled "home office" on the door). Yes, the elevator is old (the kind you have to close the cage and door for it to move), but we were on the 2nd floor, so we didn't need it much. The room was not the most quiet, but the air conditioner makes enough noise to drown out most of the street noise. I wake at the slightest sound, and only a couple of honks early in the morning were enough to wake me. It was a huge room, with lots of space for our 4 large suitcases.
It's clearly an older building, but honestly, the most noticable part was the worn/scuffed tiles in the hallway. Once in our room, there were new, clean tiles, a clean bath, and lots of space. There was a king, a twin, and a sofa that folded down into a twin. I have to warn you that the sofa looked to be about 5 ft long with wide padded arms (about 12 inches each), so when the back folds down, it worked for my tall 6 year old, but at 5' 7", I would have been hanging ontothe arms which were not entirely flat with the bed.. There were no sheets ready when we arrived, but the front desk quickly located them, and I made up the bed myself.
Almost across the street from this hotel is a plaza square, which had a lovely espresso/bakery kiosk, which was open on Christmas day evening. We slept through the breakfast provided by the hotel, but there is a fast food joint within 1/2 block that was perfectly adequate for breakfast. There is also a Wendy's in the same block.
We loved that it was a 10 min walk to the old fortress of San Juan, and the front desk gave us a walking map and good directions. The waterfront is also in easy walking distance, but we did not have time. The cab ride to the cruise terminal was about 10 min.
All in all, it was a great price compared to the other options for 4 of us, but I'm not sure I would have put an adult in the sofa bed. One last note: I booked directly though the hotel, and when I went to confirm, they thought we had 3 persons instead of 4. They were able to confirm us a room for 4, but I was under the impressions that I was getting a King Plus room, which was a king and two twins, We ended up with a king, twin and small sofa bed, which worked for us but not if our children had been bigger. Still, a good value for the money!

I stayed here for five nights while doing some work for a nonprofit. The primary pluses are location and cost. It is in the center of Old San Juan, on a nice little plaza. A full grocery store is one block away. The hotel serves a breakfast in the morning that includes fruit, cereal, etc., served on paper plates. Nothing great, but not terrible either. The hotel is apparently in an old apartment building converted to this purpose.

Rooms: You will want a room with a queen size bed or larger. Our group found smaller beds in other rooms that were unacceptable, even for one person. There are no windows in most rooms (except those facing the street). The rooms are very quiet, especially since there is an air conditioner in each room. Rooms are reasonably spacious and wi-fi is included at no cost.

Elevator: There is a single elevator that moves at a speed of about one minute per floor (literally). This is a four story building. If you have no problem walking up and down stairs, you will use the cramped staircase instead of the elevator. If you need to use an elevator, you are going to have frustrations. Depending on your physical condition, a lower floor might be desirable.

Staff: We found the staff to be quite pleasant and helpful.

Overall, this seems to be a hotel used primarily by cruise ship passengers for a single night stay on one end or the other. So long as you are not looking for luxury and have no problem with stairs, the hotel is quite acceptable. If you intend to spend any meaningful amount of time in the room or hotel, you will find it a bit dreary, but a bargain. We did not encounter issues of cleanliness mentioned elsewhere, but this is not a corporate hotel, so one could expect variations.

I had booked one night at this hotel after a Caribbean cruise. It’s in a great location of old San Juan, with plenty of shops, restaurants and right next to the Plaza de Armas. At first glance it seemed like a great place. I booked two rooms on separate floors and was shocked that both rooms contained beds with hairs. That’s right- multiple hairs in both rooms!!! They blamed their linen service company then changed the sheets; even so it was no excuse. One room had a balcony that over looked the city. On this balcony were ashtrays packed with cigarette butts as well as a dead cockroach by the door. Walked into the hallway, another dead cockroach!!!??? I couldn’t believe that these rooms were serviced by house keeping and left in this condition, especially after reading the good reviews. The best part was that I found a vacancy at another hotel, and that the Howard Johnson willingly refunded all of my money. It was such a shame for what a great location this hotel has. It may have just been a fluke that we had a bad experience with this hotel, so buyers beware...

My husband and I stayed at this hotel for one night after our cruise. We decided to select this one after just reading a few reviews. After 7 days of cruising, we decided that we wanted something with no windows or phones. It was more that we expected. We were literally in the heart of Old San Juan. We didn't have windows, but they did install a phone. The people at the hotel were wonderful. If you needed anything at all they were excellent at helping out. For instance... Our boat docked at 7am, and we were trying to decide what to do with our luggage. My husband suggested that we just go to the hotel. Well upon letting the staff know that we were quite early they told us not to worry about it and stored our luggage. They gave us a map of the area and we ended up at Forts of Old San Juan. We literally were able to walk to both Forts and take a tour through the mines. By the time we had finished and had lunch it was well past 3pm. Everything is in walking distance and the people there speak english quite well. Thank you all the staff at The Howard Johnson Inn Plaza. We will never forget our one night stay. My next visit to your hotel will be longer next time.