During my first-ever Christmas vacation in Puerto Rico with my husband, we checked into the Sandy Beach, a hotel in San Juan located in the popular Condado district. This is a review of our experience (and why we probably won’t stay there again). You can see more in my YouTube video tour of the hotel room and the outside of the hotel.
THE STYLE: This 27-room hotel was formerly known as El Canario by the Sea, and unfortunately it appears the owners have not invested much in updating or maintaining the property since its name change. It features a small lobby with no particular style, and the receptionist greeted us without a smile upon our arrival. While the hotel is not known for modernity or style, it’s also not a budget-friendly choice, unfortunately, since room rates regularly run more than $105 a night. If you’ve ever seen the TV show “Hotel Impossible,” you might think you’ve stepped into a live episode here.
OUR HOTEL ROOM: We stayed on the second floor in a double room that was had just a bit more style than the lobby. Nothing special, but small and certainly comfortable enough for our one-night stay. The disappointments in the room were mostly related to poor design and maintenance and false advertising. Here’s a quick summary. We reserved a room with a queen-size bed and this room had a double. The bathroom door was coming apart at the seams. The bathroom soap was so cheap that it crumbled into pieces on the first use. And the small work desk (which was the same Golden Girls style as the dresser) was unusable because they stacked a mini fridge on top of it. None of these issues are life and death, of course, but they do add up — especially when added to other issues (keep reading below). The hotel room offered views only of the high-rise apartment building next door (our room did not look like the rooms you see on Hotels.com; check out my YouTube video tour of the room). On the positive side, the TV worked fine, and so did the air conditioning, and the bed was comfortable.
HOTEL FEATURES: Again, some disappointment. The staff didn’t seem capable of easily determining which room rates included free breakfast, and the receptionist even went off on a lengthy and argumentative explanation with two guests, about why the information they had printed out from their own reservation was wrong. They also told us that breakfast wasn’t included, when our reservation through Hotels.com said that it was (the receptionist said that “free” should have appeared as “fee,” but is that the problem or mistake of the guests, or the hotel?).
In addition, the hotel has a small rooftop deck that might be nice for those who like to sunbathe. But the management doesn’t mention it and there’s no info about it in the room, so we never went upstairs. The only reason we realized there was a rooftop deck was because the following week we checked into an Airbnb rental next door and looked down at the roof of the hotel. (I should also mention that the Airbnb was cheaper, had a balcony with a direct view of the beach and the ocean, had a full kitchen, and was cheaper than the less attractive hotel next door. I’m big into hotels and big into Airbnb, and there are times when one is a clear advantage over the other, as these two properties illustrate.)
The biggest selling point for the Sandy Beach Hotel is its location: two doors down from the beach, and within walking distance to the extensive shopping, dining and nightlife of the Condado district (which happens to be my favorite neighborhood in San Juan).
BEST FOR: Travelers looking for a brief stay in a central location while taking a Puerto Rico vacation. This San Juan hotel charges a lot, thanks to its excellent location. But it doesn’t earn its rates, due to the lack of maintenance, poor design and poor staff training. You might spend a bit more if you choose another hotel in the same neighborhood, but it would likely be worth it.