Sheraton/Wyndham Old San Juan Hotel

I was advised to post this on here. I have it posted on the RCCL board.

My review of the Wyndham/Sheraton hotel in Old San Juan.

Sheraton/Wyndham Old San Juan Hotel

If anyone has ever read my posts, I have always given this hotel a good write up and I always recommended it to people asking about hotels in San Juan. We have stayed there before and loved it.

Not anymore.

I booked a suite on Wyndham By Request way back in November of 2003 for our Dec. 6, 2004 cruise on the Empress. I got a special price for a Bay view suite for one night, and paid regular price for our second night.

Being a detail freak, I requested and received three confirmations from the hotel throughout the year confirming our stay, suite, and prices. The last one in November of 2004 after I heard they had become Sheraton.

We arrived on the 4th of December, handed over my confirmation papers and proceeded to check in.

First they tried to charge me the highest price for the 2 nights.

Second they told me that I was not getting a Bay view because I had requested a low floor and that the low floors were smoking. I was to get a partial Bay view room on the 5th floor. There were no other suites available we were told.

We were very tired from 36 hours of non sleep and said OK.

Big mistake.

We got to the “suite” on the 5th floor and it overlooked the parking garage and a seedy side street used for Valet parking.

Outside our window was the building where it looked like they did the laundry all night. It was very loud.

Our “suite” was far from new. The word shabby is all I could think of. It was also filthy.

The bathroom toilet had been used and not cleaned.

The bathroom sink area was covered in what looked like blood.

The floor in the bathroom was covered with all kinds of hair.

The cups for making your own coffee and tea had been used and never washed.

I was totally shocked to see this called “my partial Bay view suite.”

I cleaned most of the mess I saw and put the cups in the bathroom so the maid would see them and replace them.

Wrong.

The maid came and went the next morning and the same filthy cups were put back on the desk. I went into the hall and saw the head of housekeeping. Told her the problem and asked for clean cups, etc. She called the maid and I told her please give me new cups to use.

We stayed in the room until check out on the 6th. The bill was slid under our door that morning. It was not correct.

My husband and I went to the main desk and I spoke to another person who was there. I explained everything going on and told her that the bill was not correct because thy were still trying to charge us much higher fees then what was confirmed to me 3 times. Also that we felt that we were not being given proper service or the original suite we booked. She read all my confirmations, checked my reservation confirmation, and agreed that we were mistreated by the Sheraton.

She told us that the room we were given was not what we booked and THAT THE ORIGINAL MAN AT THE DESK HAS LIED TO US ABOUT THE LOWER LEVEL BEING SMOKING. She also told us that our room had not been cleaned for new guests. (well, I already knew that because I cleaned it.)

The hotel has no such thing as non smoking, or smoking floors, as we had been told. She was very shocked and said that she was going to talk to her boss about our treatment.

She also took 50% off of our bill and apologized many times over to us.

We were offered free breakfast buffet coupons which at $17.00 apiece, we turned down. We had eaten in the restaurant the previous day for breakfast and found it was not worth the money.

We had done the dinner meal in the restaurant the night we arrived and it cost us $80.00 for a meal of two small chickens and side dishes. Plus I had one drink.

We found the mall building directly across from the Sheraton front door had a fabulous little restaurant with great food and great prices. We preferred to eat there.

When we checked out I told her that I could no longer recommend their hotel on the Cruise Critic boards if anyone asked for an opinion. That others had complained about their treatment from the hotel on Cruise Critic and that their rating was dropping.

Would we stay there again. NO

This is my reply to why we stayed there after checking in.

The reason we stayed in that room was because we paid the price of $235.00 per night for a superior suite. Add on $25.85 for the room tax, and $21.15 for the room tariff and that is a grand totoal of $282.00 per night. The discount night was $152.00 plus all those added taxes added on to that. This was not just a suite we booked, it was one of the "best" suites we had booked. We got a great price with the Wyndham By Request on the internet.

We were told there were no other suites and the one we were getting was a "suite also". BS. In other words, take it or leave it.

We had been up since 6 am on Friday, caught the 1:15 am redeye out of Vegas on Saturday morning, and now it was 4 pm in the afternoon on Saturday in San Juan. So add 4 hours onto the total time we were awake for the time difference and by then you are too tired to go and look for a different hotel. When you are standing in their lobby with all your luggage and no other place to go, that is not my idea of fun.

For me to "clean up" the hotels or motels I stay in is nothing unusual for me to do. Once I know it is my kind of clean, I am right at home. ( no I don't do windows or dust. I just kind of sanitize the bathroom. )

I also have to add that I am a Starwood Preferred Guest and I have stayed in many a Sheraton hotel before. I have always found them to be quite nice and clean.

EDIT:

I have to add this.

Do I feel better for posting this about the Sheraton? NO

Do I feel like a yoyo for always bragging about this hotel on here? YES

Can I ever recommend it again on CruiseCritics? NO

Will I ever stay there again? NO

__________________

We stayed at the Sheraton OSJ with some intrepidation as we had read previous posts on the CC boards since the turnover from Wyndham. We found it quite good, however. Perhaps because we arrived around 3pm on a Thursday (9 Dec) we were given an upgrade to a suite on the 9th floor overlooking the bay. (I am a SPG Gold member.) We only had one window overlooking the water (the one in the living room) but it was a French-style balcony, with doors you could open fully. (The window in the bedroom area opened into the inner courtyard.)

The room was clean and bore signs of recent upgrades--some new paint and quite nice new furniture. A slight problem--which I've seen show up in other's complaints about other properties in Puerto Rico--was the smell of mildew. Opening the French doors and turning up the A/C, while environmentally bad, cleared up that problem. Other than that, we had no problems with dirty coffee cups, bathroom, etc.--and my first job was as a weekend hotel maid and I'm very anal about cleanliness. There was some noise during the day from the pier being constructed across the street and work on the 10th floor on the pool.

Speaking of which, it was still not open. The front desk person told us it had just closed the day before our arrival and they expected it to be open week of 18 Dec. From the CC boards, however, we knew that the pool had been closed earlier--at the end of Oct. Can't comment on what happened in Nov. Speaking to our tour guide--Debbie of Legends of PR, who is as good as people on the port board have said she is--the pool at the Sheraton "is never open." Apparently it has suffered problems for years--perhaps this was part of the reason Wyndham sold the property. As Alexis has stated, the front desk staff either not knowing or not telling the truth does appear to be a problem at this hotel. I don't know if it would work or not, but if the pool being open is of major concern for a future stayer you might try calling the hotel and speaking with the manager--then get his/her name and log date/time of call. Then if problems develop at the hotel, speak again to the manager--from our experience, don't put much faith in what the regular front desk staff tells you.

The location, of course, is wonderful--within walking distance of all the sights in Old San Juan and, for us at least, a view of our ship across the bay at the Pan American pier.

Our price--$199 a night plus taxes--included the buffet breakfast and we found it fine. We had one really good waiter and one with an attitude--luck of the draw, I guess.

That's probably a good theme for this thread--it depends. We had a good experience at the Sheraton OSJ and would stay there again. It was not the best SPG property we've ever stayed at--and we've stayed all across the group from Four Points to the Luxury Group--but not the worst either. And a great location. (Didn't eat at the restaurant at the mall next door that Alexis mentioned although the Conceige was handing out coupons for the place. The mall does have an internet place with good rates if you need to check your e-mail. We ate at the Parrot Club and Mojitos; latter is a more local-oriented restaurant that Debbie told us about. Both were quite good--great drinks.)