Booking hotels in San Juan - help!

[darlacat]

I am travelling in March - which is a long time from now. For regular trips, I would never book hotels this early - too expensive. But, I am concerned with San Juan because the people I'm competing with are others going on cruises who know many, many months in advance of when they are travelling and my fear is that if I don't book now - I may risk not having any rooms left - or only a few and more expensive later than now. I'm a worrier and a control freak, so I had to ask.

 

We want to spend the night before the cruise in Old San Juan and the night after the cruise in a hotel on the beach. All prices right now are high - Low to mid 200s USD.

 

For those of you who have travelled in and out of San Juan - how soon or how late do you feel is best for booking your hotel?

 

Thank you so much!

[bouhunter]

Low to mid 200's is about right, unfortunately that's not high for SJU. I see no reason to think you'd get cheaper rates by waiting. Our theory is, book something now we are OK with and then keep shopping around. You can always cancel the first reservations if you find something better.

 

Enjoy Old San Juan!

Edited June 11, 2014 by bouhunter

[Clarea]

I would also post on the San Juan board:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=131

 

They may be able to give you some info on recent bids accepted from sites like Priceline.

[fas64]

I am travelling in March - which is a long time from now. For regular trips, I would never book hotels this early - too expensive. But, I am concerned with San Juan because the people I'm competing with are others going on cruises who know many, many months in advance of when they are travelling and my fear is that if I don't book now - I may risk not having any rooms left - or only a few and more expensive later than now. I'm a worrier and a control freak, so I had to ask.

 

We want to spend the night before the cruise in Old San Juan and the night after the cruise in a hotel on the beach. All prices right now are high - Low to mid 200s USD.

 

For those of you who have travelled in and out of San Juan - how soon or how late do you feel is best for booking your hotel?

 

Thank you so much!

 

We always book the Tres Palmas Inn when staying in San Juan. this is a great little place.

[NemoCrownie]

We are travelling in February and booked our hotel several months ago. These are cancelable if there is a better deal to be had. Do check Priceline and Hotwire for a better deal. $200 is above my upper price point.

 

You will pay more for a single night in San Juan and will be somewhat limited in your choices so don't wait too long to book.

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[steveru621]

My recommendation would be to book Old San Juan ASAP, and book your beach hotel 30 -45 days out. Old San Juan has mostly small boutique hotels that sell out fast. Condado usually has better prices closer to your stay date.

[darlacat]

Thank you all so much - absolutely the kind of information I needed and was hoping to get. YOu are beyond helpful - THANKS SO MUCH!

[sippican]

We have stayed three times in the heart of OSJ, and I booked just under a year out, paying under $209 per night each time. There are many nice options if you look at the smaller boutique hotels.

[Platypus_72]

I am travelling in March - which is a long time from now. For regular trips, I would never book hotels this early - too expensive. But, I am concerned with San Juan because the people I'm competing with are others going on cruises who know many, many months in advance of when they are travelling and my fear is that if I don't book now - I may risk not having any rooms left - or only a few and more expensive later than now. I'm a worrier and a control freak, so I had to ask.

 

We want to spend the night before the cruise in Old San Juan and the night after the cruise in a hotel on the beach. All prices right now are high - Low to mid 200s USD.

 

For those of you who have travelled in and out of San Juan - how soon or how late do you feel is best for booking your hotel?

 

Thank you so much!

 

We are in the same boat as you. We'll be in San Juan in January. I've been watching hotel prices since about March. So far there hasn't been any change up or down. I, too, am not sure if we should just bite the bullet and book our pre and post cruise hotels sooner rather than later just to be sure that we actually get a room at the places we want.

[darlacat]

right now for the Old San Juan stay - have any of your stayed there? It looks like it's full of character, (in a good way) and has decent reviews.

[bouhunter]

My recommendation would be to book Old San Juan ASAP, and book your beach hotel 30 -45 days out. Old San Juan has mostly small boutique hotels that sell out fast. Condado usually has better prices closer to your stay date.

 

We were in San Juan last March, 30-60 days out the hotel prices on Condado and Isla Verde went through the roof and never came down. We were glad we'd booked something sooner.

[loubetti]

Old San Juan is full of good character, and great to visit. One hotel to look at is the Hotel Milano. Figure $150 / night or less. After the cruise, if you want the beach, the Caribe Hilton is hard to beat, as it has a small, private beach, but that will be north of $200 / night. The Marriott is also a good choice, also above $200.

[darlacat]

I just scored the second night at the Caribe Hilton for $190 CAD - taxes and feels included. I bid on Priceline and now I'm wondering if I should have bid less than $160CAD because normally my first bids on Priceline are rejected, but this one went straight through. Yay though!

[DShock]

We just booked the SJ Marriott for two nights before our August 23rd Jewel cruise today. Didn't have any issues with availability.

[steveru621]

We were in San Juan last March, 30-60 days out the hotel prices on Condado and Isla Verde went through the roof and never came down. We were glad we'd booked something sooner.

 

Wow, we went in December the exact opposite happened. In fact, we got $99 rooms at the Marriott Casino in Condado on the beach. My DIL got them on Priceline.

 

Bottom line it's a crapshoot. Probably best to grab what you like.

[monicajay]

I just scored the second night at the Caribe Hilton for $190 CAD - taxes and feels included. I bid on Priceline and now I'm wondering if I should have bid less than $160CAD because normally my first bids on Priceline are rejected, but this one went straight through. Yay though!

 

You will likely have a resort fee to be paid directly to the hotel.

 

Your price is in line for this hotel. You might have got it for a couple of dollars cheaper but it is much harder now as PL got rid of many of its bidding zones. I would be happy to get this rate for the night I will need in late February. Waiting for Jet Blue to book air before I bid on hotel.

[Jim5506]

We stayed in Old San Juan Last April at the Hotel Milano in the heart of OSJ on Fortaleza St. and it was less than $110 per night through Orbitz. They even called us a cab at 4:30am to get us to the airport for our 7:30am flight. Close enough that we walked from the ship to the hotel.

 

It was nothing fancy, a small room with working A/C, refrigerator and a window overlooking the back alley, queen sized bed and attached bathroom with shower - we only stayed one night because our cruise arrived in San Juan on Sunday and all the flights that could get us home to Texas the same day left in the early morning at or before the arrival time of our ship.

 

This allowed us all day Sunday to explore Old San Juan.

 

The best way to get around OSJ is the free bus system - it comes by the designated stops about every 15 minutes and you can hop off/on at any stop - saves a LOT OF WALKING, just be sure the A/C is working on the bus before you set down. There are two intersecting loops that the buses travel that can take you within a block of anywhere in OSJ.

 

Lots of great eating places all over and there is a great walk from El Morro down past the governors palace, mostly shaded by trees and right along the shore of the bay.

 

Even in April it was 90 degrees and very humid for us west Texans.

Edited June 19, 2014 by Jim5506

[slidergirl]

The Caribe Hilton will have an 18% Resort Charge that you have to pay on top of your room rate. Instead of a fixed fee, they tack on 18% of your room rate as the fee. So, the cheap queen room will have a less fee than the suite.

For blind bid site, I don't know how they price our fee - it could be off what you actually paid, what the bid site paid, or what Hilton charges as the BAR rate… To not be surprised, I'd take their "best available rate" (aka "BAR") for the room you want, look at the "rate details" and you will see what the 18% fee will be. Figure you may pay up to that amount for your bid room and you won't be blindsided at checkout.