My wife and I are in our mid 20's, and we stayed at the HoJo in Old San Juan one night before our cruise.

We had standard room with a queen size bed on the main floor with no windows. The room was clean and comfortable. The bathroom was spacious and everything worked well (accept the safe, the battery was broken and when I told the staff they said they would fix it, but they got busy and forgot. NOTE: Despite this the staff was great)

The only complaint about the hotel is that the rooms the main floor all open up to the main eating area for the breakfast bar. This creates a lot of noise if you like to sleep in. Also, as the review prior to mind stated, the skylights also leaked into this main common area when we there as well.

Overall I would stay at this hotel again if I need a place to stay in Old San Juan. Old San Juan isn't very big and you can walk anywhere you need to from this hotel. Also, it is about a 15 minute walk to the cruise terminal.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

First off, the photo seen here is not of this hotel. This hotel is in a 17th century building and does not have windows except for in the front and back. I went ahead and chose to stay here despite the tepid reviews. We needed a hotel before and after cruising and I wanted to be in Old San Juan. I had been made aware of the elevator issues so I requested a room on the main floor. Our room was quite large and clean and was just under $100 a night, booked directly. The furniture and amenities are very outdated, but everything was in working order and our bathroom was huge. Beds are comfortable and the only complaint I would have about our first night is we had trouble getting the air conditioning low enough. The staff were very friendly and courteous and even offered to get us ice from the 2nd floor so we didn't have to manage the stairs. (As with other reviews, the 80+ year old elevator was broken one of two days). We also didn't have phone in our room, but there is one available in the lobby and the staff gave us a personal wake up call. The staff were able to store our luggage and gave us an orientation of the town for sighseeing. It's the location that makes this hotel perfect. You are literally right off of Plaza de Armas and within walking distance of almost everything in Old San Juan. Right around the corner is Baraccina, a nice restaurant that is world famous for having invented the Pina Colada in 1963. The food is good, too. We found that the skylights leaked during our recent stay but the rooms stayed dry, we only had water in the central sitting area. We chose to skip the continental breakfast, there isn't much to choose from. If you're used to higher quality hotels you'll be disappointed here. If you don't mind something quaint and in a great location this works just fine.

I expected the hotel to be like all the other stock hotels you see around, but it was surprisingly individual. It's owned locally and licensed under the Howard Johnson name, but it hasn't lost its unique touch. The rooms aren't ritzy, but the convenient location makes it so worth it. It's a fabulous location if you want to bum around Old San Juan--it's right next to tons of great food and within walking distance of the sights. (Old San Juan, by the way, is absolutely lovely.) The hotel was a good price and breakfast was included. Really, there's nowhere else to stay in Old San Juan!

We booked this hotel two nights prior taking a cruise and one night after our cruise. There were six of us traveling, so we booked three rooms. All of us agreed that this hotel met our expectations. The best thing about this hotel is the location. Every thing there was within walking distance. There are two pharmacies across the street. There are a lot of souvenir stores, the house were the pina colada was born (Barrachina) was around the block. There are a lot of restaurants close by. We went to Jibaritos, a puerto rican restaurant, located about six blocks from there. Continental breakfast was included so that was very convenient for us. The elevator from the hotel is more than 100 years old!!! It was very tiny and slow; so we used the tiny stairs all the time...if you don't like to use the stairs or have a lot of lugagge ask for a room on the first floor. The people at the lobby were very friendly and polite. There are no phones on the rooms but since we all had our cell phones we didn't care. The rooms had no windows but that did not bother any of us. The rooms were clean, and we felt safe all the time. If you would like to be close to the beach then this is not the hotel you need. If you want a good location to explore the old San Juan within walking distance at a reasonable price; then I would recomend you this hotel.