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.

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.