David R.
Yelp
I just can't go above one star for this place. Before I explain why though, let me say that I almost went with two stars solely because of how awesome Antonio Lopez at the pool bar is. He was incredibly nice, attentive to all guests, and just a pleasure to have as a bartender. If a manager of a higher end property happens to read my review, go recruit him away from Courtyard, your guests will love him!
So, back to this place. We stayed here one night after Southwest cancelled our flight, thinking hey, it's $200/ni less than either La Concha or Marriott San Juan. I began to regret that decision immediately upon arrival. This property wants to have their cake and eat it to when it comes to whether or not they are a 'resort'. They describe themselves as 'not a full resort', which is why if you have Marriott platinum or above (we had one room booked to a platinum and one room booked to a titanium), your benefits are meaningless. They will not give upgrades of any type for Marriott status, and they will not give you the free breakfast for Plat and Titanium, because they are 'not a full resort'. However, they will happily hit you with a $45/night resort fee, because they're still apparently enough of a resort to charge you a resort fee.
There's construction going on in the lobby, which seems to have required disconnecting a bunch of the A/C systems. Rather than bring in portable units, they just put big blower fans everywhere and let the lobby temp reach the mid 80's. We hung out sweating at the lobby cafe waiting for our room to be ready, which we were told would result in a text when that occurred.
A few hours later, check again, yes your rooms are ready (we had two). Umm okay, would have been nice to have received the text we were told would let us know that. I also notice a flyer at the check-in desk advising that outside bars have bug repellent available if needed as there are no-see-ums which will bite you. I already knew this because I ordered drinks from the outside bar while we waited and already had bits covering my ankles. Guess I should have looked at that flyer more closely when checking in.
If you are not in an oceanfront room, it feels like checking into a dark jail cell. The non-oceanfront rooms are angled outward at awkward angles, they're very dark, and the balconies oddly have two sliding doors instead of a sliding door plus screen door. So, no way to keep the bugs out while enjoying the ocean sounds from the ocean you can barely see, just keep both sets of doors closed.
Both the common areas of the floors, and the rooms, smell like mildew. They have a serious humidity control issue here. For this reason, you also have to be very cautious if you don't keep your room set to freezing. Both the shower, and having the balcony door open, can result in the tile floor becoming very slippery.
The pool is small and the water flow is insufficient through the skimmers. There's random plant debris floating around, particularly by the bar. However, like I said initially, the pool bar has a great bartender who keeps the drinks flowing, and a grill right behind it so you know the grilled items are coming out fresh.
Last but not least, my mom and ten year old were staying in one room, wife and I in another. Apparently someone was having a very vocal argument in the room adjacent to them at 1030pm, they called security, my kid is scared. It quiets down. 1230am, the argument starts again, kids are in that room and crying, and then they start banging on the adjoining door. Now mom and kid are scared, call security again. I wish they'd come and got me, but they didn't and I find this all out the next morning. I don't find banging on an adjoining door acceptable at all, ever, especially after you'd already had security called previously. Those guests should have been moved at the very least, or removed from the property. My mom and kid had trouble getting back to sleep the rest of the night, fearful some crazy person next door was going to bust through the adjoining door. What did the hotel do about this when I'm infuriated about this situation the next morning? "Well, security seems to have taken care of it." That's it, done.
