TLDR - There were deficiencies in the room and the management kept us from accessing our passports until paying the bill in the middle of our stay.
Unfortunately, Raul and Jorge made an otherwise pleasant visit to San Juan stressful and traumatizing.
We booked in June (6 months ago) it looked like the rooms were nice and the reviews were excellent. Our impression was that this was a boutique hotel with 25 rooms. The website even states that there is "Housekeeping staff is responsible for ensuring guest areas...guest rooms...are trim, sanitized, and spruce". The website also states "Check-in Gift - ...complimentary gifts to our beloved guests". Spoiler: there was no housekeeping service while we were there and there was no check-in gift.
All this gave the impression that we were staying in something well-established and organized. Our impressions began to change when we received check-in instructions with a different address than what was advertised (first red flag). Check the street before booking ( 1050 Calle Del Carmen ); it is very narrow so Uber drivers do not stop on that street as it blocks traffic. Even a taxi driver wasn't able to find it without specific directions. To add, frankly, the area was dirty (we even had to step around dog poop on Casa Ciana's welcome mat when we checked out).
All this to say that this was not the hotel experience we were looking for but we were okay so far; it's not like we never stayed in an Airbnb before.
There were some deficiencies in the room. The bed creaked, the hot water was intermittent, and the tap for the shower was "sticky" in that it would require two hands to operate comfortably. Once again, all of these things were unfortunate but manageable given that this was essentially an Airbnb with 5 rooms (not 25) and no staff on site (check-in was through a door code).
Now we get to the more serious things and my reasons for taking the time to write such a lengthy review.
I have stayed at hundreds of hotels and dozens of Airbnbs. The procedure at every one of them has been to pay in full before/at arrival or to pay in full/a final balance at the end. Never have I been asked to pay anything in the middle of my stay. Now, that in and of itself is not necessarily a problem; there are different cultures and practices all over the world. My problem is:
1) This expectations was not set nor communicated in advance.
2) The hotel management took the extreme step of locking us out of the building, and away from our passports and prescription medications, about 24 hours after requesting the final payment and with our check-out scheduled for the following morning.
Let me be clear on exactly what happened here.
We paid for the reservation in June (about 6 months ago). About 6 months later, we started getting texts from the operations manager Jorge; it was unusual (given that all previous communication was by email) but pleasant. He gave us check-in instructions and asked what time we would be arriving. He also sent us places to eat and things to do (unsolicited but welcome). Unfortunately, I was not able to respond to any of his messages while we were in San Juan as I do not have an international calling/texting plan. Nevertheless, I read all his messages and appreciated them.
On Friday around 3:30PM, I got a message from him asking for the final payment. I thought that was odd as we had already paid. Perhaps other people may have ignored the message but I did not. I got a screenshot of my PayPal invoice showing a balance of $0 and sent it to the e-mail listed on the invoice. In that e-mail, I explained that I could not call or text but was reachable by e-mail. I thought "That settles that" and continued on with my vacation.
They started calling me the following afternoon. I was finally able to get a hold of the owner on What's App. They explained that only a deposit was paid in June. Less than two hours after that, they locked us out of our room and would not let us collect our belongings (including prescription medications and passports until we paid). We were forced to pay under duress. read more