More about San Juan Hotel
Grimey!
by A TripAdvisor Member
First off when, I walked into the hotel it smelt like butt-ussy. I got up to the room we stayed in and was not pleased. The beds squeaked a lot and the mattresses had brown stains all over. My friend noticed there was no alarm clock, so she went down to the front desk and asked if they supply alarm clocks. She was told by the rude person working at the desk that there is a wal greens right across the street. The smoke detector was not even functioning. They had no cups in the hotel room, so we had to go down to the lobby and ask. We were given HOLIDAY INN CUPS! We all took showers with our slippers on because of the mildew. The towels felt like sand paper. The elevator sounded like a freight train. Everytime i heard it, I laughed. We were in Miami for 48 hours and probably spent a total of 7 hours in the hotel room. The hotel was grugerious however the price was worth it. It was a experience to remember, I recommend this hotel to anybody just b/c its like the show survivor.
Stay here only if you can't afford better
by A TripAdvisor Member
I purchased reservations at the San Juan Hotel before reading the reviews. It was important for me to have more money to spend in SoBe rather than blowing it on a hotel. In addition, the San Juan is walking distance to the beach, it's on popular collins avenue and a block over to Lincoln and Ocean Drive. It is the best location on SoBe. So I figured how bad could the hotel be.
Well when I walked into the hotel, I was apalled that the lobby looked nothing like the photo on the website. In addition, the lobby smelled like mildew. They only have one elevator and it is tiny. It can only fit about five people and it makes scary sounds and abrupt stops. When we got to our floor the damp smell diminished. We opened the door and the room was old but clean. Lighting was horrible. It was so bad that we opened the windows even though we were butt naked getting dressed. There was no alarm clock, the television did not work well. I was pleasantly surprised because linen was clean and towels were clean. The bathroom didn't look to inviting to me maybe because it was old and small. Also the water pressure sucked and did not get very hot. Needless to say, shower pressure was horrible. The only reason I do not give this hotel a one star is because I did not see one bug and my linens were spotless. They also provided a fridge and a microwave which I was surprised they did. Put it this way, you get what you pay for. If you are not going to be in the room long then you may be able to handle this. I will not stay here again, nezt time I will allot a little more money to a hotel.
And I qoute "the lobby smelled like ----"...
by TripAdvisor Member Cabriokitty
LOL... just read the reviews... it's ALL true!! I am not a picky person, but come on... this place is just outright NASTY!!! Loved South Beach/ Miami Beach so much that after checking out of our timeshare we decided to stay two extra nights closer to the "action"... who would have thought the action would be discovering odd stains on the carpet and pubic hairs on the sheets of your bed! We wore shower sandels in the bathtub and relaxed in front of the no-cable tv and cooled off with the room fan that was missing the front metal gaurd, fully exposing the blades. (The only form of air-conditioning besides opening the windows)... hope your cell phone has an alarm clock since they obviously weren't in the SJ's budget... oh and the decor was lovely, the chief designer must have been a blind person with real sense for textures... there is valet parking for $15 dollars a day, and hope that when you get your car back it's in one piece and with no parking tickets (more horror stories on yahoo's website)... we booked this hotel through orbitz and could not get a refund, hopefully others will not make the same mistake!!! Will post pictures soon.......
San Juan (-)
by TripAdvisor Member DCVAMD
lobby smells horrible.
moldy bathroom.
a/c vent doesn't have any climate control.
vent is also dusty & broken handle to adjust flow
elevator was broken.
pieces of ceiling falling apart.
carpet on floor ripping off.
trash/gum in sink.
walk across carpet & your feet turn black.
towels were paper-thin (although I brought my own & didn't dare touch them)
didn't even attempt going to the pool.
we checked out of the hotel 2 days early b/c we got really sick...thanks to the cold, dusty air that was blowing out of the vent.
This place is the worst! Only go there if you want to get sick and leave your vacation early!
Death Trap!
by TripAdvisor Member Dee082
The San Juan Hotel is a death trap. This hotel really is as bad as the reviews say it is on this website. We weren’t expecting red carpets or anything as it is a 2* hotel and after reading the reviews on this website we were prepared as we only wanted to sleep and shower there but this place doesn’t even deserve 1 star. When we arrived the lift wasn’t working and even if it was working I don’t think I would have used it because it is very old, dingy and looks like it will probably get stuck any moment. So after lugging our suitcases up an old, seedy, narrow and dirty concrete staircase we found that the bathroom door in the room didn’t close let alone lock and we had a cooker in the room which had dirty food dried over it. The rooms are small, dingy and not very well kept at all. To be fair though, the bed linen and towels were clean. The shower is a joke, it’s like a trickle of water (no force at all) and you only get hot water after it has been left running for 10 mins. The bathroom and sink looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in a century and the towels were tiny and felt like sand paper..SERIOUSLY and very thin, my dish cloths are thicker than the San Juan towels. As the bathroom door didn’t close, we were moved to another room at the back of the hotel which had a massive motor (Im guessing it’s the A/C) buzzing very loudly outside and when we went in the room the bathroom taps were running brown water..we moved several times and found the best room they could offer us had a safe that didn’t work (in fact the safe only worked in 1 of the rooms we were shown).
The hotel is in a great location but the facilities are dreadful. The cleaner forgot to clean our room one day and one of the receptionists doesn't speak English. The swimming pool looked like a pool of filth, disease and infection, however, there is no need for it as the beach is only 3 mins away. I would recommend anyone who wants to feel safe in their hotel and have a decent shower go to another hotel because you do not get the basics here. South Beach is a great place to go, the beach is fabulous, the bars/clubs are really kicking and the people are very friendly..the San Juan is the worse thing about Miami..dont let this place ruin your holiday!
Absolutely Repulsive
by A TripAdvisor Member
When we first walked into the hotel, it didn't look that bad. We walked into our room and felt a wave of hot air, there was a fan on but it didn't do too much. After calling the front desk, we were told the air conditioning was on and it wasn't working too well. The room looked like it has not been cleaned or updated in about 20 years. The bathroom was dirty and one morning when we woke up, we saw a few roaches in there. The only thing about this hotel that was positive was the man at the front desk during the late night shift. He was very nice and accomodating and didn't charge us the money for the in-room safe b/c of all of the problems the hotel had. I would NOT recommend this hotel to anyone! The location was good but nothing about the hotel was.
Nice Outside Not so nice in !!!
by TripAdvisor Member badboy4england
Well what can i say good points first ! Friendly staff,good price,small pool,good valet parking,nice reception. Opps now for the bad dirty rooms,smelly rooms,flaking paint everywhere,old unsafe windows with cracks,poor aircon,dirty shower,smelly dirty hallways.Please owners new paint and windows aircon and a good clean !!! Your in a good location, outside is nice,now fix inside !!!! Mr Lowe U.K
I only have one word...
by A TripAdvisor Member
I only have one word to describe this hotel: Nasty, nasty, nasty!
I checked in at 11pm when my flight arrived to Miami...and checked out at 7am the next moring because of all the nastyness. I decided to find a better (i.e., clean and quiet) hotel down the street.
BTW, you have no control of the air conditionor in the room. It's up to the managment how cold (or in my case, how HOT) the room will be.
Simply.Terrible
by A TripAdvisor Member
When you first look at the lobby of the hotel, you think its just another art deco hotel in miami that is decent. But when you walk into the hallway and into the rooms, you know you have been mistaken.
The rooms are terrible, have nothing that is original. The carpets are dirty and have stains, the shower has no pressure, the paint is coming off the walls, the bed sheets are yellow and dirty, the bathroom door doesnt close, the closet is dirty, the bed was broken and leaned one day, and the list goes on an on.
I strongly urge no one to go to this hotel and even though I havent been to every hotel on miami beach, I imagine that there must be something better.
it looked like a run down motel not hotel
by A TripAdvisor Member
ac didnt work, room pic that i saw was nothing like the real room. roaches everywhere, not hot water only cold, view was a wall! to expensive for that crap! not not stay there if u care about ur health, it was so dirty n service was terrible! i had to check out eairly because it was real bad. do not stay there ever!
