Oceana Hostal Playero, San Juan

Choosing a place to stay is not easy, due to all counts of good and bad reviews. Because of our budget, I decided for Oceana, and it was a very smart choice and pleasant experience staying there. The value for money was terrific. The location, steps from the beach, just great. The comfort of the room, beyond expected. And the staff did everything they could to make our stay the most enjoyable. Although we did not needed, they even offered us free parking, located right outside the building. My wife and I have already started planning our next visit to Puerto Rico and Oceana next year.

I liked everything. Location, comfort, value, but especially the warm of its people. Nothing to regret at all. I recommend this fabulous, and fairly priced hostal to everyone that is looking for a specially different, casual, cozy place to hide and drain stress, and will surely come back soon.

Oceana was a lovely seaside hotel, perfect for a single person who wants to save money & enjoy family friendly service. Everyone there were as if mi familia (primos - cousins)! Newly renovated hotel was a comfortable place to relax after a hot day on the beach or coming in from a daily tour. City Prada bus line C53 takes you into Old San Juan; look for the free tourmobile near the end of the line to take passengers to the forts; shops and merchants are near the docks; arrange inexpensive tours with the hotel front desk to Bacardi Rum factory, El Yunque Rainforest, and night kayak trip to Bio Luminscent Bay (a must do trip)! Beds are comfortable; rooms cozy and cool; wonderful authentic Puerto Rican dinner (low cost); and very good drinks! Security is excellent! Walk to Ocean Park beach one-block away. You get more bang for the buck at Oceana. Don't be fooled by other reviews. I had a lovely time and will definately return in the future with friends and family!

The hotel is like a third world country!!! Dirty and out-dated. I was there for five day and the shower did not work for four days!!!! Only one person speak english and her shirt is two size to small. This was the worst place I have evered stay at!!! The owner don't care if you about the guest!!! Everybody cried about the showers and they did nothing!!!

they had good service, but the shower had a problem all the time. It located in a good hood, over all 3.5

My family(myself, husband and 2 daughters, 11&13) stayed for a week in a one-BR villa with full kitchen. We planned only on sleeping and having some easy meals in the room- it lived up to our needs. Had to ask repeatedly for extra linens to make up the futon and the whole place could use a bit of a spring clean, but it was more than adequate for us- I certainly didn't have any plans to spend long periods of time indoors while on vacation in Puerto Rico! So close to the Beach- loved that! Grocery store, post office, laundry and Walgreens also close by.

I arrived late on 7/6/08 b/c my flight was delayed. My room was not avail for whatever reason, so they stuck me in a spare room right next to the front desk. The room smelled like a bathroom, you could not see out of the window due to the dirt film which covered the entire window. The roof was leaking and there were mildew stains all over the roof and walls. I wish I could post pictures, b/c I did take some. There was a planter with old dirt and no plant in it and the toilet was leaking??? The next day they put me in a regular room which smelled like throw up. I advised them of the smell, so they sent the cleaning lady up to shower the floor with a mopping agent, followed by bleach and lysol to cover the smell in the air. The bed in the 2nd room was completly caved in in the middle, the window sill in the bathroon had a 1/2 inch of dust on it. The owner was not friendly when I told her about the problems I had experienced. I asked her a refund b/c I did not want to sleep in any bed in that hotel at that point. She left the front desk area where we were speaking and went and got her cleaning lady. She proceeded to have me (the guest) to show the cleaning lady where it was dirty. That is very unprofessional. I did not feel that as a guest I should be involved in her repremand of her employees. She told me "to get my stuff and come downstairs" and it was not in a nice way. She did not want to refund me b/c she said I was choosing to leave. I asked her if she would pay $100 a night to stay in a room that smelled like a bathroom or another room that smelled like throw up. Needless to say, her and her sidekick employee had nothing to say to that question. She wanted to charge me for 2 nights and I did not agree. So while we were talking about the refund, 2 other guests walked in and out of nowhere she told me just to leave. I told her I was not leaving until I received a receipt for my refund. She finally gave me my credit card refund receipt and I told her "thank you". Her response to my Thank you was "give me the keys". No apology from her. Amazing that this lady is still in business.

This was the worst hotel ever, please pay a little bit more money and stay somewhere else. First of all they charged us $25 per night for each additional person, because the max is two people per room. Then you are not allowed to have visitors in your room. On the first night we had a broken shower head so I told the front desk person, he said that he would fix it and it didn't get fixed till two days later and we didn't get any money back. The continental breakfast is orange juice, two slices of bread and a fruit. Also many of the people at the front desk were rude. If you want to cancel but you paid online you will get no money back. When they clean your room they don't even give you new sheets. Furthermore, they only give you one set of keys. There are many other hotels in San Juan so I suggest you look elsewhere.

The place is close to a nice beach that is the only good thing I could say about the place. I could only recommend it if you are doing what I did come to the room just for a few hours. The place needs an extreme renovation. One morning I went downstairs to eat the "continental breakfast" and they told me that they had to go food shopping. Let me include that the guy from the front desk was the cook, receptionist, bartender and more. Just spent the extra money and stay somewhere else.

I booked this hotel online because I was going to recieve a 20% discount. That should have been my clue to run. Upon arrival I was waiting to see a nice bed and breakfast and when my boyfriend and I pulled up I started to cry. I was a little upset that we coudl not check-in until exactly 3pm, even 5 star hotels let you check in a little early. I did like that he beach was walkign distance from the hotel, however I did not enjoy the neighborhood that i had to walk in to get there. When we finally did check in, we had to carry our 3 bags to our villa ourselves. The staff that directed us was too worried about runnign to the room. I wanted to make the best of it, but I just coudln't. The nail in the coffin was a random person knocking on our door and walking away. I instantly decided to stay somewhere safer and had a GREAT vacation staying two block away at teh doubletree.