Bad Experience-Sheraton Old San Juan

[Avidcruiser]

Just back from AOS 11/28- great cruise but I wanted to tell everyone about the bad experience at the Sheraton Old San Juan (formerly Wyndham Old San Juan)

 

We booked through RCI one night on 11/20-pre cruise thinking we could have a relaxing evening and morning before the cruise in San Juan. When we arrived at 6PM, they informed us they only had rooms with 1 king sized bed for 4 people in the room (my husband, myself and 2 sons). Annoyed, I told them fine, just bring up a couple of rollaways. The supervisor then informed me that due to fire codes there could only be one rollaway in each room. I stood there expecting him to offer some solution to the fact that there would be only 3 beds for 4 people, but none was forthcoming. I then offered a few of my own, get us a different hotel, another room, etc. No apologies or solutions were given. He said we could book another hotel at our own expense or buy another room at our own expense at $165! They did have other rooms available but were unwilling to give them to us. Bottom line, one of my sons had to sleep on the chair in the room. This was not a relaxing start to our vacation. The same thing also happened to other people that night, I think it's a usual occurrence. Just be aware if you have 4 people at this hotel, someone might be sleeping on the floor. Also, although the rooms seemed to be remodeled, they were very small and dark.

[honkes]

Avidcruiser:

 

So sorry to hear about your bad experience with the Sheraton in San Juan. I work for a Sheraton here in Houston, Texas. All Sheraton properties have a "service promise". They definately should have offered you a compensation for your bad experience. Go to the following link: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/about/news_release_detail.html?obj_id=0900c7b9800fa95f

 

And call either the GM of the hotel or get in touch with Starwood and they will have to compensate you in some way.

 

Again, sorry for your troubles!

 

Best Wishes

[cruiseman_tx]

It's a little late for advice, but next time consider using Pricline and you'll probably get two rooms for less than one room through RCCL.

Hope the cruise was a lot better than the one night in San Juan.

[dougp26364]

Unfortunately, you'll generally find in the fine print that you may request, but are not guarenteed things like # of beds, smoking/non-smoking rooms or room location. It would not have mattered if it were the Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Hilton or Marrtiott you may have run into the same situation and, for that matter, it could happen again.

 

Anytime you need to be guarenteed two beds you either need to request two rooms or make sure that you attempt to request two rollaways on the reservation form. It will cost more but, you are then guarenteed the correct number of beds.

 

It's no consolation but your problem could happen with any hotel. Since RCI was using it to house precruise passengers, the likelyhood that this hotel could be relatively full increases and room selection decreases. Especially if you arrive late.

 

I agree with the above poster in trying Priceline or Hotwire to see if you can get two rooms for close to the price of one.

[kyriecat]

I cut and pasted the text below from the "frequently asked questions" page of the RCCL website.

 

Will my hotel room on a cruisetour accommodate the same number of people as my stateroom?

Yes. Guests booked as triples or quads on the cruise portion of a cruisetour will be booked the same way on the land portion on their cruisetour.

 

Did you have a single stateroom for the four of you onboard or two staterooms? If you booked two staterooms but only asked for one hotel room, Royal Caribbean may have assumed that only two of you were coming in early. If all four of you did share a stateroom, I would call customer service and complain since they apparently did not ensure proper accomodations were available for you.

[Avidcruiser]

Thanks for all your comments- we did have 2 rooms on the cruise, I just assumed we would have enough beds for all of us. In fact on the way there, we wondered if we might actually have 2 hotel rooms, but that was not the case. I've stayed at enough hotels to know that not everything goes smoothly and l try to be understanding, I'm not overly picky. I think the thing that got me heated was the attitude of the staff that evening, like they didn't even care a little bit about our problem. You know, if they had even apologized at all (which they didn't) and threw in a free breakfast I would have been much happier. I'm not an unreasonable person, but I really didn't feel like we were treated fairly at all.

 

The cruise itself was fabulous. We had an outside connected to an inside (9376 and 9381). What a way to go with children, they had their own room and we had 2 bathrooms!

[honkes]

Go to Sheraton and complain! We have groups that have left 4 months ago and we are refunding their money because of the Sheraton Service Promise. First you go to the General Manager and if nothing is resolved, then you complain to Starwood. When you go to Starwood the HAVE to do something for you.

 

Best Regards

[kyriecat]

Avidcruiser,

 

RC used to charge the hotel as a per person charge rather than a lump sum. Did RC charge you an extended stay fee for 4 people or only for 2 people? Depending on how you booked the cruise (TA, RC direct, etc), it can be hard to figure out exactly what you were charged for. It sounds like the hotel didn't treat you very well, but there may be more to the story.

[4cruzin]

This is pretty much par for the course in Puerto Rico. I am down there regularly on business and the island is definitely not known for customer service. One week the Wyndham on Isla Verde put me in a room with NO bed. It was the connecting tv/bar living area room of a suite. They had to bring in a roll away for me (or I could have slept on the pull-out couch. NOT!) They did comp me a drink at the bar and a free breakfast but only because they knew I was a regular. The only thing worse than the service down there is the driving!

[dougp26364]

Thanks for all your comments- we did have 2 rooms on the cruise, I just assumed we would have enough beds for all of us. In fact on the way there, we wondered if we might actually have 2 hotel rooms, but that was not the case. I've stayed at enough hotels to know that not everything goes smoothly and l try to be understanding, I'm not overly picky. I think the thing that got me heated was the attitude of the staff that evening, like they didn't even care a little bit about our problem. You know, if they had even apologized at all (which they didn't) and threw in a free breakfast I would have been much happier. I'm not an unreasonable person, but I really didn't feel like we were treated fairly at all.

 

The cruise itself was fabulous. We had an outside connected to an inside (9376 and 9381). What a way to go with children, they had their own room and we had 2 bathrooms!

 

After having read the above copy and paste from the RCI web site, I would also complain to RCI about their failure to provide adaquate accomadations as stated in their policy on their web site.

[flamingosun]

Oh, gee - now I am getting concerned.

 

We are sailing the Serenade out of San Juan around this time next year. My plan has been to fly down two days early, and stay at the Holiday Inn Express San Juan.

I'd be using my points on my intercontental priority club card to pay for the room, which is why I had been planning on that particular hotel. (read FREE)

Anyone have any experience with this particular hotel in San Juan?

[bhughey]

I agree with 4cruzin... service in San Juan is sub-par... and if you had requested a KING bed, I am sure the hotel clerk would have only had doubles. I hate you had a bad experience (especially since I am staying there pre-cruise next week!). I definitely think you should call the Starwood line and make your complaints known. The Sheraton in San Juan was just recently converted from a Wyndham... I don't think Sheraton corporate would be too pleased to learn how new customers are being treated!!

[skydawg]

Please post your experiences when you come back. I'm staying there at the end of January and I'll be curious about the state of the renovations and if the pool is open, etc. Thanks in advance and Bon Voyage!

[bhughey]

I'll definitely post an update... I have actually called several times to ask if the pool is open! The last time I called I got this answer "It's raining." I was like, "huh?!" They said, it has been raining a lot so the pool has been closed, we close it when it rains." I then said, "if the sun where shining... would the pool be open for use? I understand it was closed due to some renovations." I was told "yes" the pool would be open. I think I'll call again to check!

[megr1125]

I had problems with that hotel in Oct when it was still the WYndham. I wrote to Wyndham, Sheraton (since there were magazine ads shouting "New SHERATON Old San Juan") and AAA. I have not heard from anyone! Wyndham didn't make ANY adjustment for me either...in fact they tried to charge me an early departure fee!!! I wound up going to another Wyndham property and told the manager he was out of his mind if he thought they would get any more money from me!

 

They made no adjustment, didn't tell us the pool was closed and even though the rooms were "done" the place still looked like crap. The manager informed me that the GM at the time refused to "inconvenience" guests by telling them the place was being remodeled and some facilities were out of order.

 

I also stayed in a few other hotels in the area, the consensus was from myself and many others, that AVERAGE is the norm! I wouldn't risk priceline because I would probably get stuck in a dumpy room. For this reason alone I won't cruise from San Juan again.

[Avidcruiser]

Thanks everyone- We are definitely following up with our most excellent Travel Agent as well as Starwood. In the scheme of things it wasn't that big of a deal, it wasn't like we had to stay there a week! But it feels good to tell the story and have people sympathize! Also, I wanted to warn others about this situation so it doesn't happen to them. Overall, though we did like San Juan and the cruise was outstanding. Thanks - Karen

[F858MM]

Sorry to hear that you had a problem, we had a similar problem when it was the Wyndham. We contacted the Wyndham main offices explained what had happened the gave us a certificate for a free room for any of the hotels. I would definitely contact Sheridan's Main Office (Starwood). Good Luck.

[yarcraftman]

Sorry about your experience; I had a similar problem at the Marriott in San Juan last year. Let's face it; San Juan (not all of PR) but San Juan is pretty dumpy and many of us have experienced less than pleasant travels there. It is the gateway (flight gateway that is) to the good weather though. I just put up with the balogna for one night. The people of San Juan probably do not like us because we just fly in, maybe stay for one night--and then we are lost revenue.

 

My only suggestion is to book your own hotel; RCCL like to rake you over the coals price wise and then their customer service stinks when you have a bad experience. Thats why I only book the cruise through them now--no flights and no hotels, no transfers--we all learn as we go.

 

Best wishes