My boyfriend and I spent 5 days at San Juan Water & Beach Club Hotel back in March. Previously, we stayed at Ritz Carlton when we visited San Juan. But, since Ritz Carlton changed the pet policy (we like to travel with our pet Chihuahua, Bruiser), we decided to give Water and Beach Club a try. Normandie Hotel, another dog friendly hotel in San Juan, was a disaster.

Since we read a lot of negative reviews about the hotel, we came prepared, mentally as well. One thing that we worried the most was the noise level due to loud music from the roof top, as this loudness seemed to be the common complaints based on other people's reviews. So, we brought ear plugs, so that we could sleep at night. Surprisingly, it was not anywhere near as bad as we expected. What bothered us more was that walls were so thin that you could hear "everything" from the room next to you.

Other than that, we were suprised to find that we had a very pleasant experience at the hotel. All staff were extremely warm, friendly, and helpful. In fact, I just received an email from Virna, Manager of Desires (membership that you can enroll when you visit the hotel site), wishing me Happy Birthday.

Our ocean front room was very nice, good size for San Juan hotel, and had a great view of the beautiful beach. The hotel is also conveniently located to go to Old San Juan and visit other beaches etc.

We did not eat at the hotel, as we have been to San Juan so many times, and we have our favorite restaurants. Here are a few restaurants that we recommend :

1) Marmalada located in Old San Juan - amazing food. This is our favorite.
2) Pikayo located at Museum of Art of Puerto Rico - great food and amazing service. We could not believe that the restaurant staff remembered where we sat and what food we ordered 6 months ago.
3) Aguaviva located in old San Juan - great seafood.

For breakfast, we were initially going to Inter-Continental, as this hotel is a short walk from San Juan Water and Beach Club Hotel. But after 2 days, we found a local diner nearby and had breakfast there each morning instead of spending $60 for two at Inter-Continental.

Getting back to the resort, one thing that we loved was that the hotel is extremely dog friendly. Every one loved our Chihuahua, Bruiser. It was so cool that we could bring him with us to the roof top where the swimming pool was and hang out there all day. So, for pet lovers, we highly recommend this hotel.

The beach across from the hotel is not like the US Virgin Island or British Virgin Island beach with powderly white sand and turquoise blue water. But, it is very pretty and it goes on for miles. The hotel will provide you with beach chairs and towels.

All in all, we were happy with the hotel. This hotel is great for a quick getaway, not for long vacation. Staff are pleasant, nice size room with great view and the location is pretty good if you have a car.

Most likely, we will return for another quick getaway.

Maybe my opinion of the San Juan Water & Beach Club Hotel in Isla Verde is a bit jaded since I live in Miami, Florida where I'm accustomed to experiencing a certain level of decor, fashion, comfort, and style from South Beach Hotels. Whomever said the Beach Club is 'good' chic hotel was probably blinded by the horrible ultra-violet lighting that makes everything pale blue! The stark bone-white walls illuminate the hotel and rooms like some crazy Halloween nightmare turning everything you see into a haze. Try to look closely and you'll find filthy walls, old curtains, poor lighting and dirty water walls, tacky glass elevator with cracked mirrors, roof top bar with mismatched seats, torn leather coaches, compact rooms with little closet space and small closed hallways that hide the cave of rooms. The place was simply unkept to a standard of Chic Boutique Hotel !! Fridays/Saturdays are impossible to relax as the hotel hosts parties on the roof top patio that lasts until 3am! AVOID the food at the hotel's restaurant as it is flavorless of what true Puerto Rico cuisine should be!! Concierge was unknowledgable about local restaurants with delicious cuisines only recommending high end places. Valet is almost mandatory charge of $15-20 bucks per night since there is no parking for guests. The hotel is situated at a Dead End street off the main "Popular" tourist avenue called 37 Ctra Avenue of Isla Verde. Good Luck finding free parking on the side of the roads since almost everyone takes their claim by 6PM. The waters off Isla Verde was merky with violent swirls of sand that polished your skin with abrasions. And this is typical. The Beach Club certainly tries to be chic, hip and trendy but fails horribly by any standards. Maybe this is was Puerto Rican's call Miami Art Deco style. The hotel had potential 5 years ago but today it certainly needs to lower it's expensive rates and invest on repairing the interiors that are out-dated and used.

I just returned last night from 8 days in San Juan; we spent the last three nights at the Water Club. I had high expectations for an awesome experience and chose the Water Club sight unseen. I heard and read a lot about it and felt that it was a match for the experience I wanted; luxurious, great service, cool aesthetic. I must say the service was GREAT. They really do a great job. Eveyone smiled, they refered to me by my name, the doormen introduced themselves, shook out hands, very very positive and happy -- all the time. Eveyone gave off the impression of kindness and concern. They all have great personalities. That's the positive. The negative - the aesthetic needs a total overhall. The concept is cool and in its day Im sure it was. Magazine clippings framed on the lobby walls indicte that it was selected as one of the top hotels "in the world." When you look at the date of the article, you find its 2003. There is no way its one of the best hotels in the world. Walking up the front steps to the entrance you see chucks of the concrete stairs missing, concrete railing pillars crumbling (not exaggerating). Not a great first impression. The lobby looks cool overall but when your eyes focus on the details you notice that its all tired -- all the walls are covered in out of date white polyester shears, floor to ceiling, The blue light that illuniates all the common areas including the lobby hides the dirt well, but if you're a clean freak like me, its dirty. The water fall in the elevator is cool but dated, it needs repair and you can see that the glass is stain, there are blue mozaic tiles missing, etc. You get off the elevaor and step into common halls which are extremely dark, lit only by blue light. All walls are covered by white sheers which are dirty - how could they not be?. The sound of the ocean is piped thru the halls, which is cool. You feel in a way that you're under water, the concept is cool. I walked into the room and the stench of dirty water which had been slopped over the floor by a dirty mop hit me like a ton of bricks, that was aweful. I told the maid that I didnt want the floors mopped at all during my stay. The room however is cool, no complaints, linens were great and very clean, bathroom was updated, but again, those white floor to celiing sheers on the walls and the blue light. Everything is lit by blue light; however the chioce to switch on headboard halogen and an incandescent floor lamp was available. The partial ocean view was just that, partial. You couldnt see the ocean unless you walked up agianst the window and looked to the left; you couldnt see the water from anywhere in the room. The room didnt have adequate storage for clothes, you had to live out of your suitcase, which isnt so bad if thats what you're used to. The location on the ocean is great, although I thought that the beach area in front of the hotel was dirty; its also a local beach and people on the island litter like crazy and no one cleans up, at least not for the three days I was there. The ocean front is great nonetheless. The area outside the hotel is nothing at all, many American fast food places around, the area is not glamorous at all, but it did seem safe, which is important. I prefer the Condado area; its much better in terms of choices of fthings to do, at night especially.

I don't know even know where to begin. We arrived on friday night late at the hotel to hoards of people partying and drinking to loud music in very skimpy outfits. We finally get to the room after an exhausting flight from NYC and encountered a dog barking all night in the room next to us along with drunk people swarming the halls screaming. In the morning, you have the cleaning ladies chatting at the top of their lungs in the halls talking to each other and doors slamming. Now on to the beach area. It isnt private at all. You are on a public beach and the noise level once again was unbearable. Not the trendy boutique hotel I thought it was going to be. On top of everything else the Water Club also needs alot of fixing up (stairs broken, waterfall in the elevator leaking and cracking) and the food is average nothing to write home about. The one good thing about the hotel is the waitstaff they were all very attentive. If you are looking for some relaxation and not into partying all night long and a ton of noise this hotel isnt the place to go. I would recommend the Ritz Carlton. Worth it to spend the extra money.