No no no....

5 night stay at this property, leaving tomorrow.

Had two rooms booked for 5 nights. One of the rooms all paid on our corporate rate for my mother and brother. Our room was 3 nights paid and 2 nights getting rid of useless HHonors points.

My brother arrived from NYC in the afternoon on the day of check in. I had added him to the reservation on the confirmed two bed room. He was refused a 2 bed room at check in as they couldn't confirm it (even though the reservation of it was confirmed). Arrived at 11PM and had to straighten everything out. Check in took over 1 hour, exactly what you need after a long flight. Boy, talk about clueless bunch. They couldn't understand that I had two rooms and the girl could not understand that I had two reservations for my room. I told her just to check me in for the first 3 nights, she wouldn't.

Finally, after 30 minutes wait the manager on duty came and he only used 15 more minutes to check us in after I provided the reservation numbers to him.

Lobby is W wannabeish.. Loud House music, dark and gloomy. Very young crowd. Hotel is not family friendly at all. Cheap furniture all over the lobby level, nothing about this place smells like luxury.

Self Park is 15 USD.

Received 1 x 7 dollar voucher for breakfast as gold, my brother and mom due to our corp contract. Of course, you're supposed to receive 1x 7 dollar voucher per person pr. day. The rest of the vouchers materialized the next day after asking two times

They can be used at Starbucks or at the house breakfast restaurant (Italian) by the Casino. Cafeteria like place, very far from upscale. You can use multiple vouchers to pay for the entire meal.

Breakfast starts at 7 bucks, no way you will be able to cover the entire check with that voucher and leave even close to full. Food is mediocre at best, Starbucks is, well, Starbucks. No buffet options at all.

We stayed at the Lagoon wing, big room newly refurbished with narrow balcony, crappy 26" TV that is way too small for the large room. Room has a fridge and 9.99USD Mr. Coffee Coffee maker and local coffee, clock radio is probably cheaper than that. Property looked empty, still no ocean view room available. No complimentary water. Room itself was nice. It was a corner room and we were spared the noise from the locals partying.

They charge a 14% resort charge which is supposed to pay for the internet (already included in our corp rate) and use of pools

Internet is super slow btw..

Extremely slow elevators in our wing, one of them didn't work for longer periods over two days. Had to use stairs from the 7th floor several times.

Two small pools and a hot tub. Not refurbished like the rest of the property and looks really crappy. Lunch at pool starts at over 20 dollars. 10 oz beers start at 6USD.

Keys chronically stops working. Had to have new keys made 3 times.

So all in all, nothing special and very very far from a Conrad luxury property.

Now to the real issue with this place.

Local Puerto Ricans are the ones who are welcome at the bars and restaurants. I have never felt more out of place. There's actually a sign in the lobby bar that actually says: "Hotel Guests are of course always welcome" Guess when they did the Xmas decoration at the lobby bar? 10PM on a Saturday

After dinner off site we headed to Pikayo (the "upscale" restaurant and bar) and the bar there for a night cap. A local group of Puerto Ricans were occupying about half of the bar and the girls had their purses on some of the chairs. My wife approached the bar and was told she was not allowed to sit at the bar stool and to take a seat at a table. She asked why and was told the people next to her needed the space and were really important guests. I couldn't believe my ears. There were 4 open chairs on each side of these local "VIPs", there were 4 of us. We said we wanted to hang at the bar and were refused service. When we left, the waiter was laughing and waving us out of there to show off to the very amused locals.

Needless to say I was stunned.

I called the manager on duty and he was immediately going to talk to the manager at Pikayo (outsourced). Didn't hear back so the next morning I asked to speak to his boss, De Jesus. He refused to talk to me and sent his secretary to talk to me instead. I demanded a verbal face to face apology from the bartender and his boss withing 24 hours. I was promised this, but it didn't happen.

Oh, and yesterday morning, the locals partying all night had tagged several areas of our floor.

Had a look around the area and The Renaissance down the street is the place to stay. We actually used the concierge down there several times. Here's the difference: Tried to find a pub/bar to watch English Soccer and the half sleeping "Concierge" at the Conrad had no idea. Took a walk down the street to look ourselves and ended up at the Renaissance and asked the Concierge there who made 10 phone calls and found us a place. Great service. We had drinks at their fantastic lounge area by the pool at night. Great band and as upscale as you would expect from the Conrad, but it was actually at the Renaissance.

Checking out tomorrow and will for sure make a ruckus when it's time to pay.

Tagging after yet another party at Hiltons luxury brand in Puerto Rico



Yes, we just want to reassure you. You're also welcome in our bar, Gringo. Sometimes.