Recently did a 2 night stay at the IC San Juan. Very mixed feelings about it...lots of good and bad to report.
I was using my two 2015 Accelerate certificates...got 'em in literally on the last two possible nights to use them. I have no status, so certainly wasn't expecting any upgrades. But we were arranging a special on-property dinner for 10 and using the hotel's floral and photographer, so I was kind of thinking they might be halfway nice to us.
Prior to the stay, arranging the special event was more difficult than it should have been. On multiple occasions, we learned that it is very hard to phone this hotel and speak to a human, and even harder to get people to return emails and phone calls. Sometimes we'd call and simply give up - no matter what buttons you pressed, you couldn't get to a human. This should never happen at a good hotel.
On the day of travel, we had a flight cancellation that meant our arrival into PR was going to be midnight. I tried to phone the hotel to tell them (mainly so they wouldn't give away our room), but never successfully reached anyone.
At midnight, shortly after being fleeced on a $24 two-mile cab ride from the airport, I reach checkin. The lobby is thumping with loud music from the bar, something I find a bit odd at a brand that kind of considers itself "luxury", but whatever... I'm assigned the base room I booked - which I expected - but when I asked about joining RA or flat-out paying for an upgrade, I was nastily reminded that award stays can't do that. I asked about paying for lounge access - also no option to do that. I can't say I expected anything different... Only positive surprise is that he handed me a piece of paper saying I receive 2PM checkout for being an IHG member (more on this later). Other than the fact that the guy wasn't friendly, I guess there's no a real complaint here. The clerk made it clear what my place was in this hotel - non-status, award room recipient. If he knew we were using catering, photography, and floral, he didn't show it and/or he didn't care.
The room itself - main tower, fairly high floor, city view - was adequate. Clean, relatively recently renovated, comfortable. Full-size pull-out sofa + king bed. Decent-sized empty fridge to use. A/C could have been a little more powerful, but it wasn't too bad...at least in December.
I was substantially more impressed with the other services in the hotel. Once we were there, we found the people needed to finalize details for our event. They have a screwed-up phone system...but the people doing the work were quite pleasant and good at what they do. Our event was fantastic...a private dinner in a veranda right at the beachfront. Great food, gorgeous flowers, and a photographer who was every bit as good as ones I've used at home. (The florist was definitely in-house; the photog was an outside contractor.)
The pool grounds and beachfront areas were great. We used the outdoor bars for lunch and drinks and we were impressed with the service and quality there. Drinks were $4-8 each: not too excessive.
No status and no lounge means no breakfast, so we ended up at the Burger King across the street both mornings. That kind of sucked, but I suppose if we'd been there longer we were have explored the streets nearby a little better. There were certainly more restaurants within walking distance.
I'd be reporting this as a totally positive stay if it weren't for checkout. At about noon, I went to get a copy of my final bill so I'd be able to head straight out at 2PM. The FD clerk at that time said I needed to immediately vacate my room, stating that base IHG members do not receive late checkout. I said "I have a letter from you stating I do" (which I volunteered to retrieve), and she said "I know...you shouldn't have been given that." I said "fine, but you *did* give me that, which is the only material fact here." She then said she'd charge me if I didn't exit the room by 12:30, and I said I'll be out before 2 and any attempt to charge me will be immediately met with a dispute with Amex. We were fully gone by 1:30; our final charges were fortunately correct with no bogus fees. No junk "resort fees" or anything like that on the award stay.
Final note on exit: apparently Uber is not permitted on property or in any area marked as a taxi area. Pickup is the opposite side of the street, near the Burger King. So we had to schlep our bags over there. Totally not the hotel's fault (it's more about the local taxi mafia's control over local politics), but something to take note of. I would highly suggest supporting Uber there - they're still trying to achieve stability/legitimacy in a highly unfair taxi market. Uber to the cruise terminal was $11.60: apparently cabs were $40-50 and I've read the "broken credit card machine" trick is common.
In conclusion, good spot to use certificates. I'd never spend $550/nt + tax for a room there. Good physical property. Perhaps *only* a toxic culture around the FD, because other parts of the hotel were pleasant. I'd probably go back with tempered expectations.