The Royal Sonesta San Juan

Serious billing misconduct – overcharged without authorization I stayed at Royal Sonesta San Juan from December 22 to December 28, room 1616, booked via Expedia. The confirmed total price of my reservation was USD 1,267.05. Despite this, the hotel automatically charged my credit card EUR 1,176, which at the European Central Bank exchange rate equals approximately USD 1,290 — clearly more than the agreed amount. What makes this worse is that I raised this issue directly at the reception during my stay. No correction was made, no clear explanation was given, and the incorrect charge was still processed without my consent. Charging guests more than the confirmed price and debiting their cards without proper authorization is unacceptable and seriously undermines trust. I am now forced to escalate this matter through Expedia, my card issuer, and consumer protection channels. Based on my experience, I strongly caution future guests to monitor their credit card statements very carefully after staying at this property.

We stayed at the Royal Sonesta in San Juan just before Christmas. We paid for 4 guests in the Club - Two Queen - Pool View - Balcony room with breakfast included deal. When we got there, we found out the so called "breakfast included" is really this: for the first 2 days, voucher for 2 in the main dining room where they have a very nice breakfast buffet complete with omelette station and many fresh choices, however we have to pay for the other 2 guests for a total of almost $80 per day including the mandatory tip; for the next 2 days, we are only allowed to have free breakfast in the "Club Lounge" (a drab side room with no view) where there are less than a quarter of the items available than in the other breakfast buffet. For example, instead of omelette station, there is scambled egg made with egg mix that is tasteless; there are only less than half of the pastry varieties and very limited choices of other things compared to the full buffet. we are not allowed to opt out of the lounge buffet, if we want to eat breakfast with everyone else in the main dining room overlooking the pool we have to pay full price for everyone (the front desk lady told me she would check with the manager and see if there could be any discount after we paid $160 for 4 buffet, but the manager was not available and there would be no guarantee) The hotel is otherwise conveniently located near the airport(not much airplane noise though), taxi/uber to old San Juan varies between $10 to $20 depending on time of day and weather, but far from other attractions of the island. The hotel has its own nice beach and the pools are nice with beautiful view of the ocean in the distance. Staff are very friendly and grounds are clean, but the rooms dated- the handles of our faucet do not turn smoothly and when someone takes a shower, water would leak out of the closed glass door and get everywhere.

Decent resort with nice pool and beach area. Definitely not a high-end establishment but ticks all the basic boxes. Rooms are spacious with working AC and clean bathrooms. In general the resort appears somewhat worn and could benefit from restoration. Breakfast has decent selection and good service. The gym was spacious for a resort but dirty with equipment that also needs updating. The area around the hotel is less attractive than eg Condado. Proximity to the airport is a plus but on the downside everywhere else needs an Uber which can be slow in rush hour. Peak season pricing is definitely flawed from a price/quality perspective.

Excellent customer service. The staff is incredibly friendly and helpful. I would especially thank the front desk people. I didn't get all the names but Eunice was wonderful. We stayed in the club section which was an excellent choice. It came with free evening drinks and free buffet breakfast. My one suggestion/compliant is that using The vouchers for free included activities like breakfast and happy hour is a bit archaic and a pain in the behind. You have to remember to take them and then the dates are all different. I'm sure you can just set up the system so that it goes to the room and when it's processed then it can be credited in the system. Other than that a great stay

Extremely Disappointing Experience – SCAM Resort Fee Double Charging My stay at this hotel ended in complete disappointment and frustration. At checkout, I discovered that my credit card had been charged additional “resort fees” despite the fact that I had already paid these fees in full at the time of booking through a third-party site. When I questioned this, the manager insisted that these were additional fees that I would have been informed of at check-in. This is simply not true. I was never told about any extra charges, nor did I ever agree to them. Even after I showed clear proof that I had already paid an extra 22% in fees—the exact same amount that was charged again to my card without my authorization—the manager remained unapologetic and continued to insist that I was responsible for paying these fees again. As a result, I spent my last day in Puerto Rico upset, stressed, and feeling completely scammed. It left me wondering how many other guests unknowingly pay these fees twice through what feels like a “resort fee double-dipping” practice. After emailing the hotel, the incorrectly charged fees were eventually refunded to my credit card, but notably, no apology or acknowledgment of the inconvenience was ever offered. To make matters worse, the beach service was practically nonexistent. There was only one staff member available, and priority was clearly given to cruise ship excursion day guests rather than actual hotel guests. This experience seriously tarnished what should have been a relaxing stay. Between the misleading fees, lack of transparency, poor service, and dismissive management response, I cannot recommend this hotel.