As part of our recent trip to San Juan Puerto Rico, Carolyn and I stayed 3 nights in the Hyatt House San Juan. It’s a Category 2 hotel, which requires 8,000 Hyatt points per night. We used 24,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards to transfer to Hyatt and then book the rooms.
The nice thing about this particular hotel is that (almost) ALL of the room types were available for the 8000 points, so naturally I got the nicest one (the 477 square foot 1BR suite!). Compared to the daily rate offered ($275 / night), that was about 3.4 cents per point, a pretty good redemption I think!
Getting to the Hyatt House San Juan from the airport
There are buses that go from the airport to the Miramar area of San Juan, where the Hyatt House San Juan is located, but there is no Uber service at this time, and the buses are pretty unreliable (from what I hear), so most people will take a taxi (as we did).
It’s $17 plus $1 per bag, with an additional charge if you have more than 4 passengers. Plus a tip, we paid $22, and the ride took about 10-15 minutes.
Suite style
Our Hyatt House San Juan suite came with a fridge, dishwasher, microwave and a stove-top, so since we were planning on being here for a few days, we ended up making a trip to the Pueblo Supermercado to pick up a few things rather than eating out at restaurants for every meal.
I had reached out on Twitter to Hyatt and then again on the phone trying to see what kind of upgrades were available.
(SEE ALSO: List of Airline and Hotel Twitter contacts)
Specifically, I was looking for lounge access, though it turns out that this hotel doesn’t have any kind of executive lounge. They told me I was already in the best kind of room they had (1 bedroom suite), and when I asked about a view, they told me I was in a “bay view”.
Here are some pics of the suite and the rest of the Hyatt House San Juan. You can see the “bay view” (spoiler alert: unless you count an abandoned field and construction equipment as a “bay”, that would be a big NO)
Location of the Hyatt House San Juan
One minor downside is the location within San Juan, though I guess that depends on what you’re looking for.
If you
- a) don’t mind walking places,
- or b) don’t mind paying for taxis
you should be okay. We’re cheap, but don’t mind walking, so we didn’t mind 🙂
The Hyatt House San Juan isn’t RIGHT on the beach. The Playita Condado is about a 15 minute walk and there is a larger beach about 30 minutes down, both in the Condado area of town. Old San Juan is also a bit away – the front desk recommended a taxi there (which is a flat fare of $15), but we walked there in the morning (but took the taxi back)
Supermarket
As I mentioned, there is a Supermercado Pueblo about a ten minute walk away from the hotel, and since the suite has a stove-top, refrigerator and microwave, we went out there to buy a bit of food there. To get there, go left out of the Hyatt House, up the hill and around the corner to the first traffic light, then left there on Calle Miramar until it dead-ends on Avenida Ponce de Leon. Turn right, and there’s a bit of an entertainment district on Ponce de Leon, and the Supermercado Pueblo will be shortly on your right.
We ended up buying among other things a thing of frozen tostones (plantains) but realized we had no oil to fry them in (the curses of living in a house where you just assume that you HAVE stuff like that!! ). Thankfully, when we asked down at the front desk, they hooked us up with some oil that they had back in the kitchen.
Breakfast
One annoying this was on the first night, they were apparently doing some work somewhere in the hotel as there was some knocking and then drilling that woke me up about 7:45 a.m. When I went down to the front desk for breakfast, I mentioned it and they must have gotten some other complaints, as they said that they had stopped and would resume at 10 a.m. Nice, but too bad for me as I was already awake by then 🙂
Breakfast was good – everything you hoped for. As you can see from the pictures, that included an omelet bar which is always a fun time. Of course, that led to the following dilemma
Are you supposed to tip your hotel breakfast omelet bar maker? (part of the regular free continental breakfast)
— Points with a Crew (@PointsWithACrew) January 24, 2015
I have actually seen that many Hyatt Houses also offer an Evening Social (code: free dinner), though Hyatt House San Juan did not. Combined with the fact that many Hyatt House hotels are Category 1 or Category 2 (requiring 5000 or 8000 Hyatt / Chase points, they may be a definite go-to for upcoming family vacations
(SEE ALSO: Which hotels give dinner for free?)
(SEE ALSO: Chase Ultimate Rewards: 5 reasons I think they’re the best miles out there)
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I was there 3 weeks ago and did get bay view which had view of condado area and could see the bay.
Bummer! (for me).
Check out the brand new Hyatt Place Panama City if you’re ever there.
Beautiful, brand new hotel, awesome buffet, and 5K HGP 🙂
Yeah I was noticing some of the Category 1 and Category 2 Hyatt hotels (5K and 8K points) and finding some pretty nice ones, including a few that offer DINNER in addition to breakfast!
Dinner? That’s a new one! Where’s that??
Some Hyatt Houses offer an Evening Social, which offers “complimentary glass of wine or pint of beer at our Evening Social. Free snacks and beverages are served in a laid-back-living-room style setting” – what you get probably varies by hotel, but in other hotels I’ve been at, the food has been substantial enough to count as dinner. YMMV
One example is the Hyatt House San Ramon (California), which is Category 2 (8000 points / night). You may also like my post about which hotels offer free dinner, though after reading about some of these Hyatt Houses, I may need to revisit.
I was there Jan 21-25. I also took the wife on a getaway. We used Avios from JFK. The hotel is new, the entire staff were super nice and the King Bed Suite was awesome. A great deal for 8K points/ night. The trade-off was having to take a taxi to get around. That said, I would definitely return.
BTW, I had the same view which was not the bay view you were told.
Nice! We were there the exact same weekend! I should have posted sooner than we could have said hi :-D. I agree with what you said. It was super nice but the location was a bit frustrating. I agree, I would return, but I think if I was going to Puerto Rico again, I’d also consider hotels in other parts of the city to see what other options there were
Did you try out the bio bay in Fajardo?
Nope – we just stayed in San Juan. I’ve heard good things though!
Great post, coincidentally my wife is named Carolyn and we will be staying 3 nights later this month using 24k UR points. Looking forward to it.
Nice! At least her name isn’t Caroline – my wife always gets annoyed when people call her that 🙂 Have a great time!
We are going to stay at this hotel in Feb. 2017. Were there sidewalks and crosswalks to make walking to Condado fairly easy? We are a very active family (with 2 boys) and are considering walking instead of taking a taxi. Is it safe to walk the area at night?
There were sidewalks and crosswalks for most of the route, but it was just the 2 of us grownups. You might also want to check out my review of the San Juan Condado area