We recently stayed—March 28-April 1, 2001--at the Westin Rio Mar as part of a convention. Our initial feeling of the hotel was that it looked like a very nice resort. The setting of the hotel right near the beach was beautiful. The lobby is large with a huge set of windows that has a great view of the ocean. We had a special check in area for the convention group. Although they were fairly slow with the check in process, the check in desk staff was friendly. We got our key and headed for our room. Upon entering the room, we immediately went back to the check in desk to request a different room. They had given us a room right next to the children’s pool and next to one of the entry doors. This room was dim and noisy. We went back up to the check in desk and they gave us a different room. Although this room was bright and sunny and had a nice ocean view, I definitely think the size of the room was nothing special especially at the prices they charge. This first evening, the company hosted an outside buffet. The food was good, but not great. The hotel staff handling this event were pleasant, but did not go out of their way to provide great service.

The following evening, we had another company hosted dinner. This one was a sit down dinner in the main ballroom. The food for this event was better than the buffet, but still only good, not great. The waiters were not helpful at all. Someone at our table had requested an iced tea from the server. I know that a large resort like this should be able to accommodate their guests (especially at the prices they charge). The server said in a not so polite way, “you can have water or wine…that’s it”. I personally ended up leaving the banquet and going to the bar at the other end of the hotel just to get this person an iced tea. I could not believe that they would not accommodate such a simple request.

On our final night at the Westin, the company was throwing a swanky black-tie dinner. The service during this event was good and our server even accommodated a couple of special requests. This was one of the few times we received good service.

Throughout our stay at the Westin, we continually had poor maid service. Each day after coming back from our afternoon outdoor activities, we came back to our room and found that the maid did not give us any wash cloths. The first time this happened, we called the front desk and after over an hour of waiting, they brought us four wash cloths. We put 2 of the extra wash cloths on the towel rack for the next day as we figured they would probably forget to give us wash cloths again. When we returned back that next day, they had not only taken away the 2 spare wash cloths, but they had also taken out the bath mat and the rug in the bathroom. They also never vacuumed or swept while we were there. In fact it looked as though the maid had shaken the rug out in the middle of the room (there were lint balls and dust everywhere). We were quite amazed at how poor the maid service was.

Room Service was also poor. On our first night I ordered a pizza from room service. They said it would take at most 30-40 minutes to bring it up to the room. After waiting for over an hour, I gave them a call. They gave no explanation but said it was on its way up. After another 30+ minutes, they finally brought my pizza. Some other people we knew at the convention also told us of their having to wait for over 2 hours for room service.

During our stay we were given lunch vouchers from the company that we could use at several of the restaurants in the Westin. We decided to eat lunch at the “Club Coqui” cabana by the pool. For two of us to get a hamburger and French-Fries, the bill came to $30 (way overpriced for burgers and fries served on a styrofoam plate). We paid with our vouchers and gave the server a cash tip. The service was very slow and the people working the restaurant were not very friendly. When we looked over our bill during our check out, they had added the $30 charge (which we already paid for with the vouchers) for our lunch to our room not just once, but 2 times! On top of double billing us for something that had already been paid for, they also added themselves hefty tips on top of it. We were VERY unhappy about this but they did remove the charges.

The day we were scheduled for a shuttle to San Juan (to a different hotel), we met some friends for lunch at the Marbella restaurant. This was by far the most overpriced food and the slowest service. We arrived at the restaurant at 11:40am. We had a choice of a buffet brunch (ridiculously priced at $40 per person) or ordering lunch from the menu. The 8 of us had booked the shuttle for 1pm (which we told our waiter) and since we only had a little over an hour, we all just ordered salads. At 12:40pm (which was the only time we saw our waiter other than when he brought us our drinks) I stopped the waiter and again reminded him we were in a rush and had a shuttle to catch at 1pm. We knew by then that we would never catch our shuttle at 1pm if we wanted to eat lunch. We did manage to arrange for another shuttle for 2pm. Finally, at about 1:15pm, they brought us our lunch…nearly 1 ½ hours after we ordered.

We finally left the Westin that afternoon and were not at all sad to leave. We ended up staying for the next 5 nights at a great guesthouse in San Juan called “At Wind Chimes Inn”. Although this is a small guest house of about 20 rooms, the staff and service here were a hundred times better than what we received at the Westin Rio Mar…and a lot less expensive.


Recommended: No