Most people book the Sheraton Puerto Rico because something brought them to the Convention Center, or because a cruise leaves from across the bay. I booked it once for the same reasons. Then I came back. And back again. Six stays later, I’ve slept in a stack of different rooms, eaten my way through everything across the street, and closed down the lobby bar more times than I’ll admit in print. This is the hotel I’d send a friend to.
It isn’t the most romantic address in San Juan, and it isn’t on a beach. What it does is put almost everything you’d want within a few minutes of your room, and do the basics very well, every single time.
Most of my stays have been in rooms that face the pool deck, and I love them. You open the curtains and the whole social life of the hotel is right there: the infinity pool, the bar, the paddle court, people stretched out on loungers. You feel like you’re at a resort even though you’re in the middle of the city.
My most recent stay put me on a top floor, and that’s a different hotel entirely. From up there you get all of San Juan at once: the city spread out, the cruise ships lined up at the piers across the bay, and the little Isla Grande airport with its small planes coming and going. I stood at that window longer than I’d like to admit. If you can get a high floor, ask for it.
The hotel isn’t on a beach, but it solves that for you. A free shuttle runs guests to El Escambrón beach and to Old San Juan, and brings you back. You can spend the morning in the water at Escambrón, wander Old San Juan in the afternoon, and be back at the pool for sunset without renting a car or calling a ride.
Across six stays, two things never changed. The hotel is very clean, every time. And the staff are professional and attentive at every hour, from the front desk to the bartenders to the people who clean the rooms. That consistency is the whole reason I keep rebooking.
Reporting and photos from six stays, 2026
If an older relative tells you they stayed at “the Sheraton” in San Juan decades ago, they’re probably not talking about this building. The Sheraton name has a long and complicated history on this island, and the hotel you’d book today is the second chapter.
This hotel didn’t come from a single big hotel company deciding to plant a flag. The Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority, a government agency, picked Starwood to run a headquarters hotel next to its new convention center. Developers Garfield Traub and Puerto Rico’s own Interlink Group built it.
The financing was a public-private mix: private equity, federal tax credits, and a first mortgage backed partly by a private lender and partly by a subsidiary of the Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico. The developers put the investment at roughly $210 million.
Starwood became part of Marriott in 2016, which is why the hotel is now a Marriott Bonvoy property. Interlink still lists itself on the project for asset management and directly oversees the casino.
Who holds the deed today. Public records tie the project to Interlink and its partners, but I haven’t seen a current ownership filing that settles it, so I’m not naming an owner until I do.
Everyone calls it the rooftop, the hotel included. Technically the infinity pool sits on a huge sundeck on the fourth floor, with the tower rising behind it. It doesn’t matter. When you’re at the edge of that pool with the bay in front of you, it feels like the top of the city.
This is my favorite part of the hotel. Besides the infinity pool, the deck has a bar, a pizza spot, and a paddle court. You can spend a whole day up there without going back to your room. Go early in the morning if you want it quiet, or around sunset if you want the light on the water.
The one miss in the building. The hotel’s Peruvian kitchen wasn’t that great for me, especially with this much good food a two-minute walk away. Save your dinner money for across the street.
Here’s the part of this review I’m not happy about, and it isn’t the hotel’s fault.
Six stays. Six times through the front desk, six check-ins, a pile of money spent on the property and around it. And on paper, according to Marriott Bonvoy, I was never here. I got zero points for any of it.
The reason is how the rooms were booked. I booked through third-party travel sites, where the rate made sense. Marriott’s loyalty rules say stays booked that way don’t earn Bonvoy points, don’t count as elite nights, and don’t get member benefits, even when you’re a member and you hand them your Bonvoy number at check-in. Marriott is the world’s largest hotel company, with more than 30 brands, so this one rule follows you through a huge share of the hotels you’ll ever book.
I get the business logic. Travel sites take a commission on every room, and Marriott wants you booking direct. But from the guest’s side it’s simple: I’m the same person, sleeping in the same bed, spending the same money at the same bar. The only thing that changed is which website I clicked. Locking loyalty behind direct bookings means the only way to enjoy the benefits is to pay Marriott’s own rate, which is often the more expensive room. That’s not rewarding loyalty. That’s charging for it.
If points or elite status matter to you, book directly with Marriott, on its site or app, and check the price against the travel sites first. If you book through a third party, assume you’ll earn nothing and won’t get member perks, and decide whether the savings are worth it.
To be clear, the people working at this Sheraton didn’t make this rule, and they treated me the same on every stay regardless of how I booked. This is a corporate policy, and it cost this review real points on the score. Marriott, if you’re reading: six stays should count for something.
This is what changed the math on the Convention District. Distrito T-Mobile is a two-minute walk away, and the entertainment there doesn’t stop. There’s a VIP movie theater, the Coca-Cola Music Hall for concerts, ziplines over the plaza, and more restaurants and bars than you can cover in one trip. I’ve personally tried every restaurant there, and I’ll be reviewing them one by one. For now, here’s where I go.
WHAT WORKS
- The pool deck: infinity pool, bar, pizza and paddle court
- Pool-facing rooms put you right in the middle of it
- Top-floor views of the city, the cruise piers and Isla Grande airport
- Very clean, every stay
- Professional, attentive staff at every hour
- A 24-hour casino with real local character
- Distrito T-Mobile across the street
- Free shuttle to El Escambrón beach and Old San Juan, there and back
WHAT TO KNOW
- It’s not on a beach. The shuttle to Escambrón covers it, but it runs on a schedule
- The hotel’s Peruvian restaurant didn’t live up to the rest of the food around it
- The Convention District is new and purpose-built, without the old-city charm of Old San Juan or Condado
- The “rooftop” pool is a fourth-floor deck, so high-floor rooms look over it, not out from it
- Book through a third-party site and Marriott Bonvoy gives you no points, no elite nights and no member perks
- Dinners and drinks across the street add up fast
FINAL
The Verdict
7.4/10
A hotel I love, docked for a loyalty program that pretends I was never there.
The Sheraton Puerto Rico is the hotel you pick when you want San Juan at your doorstep without giving up a resort day. It isn’t boutique, and it isn’t on the sand. But it’s clean, the people working there are excellent, the pool deck is one of the best hangouts in the city, and you walk out the door into a district built for going out.
On the hotel alone, this is an 8-plus. I took points off for Marriott Bonvoy refusing to count stays booked through third-party sites. Six stays at this hotel should have earned me something, and until Marriott fixes that, the score stays down.
Ask for a pool-facing room if you want to be in the middle of the action, or a top floor if you want the view. Either way, I’ll probably see you at the lobby bar.
Reporting and photos by Damian Antommarchi from six personal stays in 2026. History and financing details are drawn from developer statements, Convention Center District records and published hotel reporting. © 2026 NYC Weed News.
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