Went to the Gran Melia for a birthday celebration with a group of 15 people. The grounds and the layout were superb but the rest of the trip was marred by poor service. The food was expensive and at best poorly prepared - we went off site and had great meals. Our group had similar problems to previous bloggers with regards to room maintenance and check in problems. Everything just seemed disorganized with most of the staff indifferent at best. Additionally they do charge extra for everything. I normally don't post negative reviews but in this case the lack of attention to even the most basic fundamentals of customer service really disappointed me.

My friend and I came back from this resort last week.....The staff for the most part were unfriendly and not very helpful. The first full day we were there....our room was not cleaned until approx. 6:30pm after calling to find out why. When it was cleaned.... when I say cleaned..... I mean we got clean towels and the bed was done...thats it! The mini-bar was not replenished, the floors were not swept, etc. To add to that, there was no price menu for the mini-bar. I called for the prices and they assured me someone would come bring me a list. Three days later.....no list. The bed was VERY comfortable and the room was nice. I lost a sandal out of my bag on the long walk to my room...I could not find it. The next day I called the front desk to see if anyone had found it......I got transferred to six different areas...then they hung up on me without an answer. The restaurants were very expensive. The japanese restaurant was worth it, but I can't say the same for the italian restaurant. The casino is shady people! If you do go to gamble...please gamble with caution. I might suggest to stay away from the free boos....

As with other reviewers, I think everyone is agreement that this place is extremely over priced. The room rates are priced decently. How so ever they will nickle and dime you to death. There is a fee for everything, and I mean everything. Drinks average 10 a piece. (not all that bad). How ever the food is extremely overpriced for what you get. $15.00 for a McDonalds quality Cheeseburger just seemed a little on the high side. Also, pre warning. You can not bring any type of food or coolers on the grounds. everything has to be purchased from the hotel.
If your looking for action, you may want to consider somewhere else, on the other hand if you want a laid back experience this is the place. Also there are no suitable beaches, you can't enter the water, it's nothing but rock, coral and sea weed.
If you do come, stay at the pool bar, cheapest food , best service and most action.
The place is beautiful and the rooms are nice, but thats where it stops.

I rely on tripadvisor reviews, so I feel it is only fair to write my own.

The Gran Melia is a beautiful property, like others have said, that needs a little tweeking. The first thing - rent a car. Absolutely, without a doubt, the best thing we did. Puerto Rico is really easy to drive around and we used our car to drive into San Juan about every night and drive to local bakeries to get lunch etc. Without a car, i think we would have been really unhappy.

The pool is gorgeous. very big, lots of built in beds, very clean, great temperature. It was packed with kids over the weekend (we do not have kids) which was a little "loud" for our taste but they were just kids being kids, so we can't complain. Monday and Tuesday the pool was very quiet.

Our room was nice, always cleaned promptly, very comfy bed, great flat screen tv with all the american channels. We found service very friendly and willing to help.

We did not like the beach at the property (full of rocks, like the pictures show) but we took our rental car a few miles down the road to Luquillo Beach which was beautiful, easy to find and almost empty on a Monday. Highly recommend that.

Overall, I would recommend this hotel to families much more than singles and also I cannot say enough about having a car to leave the property. There is a lot to see in Puerto Rico. The Gran Melia served as a perfect suitable "home base" but the beach on property and lack of diverse restaurant options made our rental car worth 10x what we paid for it.