I am attracted by the top 5 ranking in san juan hotels. And I would say it is a pretty good hotel: good location and clean room, simple decoration. If you pay below 120, this is something you should consider .
Also I want to say the ranking is a little bit overated. Most people here are satisfied with this hotel because their low expectation. I would recommend holiday inn express to you if you increase your budget a little bit(10 bucks per day). You will have a better and modern service there.

We stayed at El Canario in December.

The rooms however are not the cleanest. The service at least during the nights is quite bad. It appears that the management believes that they are doing you a favor by letting you spend time at their hotel. We had booked for six nights but we ended up moving to the near by Holiday Inn after a couple of nights.
The parking situation is quite bad around this area of San Juan.
The location however is quite central. This might be a good option if you are looking just for a place to crash while you do the sightseeing in Puertorico.

My sister and I had one night in San Juan and we were on a budget. I had done some research on TripAdvisor and this one got some pretty good reviews and the price was right. It is a budget hotel but the rooms were clean and the air conditioning was great. We wanted to do some sightseeing so we asked the gentleman at the front desk and he was fantastic! He gave us impeccable directions for taking the bus to Old San Juan (a short ride) and a ferry to the Bacardi distillery and gave us some more ideas. The location is nice as well because it's not on a busy street but only 2 blocks from a bus stop and close to restaurants. The only thing I might recommend is to bring some socks or slippers because there was not carpeting in the room. We had a great stay though!

We stayed at the El Canario in July of last year as a group of 5 girls. It was our post-high school graduation senior trip. We found the hotel on a travel website and took a chance. We were very pleasantly surprised. The property is located in a central area in Condado - very close to restuarants, transportation and the beach. The staff was very helpful and the complimentary breakfast was surprisingly tasty. We booked two rooms opposite eachother. Both were clean, sizeable, and had balconies. One room had a great view overlooking the lagoon (which by the way is a great attraction). There was a slight musty smell in the hallway/elevator, but by day 2 of our four day stay, it just smelled like home. The manager was very understanding and addressed any problems we had. Great place to stay for anyone looking to experience San Juan, especially those on a budget.

PS- Ask for Hector - he's great!