[16][17] The colonial facade of Hotel Meliá is located across from Parque de Bombas in Plaza Las Delicias, in downtown Ponce.

"The feeling of Europe is evident also in the layout of the property as one level up from the lobby there is an open air area...the architecture is a "unique mix of cultures with the Spanish influence reinvented”.

Seeing the need for an overnight stay of drivers making their trips from San Juan to Ponce and the convenient location of his grocery-restaurant, he then expanded into a small hotel.

"[20] Meliá was the first hotel in Puerto Rico to offer a telephone line and a private bathroom in each room.

The original hotel faced Plaza Las Delicias, but in 1915 Alfredo Wiechers Pieretti redesigned it to have its entrance on Calle Cristina, increasing the number of its rooms from nine to 21.

Dorpan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sol Meliá, subsequently filed a complaint against HMI in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, "seeking a declaration that under the Lanham Act, Dorpan had the right to use the mark Meliá throughout Puerto Rico" and that HMI had the right to use the name Melia only in the city of Ponce.

[1] Several prominent figures have been guests at the Melia, including Libertad Lamarque, María Antonieta Pons, Yolanda "Tongolele" Montes and Ninón Sevilla,[3] as well as Pedro Albizu Campos.