Thanks, Carol. I normally stay at one of the condo/timeshare properties, but have on occasion stayed at privately owned properties with no issues in the past. In looking at some of the comments on tripadvisor about a property I'd rather not name here, there was a report of a fairly widely advertised one near Cupecoy that sounded almost as bad as the hotel I stayed in while in SJU.

Great suggestion about just asking these specitic questions. I'm probably less likely to go with a one-off rental like airbnb.

You're right about the water. I read the article in the Daily Herald about the water issues and it sounds like bottled water is what most residents on the French side are doing. Heck, I even filter the water from the tap at home, lol. (and I don't live in an area with known lead issues...)