One important thing to note: we were here for seven nights, so we experienced quite a bit more than those who might stay for a night or weekend.
First, for those contemplating booking here, the hotel entrance situation is super confusing. We had to "rescue" a handful of people during our stay, those who thought the elevator they were on would lead them to their room, but really only went between the lobby and the car park.
To enter or exit, you have to take one of two elevators (purportedly two, our entire time there, only one elevator was in use) from street level to the lobby. From there, you go around the front desk to the three elevators servicing the rooms. The only other way to enter/exit would be to use the elevator attached to the Ritz next door, then exiting through their lobby...which, as you might guess, is not easy to navigate. We tried stairs once - y'all know me and my preference for stairs over elevators - but that was even worse. The stairs are in their multi-level garage, and there's no easy pedestrian exit. Thank goodness we randomly ran into one of the employees, who guided us to *an* exit (him: "just to warn, there will be large spiderwebs and stuff in that stairwell"), which was also not convenient. Seriously, what do they do in a fire when elevators are out of service?
Our room was incredibly comfortable, but I'm not sure if we were given an upgrade due to my status or the length of our stay, or maybe both. The hallways are a bit twisty-turny, so I'm not really sure where our bedroom window was oriented, but we didn't have to contend with any street noise, for which I'm grateful.
We had a large living room with a desk, couch, small fridge and bar sink. The bathroom was also spacious and bright, and the bedroom was easily sealed off from hotel noises with the barn door. The bed was comfortable, and can I just offer up a "hallelujah" for A/C?
We got some really great sleep that week, and I'm sure that's a combo of the comfortable bed, the quiet room and the fact that we had the A/C on blast the majority of our stay.
Wi-Fi was a bit spotty but worked fine for the two days we needed to be online for work. There was a bit of a hiccup with housekeeping, though. When we checked in, we were told that housekeeping would be every other day, but we didn't ask and they agent didn't confirm the schedule. I took it to mean every other day starting the day we checked in, but that was super wrong. We ended up missing housekeeping the first day because of that, but it wasn't a big deal, we don't like to make housekeeping come into our room often if we can avoid it.
The other small things that happened were addressed and fixed by the staff right away. The first was we heard a loud grinding noise coming from around the bar sink area. We couldn't see anything, but noticed as we were heading out for dinner that night that there was a backup of what looked to be dirt and rocks in the sink. The other was that the outlet in the bathroom blew while we were gone; they came in to fix it, and that fix resulted in the little red reset button getting blown out of the socket the next time I plugged in. Again, both items were addressed and fixed with a quickness.
Location-wise, you can't get much better. It's super close to Bourbon Street, without the noise of Bourbon Street. Our first night there, after a long day of travel and not eating (for me, at least), we took a stroll from the hotel to Bourbon to get our bearings: super easy to navigate and circumvent, if you're not feeling that vibe on a particular day.
The staff was all accommodating, friendly and super welcoming. Like legit, they have that southern charm on display, and it was so appreciated. I heard them helping other guests with tour reservations and offering suggestions for restaurants, so I know they offer those services as well.
Definitely would consider this hotel should we end up in NOLA for any length of time in the future. read more