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Lafayette Hotel
- Price Range:
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$$$
3 reviews for Lafayette Hotel
This quaint little hotel is located in the Central Business District, so it's away from the touristy French Quarter section. Right across the street is a Lafayette Square, a park about a block big.
We got there late in the evening, but the staff was still around and totally cool. The receptionist asked if we were there for the Jazz Festival, we weren't, so he insisted we go. Good call.
The room was large and nicely decorated. We had a great view of the square and the St. Charles streetcar line, which conveniently stopped right across the street from the hotel.
Didn't try the room service, but there was a coffee shop right inside the hotel, so we stopped in and were quite happy.
The only reason this got 4 instead of 5 stars is because I know the room was haunted and the ghost kept waking me up at night.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Cool (1)
Look, I don't want to be a jerk, I like old things. But I don't like dirty things, and I can tell the difference.
The bed comforter was the kind of cheap, polyester floral number you find at motels, but this one was torn, stained and clearly had sticky food bits stuck to it. I took it off the bed entirely. The bed itself was very, very soft, and the fitted sheet pulled off the mattress in the middle of the night because it wasn't large enough.
Perhaps most strangely, none of the lamps in the bedroom worked, and there was no overhead light. I switched the sockets around, switched bulbs around, and I couldn't get them to turn on.
All of this probably still would have earned the hotel 3 stars, but the bathroom pushed me over the edge. The shower is in desperate need of an upgrade - yes the hotel is old, and yes it is quaint, but there's no reason to be using a shower head from the 70's. The tub itself wouldn't drain and before i got too far into my quick shower, I was ankle-deep. This isn't a big deal for most people, but it is a kind of intense pet peeve of mine. One of the drinking glasses in the bathroom had a thick crust of detergent all over it (at least, I hope it was detergent) - no big deal, but I'm surprised housekeeping didn't notice.
I dunno, it's a hard judgment. The hotel is QUIET and that's a miracle. The staff is well-intentioned, though maybe a little rough around the edges (the doorman told me I "looked tired" ).
My overall feeling is: for the price, there are other boutique hotels in the area that are better, and there are plenty of chain hotels that at least have draining shower tubs.
This might also be totally wrong, so really take this last part with a grain of salt: I think I might have overheard some elderly Japanese guests getting scammed. The concierge told them as they were checking out that they needed to pay a $10 telephone fee, and a $3 safe fee. They insisted that they'd already paid for their rooms. The man made no real effort to explain the charges to them, and at one point the woman held up her cell phone and asked, "How can there be a phone charge if we used our cell phones?" The concierge said, "Oh, okay, I'll remove it," and then told them that it was "Louisiana state law" that they be charged a tax for using the safe. ??? They paid the $3 and left.
(my room was comped through my employment, so I didn't have to deal with any of this myself)
Both of my sons have been students in New Orleans (the eldest graduated from Loyola University last May, the youngest is currently a sophmore at Tulane), so my wife and I have visited New Orleans numerous times over the past 5 years, staying in a variety of hotels. The Lafayette is our favorite. It's a classic older building that is well maintained and nicely decorated. Prices: very reasonable. Location: right on the St. Charles streetcar line. It's an easy walk to Canal St. and the French Quarter, but because it is not in the middle of the French Quarter madness, it is quiet. The only reason that I did not give it 5 stars is that on our last visit, the bar/restaurant remained closed.
