Sonesta Essential La Porte — Hotel in La Porte

I always do extensive research before booking, and the glowing reviews for this place set my expectations pretty high; especially considering the price. Unfortunately, the experience didn’t fully live up to the hype. My biggest regret here is trusting the reviews on booking.com. I checked yelp but there were 0 reviews. Next time, I’ll be adding google reviews to my research list.

The air conditioning in our room didn’t work well. It was set to 64 degrees, yet the room stayed warm and stuffy. It also made a loud rattling noise every few minutes, and we had to keep smacking it to get it to stop.

There were brown marks on the bathroom wall that I didn’t even want to investigate. As someone who used to work in housekeeping, I find that completely unacceptable.

The listing claimed the room would come with a coffee maker and a hair dryer, but neither was provided. I was also charged a $50 deposit at check-in that wasn’t mentioned anywhere during booking, something that should absolutely be disclosed ahead of time.

While there was no ice machine on our floor (despite an “ice machine room”), I did eventually find one on the second floor.

The mini fridge in our room had a flawed door design; if you placed anything inside the compartments on the door, it wouldn’t close properly. I only realized this after waking up to a pool of water beneath the fridge and discovering that all of our refrigerated items had spoiled after sitting at room temperature.

Breakfast was fair at best. The options were the same each day: potatoes, eggs, sausage, bagels, toast, blueberry muffins, apple coffee cake, and a few cereal choices. If you didn’t show up at 6:00 a.m. sharp, the food was lukewarm at best. The hot foods were kept in small warmers, but the lids didn’t fully cover the trays. My kids even complained that the cereal tasted stale. On the second day, biscuits and gravy were served, but the gravy was left out at room temperature and became gelatinous.

The staff at check-in was friendly and welcoming, but throughout the rest of the stay, no one really interacted with us. They just stood silently and stared; in the hallways, at breakfast, and even around the pool area. It gave off an odd and uncomfortable vibe.

All in all, this hotel had some positives, but the negatives definitely stood out more. I don’t...

I have rewards with Hilton and was going to stay there but the reviews made me think this was a good place to stay for a reasonable price. It's not. You can always tell the quality of a hotel by how humid the room gets and this one was nearly unbearable! If I had needed to stay longer than 2 nights, I would have cancelled and booked somewhere else. But it was a short stay, thankfully. When we got in the room, I noticed the towels were dirty and there was hair on them and in the bathtub. I was planning on leaving a 3 star review, but then I noticed they didn't return our full deposit. They charged $50 at check in and only returned $25. When I called to ask, the man on the phone said the towels or blankets were stained and I would have to call back later to talk to a manager. Well first off, the towels were already dirty. We ended up using beach towels we'd brought with us because we didn't trust the ones the hotel provided. The only thing I can think of is that my daughter was coloring on the bed so maybe there was a bit of crayon there. But that's washable. If that didn't come off in their washer I wouldn't trust the cleanliness of anything they put in their machines because she gets crayon on all kinds of stuff at home and it always comes out in our washer. Me and my husband both travel for work frequently and we have NEVER once had a hotel keep any of our deposits. DO...

Attempted to stay here on 9/20/25. On my initial walk-in the hotel smells amazing! It smelled very clean and looked clean on the inside and outside. The guy that checked us is was polite and informative about activities even though we were only staying 1night. The only thing I did not like was that each time I handed him my cards, he wouldn’t hand them back in my hand, but instead place it on the counter, not even slide it over to me. Not sure if it’s just the way I grew up, but I find that very rude. We got to room 202 on the ground floor, it’s the only room on the ground floor with marks going in a circle around the peephole. Upon entry the room smelled and looked clean. My husband immediately noticed the room felt so humid, wet, and cold. He mentioned the covers feeling wet when he laid our son down. I turned the A/C up a little, and it actually got worse. After 10 mins in the room I saw a roach walking across the floor, we then took our bags back to the truck. The towels had hair on them, and so did the duvet on the bed. It was only for one night, so I laid in bed to sleep and I could not because the room, bed, and covers were just so wet and I began to feel clammy. Wasn’t getting much sleep so I decided to watch tv, tv turned on but wouldn’t change channels. We checked out 20 minutes later to a best western 23 minutes away closer to Hobby Airport...