Hotel de la Monnaie — Hotel in New Orleans

Hotel de la Monnaie

My wife and I stayed here for our anniversary. I called ahead of time and made arrangements with Delilah at the front desk to have some flowers sent and champagne waiting for our room when we arrived. My wife was super surprised! Delilah went above and beyond for us!! She recommended using 1800 flowers and Vieux Carre wine and spirits for the champagne order. I did all of this the day before our arrival! The room we had was the two bedroom suite. We booked through our timeshare RCI and stayed 5 days out of the 7 we were allotted. We checked in around 4:30 pm on Friday 3/26/2021 and was lucky to get one of their 23 free parking spots underneath the hotel. They have 50 something rooms so you can imagine the blessing we felt. There is a parking lot behind the hotel for $20 a day. Everything in the French Quarter is in walking distance of this hotel. Because of fear of losing our parking spot, we walked and got Lyft rides the entire time we were there. The room smells nice because of the plug in they had. The hot water is limited for baths, but the two of us were fine taking showers without running out of hot water. They have a sign in the bathroom letting you know the room only has a 30 gallon hot water heater. The soda machine sells 20 ounce coke products for $1.50- cheapest to get a bottle soda in the French Quarter. Walgreens charges $2 a bottle LOL. The room is dated, but we felt it added to the historic nature of the French Quarter. Frenchman street is right there with a record shop, Dat Dogs restaurant, a couple bars, famous Spotted Cat lounge all within 2 minute walk! You are also right across the street from the Jazz museum! We would definitely stay here again! We had a second floor suite which had a door leading out to the front outdoor balcony you see in other pictures of this hotel. There is a tv in the living area, small tv in the smaller bedroom, and a medium sized tv in the larger bedroom. This room would be doable for two adult couples, but better for just one couple like us or a small young family. The couch is a sleeper sofa. The partial kitchen has dishes, pots, and pans, but only a two burner electric cooktop. The smaller room doesn’t have a closet or much room to move around and is not really private. There is an armoire right outside the room next to the little wooden dining table. The larger room does have a closet. There were plenty of towels, blankets, pillows for the two of us but would be enough for 4 adults or a small young family. Our room was right near the exit to go outside to leave the hotel rather than go through the lobby. We used this most of the time to go to and from this hotel. Very very neat hotel with very friendly staff! The beds are not comfy but are good enough. We are in our late 20s mid 30s in decent shape- if you are sensitive to mattress types, maybe you might care more about the mattress than we did. If you are wanting a posh modern style hotel then maybe stay at the Westin or one of the chain hotels on the other end of the French Quarter. But this is our type of place and it provided everything we needed for our first New Orleans trip! Don’t get me wrong, I am a long time Bon Voy member and stay at the Westins and Renaissance hotels all the time for business, but in my book, this place has them beat for price ($340 for the whole 7 days even though we just stayed 5), location, and...

Pros: Location!!!

It was nice to have a kitchenette. There was a large mini fridge, microwave, sink and small stove. They also have cups, silverware, bowls, pans so you could cook but it would be tough. Mac and cheese, grilled cheese, hotdogs etc... Easy stuff to save $$$ or for the picky eaters.

I had the 1 bedroom. The room was dated but clean. It was like a tiny apartment but strangely shaped... Tiny hallway was 1 person at a time. It's fine for 2 adults and younger children or maybe 2 couples but you best be cool sharing a small space. Highly advise just getting the 2 bedroom suite in that case. TV worked but were small but I rarely use them when I am in a hotel... My kid watched cartoons and was happy with it.

Cons: Not many. For the price, location and service it was money well spent but for people with bedding needs or noise sensitivity these are my comments:

Bed was not comfortable. My first time in NoLa I slept on a concrete floor... I can no longer do that. These beds were way better than that...but I felt they were hard & felt every movement. Probably plenty good for drunk sleep so you can get out there and do everything again the next night. However I have a lot more miles on these joints now. After multiple days walking and a lot of time spent on my feet in the quarter, going to the Zoo etc, I really started to miss my own bed.

Second thing is noise. I am not very noise sensitive, I can fall back asleep easily but it's worth mentioning there were some night noises. The AC was fairly normal, maybe a little loud but at least consistent noise and maybe covers up some other noises. Our room was top floors on the side facing the jazz museum. I couldn't hear any music & I know the bar a couple blocks away was going loud so that's good. The train is nearby and I know at least one night it was blowing its horn for awhile, loud enough to wake me but not my kid in the livingroom.

The most annoying thing was because the wall was all glass going into the court yard and there are palm trees in the courtyard there was a really windy night and the palmtree kept loudly scraping the window all night. Even I had a hard time with that. I think that might be a room secific thing because I was on the top level right by a tree top. Hopefully they trim them...

Edit: this was probably an unfair review for the hotel, the parking lots behind the hotel are the real culprits taking advantage of tourists and they are the ones that truly deserve a bad review. What I should have said is be very diligent if you stay here to make sure you pay the right kiosk if you are unlucky to have to stay in one of the lots behind the hotel. Otherwise you will likely have to pay $115 to have boots removed from your car.

Do not stay here unless you want to pay $115 to have boots removed from your car. I arrived at this hotel around midnight on a Friday. The hotel has a very limited amount of parking available for guests and it was full when we arrived. I was directed to the pay lot directly behind the hotel and told to park in the second lot which I did. I used the kiosk to pay for 24 hours worth of parking which was plenty for the time we were planning on staying. The hotel was very outdated but had a lot of character and the stay itself was pleasant. We really enjoyed walking the French Quarter which is very close and convenient to the hotel. After we walked around for a few hours we returned to our car only to find our tires had been booted and a placard was on our driver side window stating we did not pay for parking and had to pay $115 ($90 to have the boots removed and $25 parking fees). I explained to the parking agent, who was still on site, that we already paid and showed him my receipt. He informed me there are actually 2 lots with 2 separate kiosks and I didn't read the signs to pay at the correct kiosk. The lot and kiosks are not clearly marked so unless you are familiar with the area you would not know this. He was empathetic but said his supervisor approved booting my car and he would not call him to explain the situation. This was my first, and will be my only trip, to this city.

EditIn fairness, if I ever return to New Orleans I would probably give this hotel another shot..the hotel and French Quarter do have a lot of character and everybody should visit the city at least once and make your...