Hotel Monteleone — Hotel in New Orleans

10/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND staying here. It is extremely overpriced, rooms are fine, nothing special or luxurious for the price. There was no safe in our room, as described in the room details. The Omni was about $400 cheaper for the weekend, and boy do I wish we had stayed there. I travel for business and vacation every other month, so I am familiar with hotels and usually relish in the service provided and the rooms.

Read on if you want the long story of the service provided: We arrived evening of 12/30 for a quick couples NYE trip! Excited to explore New Orleans and all the wonderful food it has to offer. I chose to splurge on this hotel because it has the infamous Carousel Bar and was in the middle of everything. Upon arrival, the individual checking us in alerted us that there were two reservations under my name. I was genuinely confused because I only booked the hotel one time (12/18) and only had 1 confirmation #/E-mail. The individual (who was very hospital and kind!) asked if I was charged 2xs. I check my CC, and sure enough, I was charged on 12/18 (my actual booking) and then a pending charge from 12/28. He states that it shows a booking on 12/18 afternoon and one 12/19 morning. Again, I'm stating how I am confused because I only booked it on 12/18 and he says no problem, let's get you checked in and I'll sort it with a manager and give you a call. Shortly thereafter, I receive a call and he says he can't waive the room fee because it is showing I booked it twice and didn't cancel. I go to the front desk to speak with the manager because I cannot pay $1,200 for a room I did not book and am not using. The manager that I spoke with was extremely rude and did not even pretend to be hospitable. He states he can't refund me because I booked it and didn't cancel. I state that's the issue. I have zero proof or confirmation that there is a second booking on my end. I show him my E-mail to show the confirmation from 12/18 to which he shrugs and says "that doesn't mean anything". I am saying this is clearly a system error, and you are charging me $1,200 for a room I am not using nor did I book. He tries to explain the cancellation policy to me, which I understand, but for me to be in breach of the policy, I'd have to have booked a second room and known to cancel. Both reservations were marked prepaid, and the one I booked (12/18) also had the CC transaction on 12/18. The second mysterious booking of 12/19, the CC transaction didn't occur til 12/28 -- but it's prepaid? (make that make sense...) Also, this hotel (that room type specifically) was not sold out for 12/30-1/1 either, I checked. He goes on to say "maybe I didn't book it, but someone with my name and my contact information surely did" - how condescending! I asked to speak with his manager because again, I cannot pay an additional $1,200 for a reservation I did not make. This is obviously a system glitch. The next morning I speak with the Director of Front Office, and she was much more service friendly. She listened to my concern, and had to go to the back to investigate further. Upon her return, she says I need to just dispute it with my credit card company and they'll refund me because they take the Customer's side. I'm still genuinely confused because I did not book this reservation twice, and they're not exactly admitting to a system glitch, but she did say "there's nothing I can do on my end to cancel it out". She was at least much kinder and more approachable about it all. My takeaway is there is a glitch in the system, and apparently it doesn't allow for an override?? Either way, upon looking at the negative reviews (which don't pop up first), it appears similar situations have happened to a couple of others. Luckily, Chase bank will handle it! I'm sure a Hotel rep will respond to this (it helps with Google review boosting) with a generic response of "thanks for sharing your experience, we're sincerely sorry"... An apology doesn't do much when you are refusing to refund $1,200 in a reservation that was clearly a...

So much to love about this hotel! I'll start with the amazing service and their wonderful staff! We stayed here for a week and everyone from the doormen who warmly greet you each time you come in, to the pool attendants, and the room service people were all friendly, accommodating and genuinely helpful. My very social husband made friends with all the door men and got suggestions on where to go and what to do in the city. My son made friends with the pool attendant and the pool staff, he was up there every single day multiple times a day, and they were always so kind to him. One of them even showed him where the best view of the city was, and went out of her way to make sure that he left with a good impression of New Orleans. Few people bother to speak to children as full human beings, and they not only did this for a 5 year old, but made him feel special and seen, not at all like a hazard or a nuisance the way some hotels treat small children. We have stayed in a lot of 4 and some 5 star hotels over the years and often in the nicer hotels we don't feel as welcome. Sometimes we get staff that says all right things with a look of contempt on their face that makes us feel like we're bothering them. Not here. Everyone went above and beyond, including the concierge who began helping us prep for our stay before we even arrived!

Our second favorite thing of this hotel was the rooftop pool. The view from the pool is fantastic, the pool itself is clean and perfectly heated! It is an older property so it was not perfect or in new condition but you can see the effort they put in to maintaining this more than 130 year old hotel. They have fans that mist you with water for the really hot days, and a bar with friendly bartenders to mix up virgin drinks for the kids and strong drinks that are equally delicious for the adults. NO is known as a party city and we didn't know how welcomed a child would be into that mix, but there were other families and no one seemed bothered by the presence of children.

The third thing and one of the best parts of this hotel, is the location. It was right in the heart of the French Quarter. Walk up one block and you're right on Bourbon Street. It was the best of both worlds, we were able to take into the fun of Bourbon in small doses, retreat to our quiet hotel and go back for more. Royal Street is full of galleries and antique shops, and the area before the Walgreens is clean and well maintained. The hotel is within walking distance of so many good restaurants, book stores, specialty shops, even convenience stores and pharmacies, making whatever you need on vacation accessible with a quick stroll out of the hotel. Not that you need to leave the hotel, with 24/7 room service (the food was actually good, and the prices comparable to the other restaurants in the area), a restaurant with fantastic brunch, and the famous Carousel Bar with live music right in the hotel, you could have a great trip without ever leaving. When you do leave, its a block from Canal Street and the Trolley that will take you where you want to go, and you can easily walk to Jackson Square, The French Market, the Riverfront, Armstrong Park and Congo Square.

The room was clean and comfortable. The bathroom was large with great water pressure. We really appreciated that there were plenty of drawers and hangers to organize our clothes. They provided robes, and good toiletries. There was even a large umbrella for guest use, which came in so handy during the rainy days. The beds weren't my husband's favorite because he prefers a firmer bed, but I thought they were fine. We opted not to have the room cleaned during our stay, but had no issue getting fresh towels from housekeeping or anything we needed.

Overall we had a great stay, no complaints and nothing but positive things to say. I also loved the architecture of the building, its history, the details in the lobby, even the fact that the hotel is supposedly haunted. We would return to New Orleans any day as long as its to stay...

We checked in on Friday, August 23. My husband and I booked the Ernest Hemingway Penthouse to celebrate 31 years together. At check in, the young woman working at the front desk was brusque and pulled a weird and very rude face when she looked at my reservation and saw which room we reserved. Ok…I am not a celebrity, but I can definitely afford the room. I brushed off the interaction because I wanted to start my weekend on a good note.

We found the EH Penthouse to be beautifully decorated and comfortable. We rapidly changed from our driving clothes to dinner attire and left to go to our reservation.

We arrived back to the room, enjoyed some champagne on the private balcony overlooking the French Quarter, and then decided to call it a night. My husband pulled back the sheets on the bed and discovered a disgusting large brown stain on the sheet, about the same area where someone’s back side would have been while sleeping. Either the bedding was not changed when the last occupant left, or housekeeping doesn’t remove seriously stained sheets from rotation. Either way, we were not sleeping on the disgusting sheet situation, and I am positive that there is not a single person who would want to sleep in this bed. I have to add that the stain was so large, and so brown, that it would have been easily visible to anyone making the bed.

My husband called for assistance, but nobody picked up the phone. He went to the front desk instead. The person on duty told him that nobody was around to rectify the situation and we would have to wait until morning for someone to change the bedding. Really? You want us to sleep in this disgusting bed? Would you? Surely you wouldn’t. When he realized that my husband was going to hang out in the lobby and not hopelessly crawl back to the room, he finally made a call for someone to bring us some sheets.

Around 12:30am, ratty, old, hole filled sheets were delivered to the room. To top it off they were queen sheets to be put on a king bed. Fine, whatever. It is late at this point and I just want to sleep after working all morning, a six hour drive to New Orleans, and a late dinner reservation. Needless to say, it was not a restful night. All I could think about was the lack of attention to the most important area of a hotel room…the bed!

The next morning, we went to the front desk to discuss the events of the night before. Chris, the young man on duty made notes for housekeeping and our room was cleaned, and nice quality sheets were put on the bed. Kudos to him for being the only person who took this matter seriously, especially since we never heard from anyone on the management, or housekeeping, team.

Obviously you don’t need my business. I am definitely disappointed that a hotel of this caliber would be so callous and dismissive over a situation that they themselves would not want to experience.

I want to like the Hotel Monteleone. I really do. That is why I came back for a stay six weeks after our previous stay. That experience was amazing! We had a lovely stay and a fun time at the early morning tour of the Carousel Bar. Our daughter even has Hotel Monteleone on her list of potential wedding venues for next Summer. When my husband and I first entered the Hemingway Penthouse, we thought it would be the ideal place for my daughter and her bridesmaids to hang out before the wedding. After this experience, I’m not so sure.

Looks like it is back to the Royal Sonesta, the Ritz-Carlton and the...