The Lafayette New Orleans by Kasa — Hotel in New Orleans

TLDR: bedbugs and extremely poor management. Don't recommend. I stayed at The Lafayette on August 31st. I booked directly on their website after a friend suggested staying there, I was excited to try it out. The ladies at the front desk were very nice and pleasant, and the valet drivers out front for the restaurant were as well. The room was fine, seemed clean and the location is nice as well. However, the walls are thin; the neighbors next to me were going through a very messy breakup and I heard it all. An additional note: the streetcar line is right out front and can be noisy depending on the location of your room, but I had earplugs so it was fine. However, I woke up at 6am feeling something crawling on me. I absolutely hate roaches, and I promptly freaked out assuming in the dark that's what it was, but I was wrong. It was a small bug that I'd never seen before, but was 99% sure I knew what it was: a bedbug. I grabbed my earplug case and scooped it inside and snapped it shut. Then I googled bedbugs and yep, that's what it was. Then I did what I SHOULD have done upon entering the room: check for bedbugs. I found 2 more easily just underneath the top sheet that was acting as a fitted sheet. I scooped one of the smaller ones into the same earplug case and promptly packed my stuff and went to the front desk. The shifts had changed and the lady at the front desk was not the same as from when I checked in. I said, "Hi, I was in room #xxx and I woke up with a bedbug crawling on my back. I'd like to speak to the manager to receive a refund please", placing the clear earplug container on the desk. She said, "Oh wow, we don't have bedbugs! We've never had bedbugs!" The building has been there since 1916, I'm pretty sure at some point in the hotel's history there's been a bedbug. She then asked, "Do you just carry this little container around with you?!" to which I said, "No, this was holding my earplugs, but you can keep it for proof, I don't want it back." She came across as implying that I brought in a container of bedbugs to try to get a free hotel stay?! I was pretty flabbergasted. She proceeded to tell me the manager's name (Bobby) and said he would not be in until 10am and she'd have him call me. I asked for trash bags to put my bags in and cover my car seat with and she asked me to put the tiny earplug case into a trash bag because she didn't want to touch it. I left and expected to hear from the manager by 11. I didn't hear from him so I instead called him. He told me he knew about the situation but that they were following their procedure of waiting on Servpro to come out and check the room first. So apparently there IS a procedure in place for these -nonexistent bedbugs- that the hotel has never had. He said they were coming within the hour and he'd call me back. He didn't. I had to call back again later and he said they had only found 2 big ones and 3 small ones, (unsure if that included the 2 I caught for them?), so that isn't an infestation or anything and that one of the past guests or 2 had brought them in ( but really I would think a SINGLE bedbug is an infestation in a hotel room?!). And that was it. There was no "I'm sorry for your experience", no offer to clean my things, no offer of a refund, he didn't say anything. He was just quiet like he expected me to say ok and hang up. So I said, "can I get a refund, please?" He replied with, "well, how long was your stay?" Me: "1 night". Bobby, "uh, sure, we can do that." That was September 1st. It's now September 20th and I still haven't been refunded. That's ample time. I've called back following up multiple times. My husband has called as well. Nothing. No refund. The management is not concerned with their guest's experience, so, in short, just do...

The Lafayette was probably a grand hotel many many years ago, but today it's a shell of its former self. Let's start with the positives: The hotel is in a great location. It's directly across the street from a St. Charles Streetcar stop, and a block away for the opposite direction. It's very close to lots of shops & restaurants and only a short walk (or streetcar ride) to the French Quarter. In addition to the location the hotel has some great staff.

Unfortunately, the negatives outweigh the positives. Despite having great people work for the hotel the employees are not given the proper resources to do their jobs. This leads to them looking miserable and frustrated, and probably having to deal with a lot of unhappy guests. An example of this is that the hotel runs out of key cards often and there's no way to get replacements. This is an operational management issue and not a staffing problem. In addition to this the hotel has absolutely no amenities. There's no practically no lobby, and no services in the lack of a lobby except for the front desk, which is not always staffed. There is no shop, food, or bar at the hotel. There is a steakhouse on-site, but this is not part of the hotel and they do not provide room service or any interaction between the restaurant and hotel. The rooms are large, but very dark and dreary. Despite our room having 5 windows it was still very dim. Some of the curtains were broken and you could no longer slide them open or closed. The room did not have any amenities either: no cups, very few hangers (if any according to some other colleagues who stayed here as well), very cheap towels, old dim lighting fixtures, very few power outlets, no usb power (technically there was one, but it was broken), no ice container, etc. The toiletries included were all mismatched along with the cheapest & thinest bar of soap I've ever seen in a hotel. There was only one of them too and no soap dish next to the sink. In addition to this one of the towels looked like someone puked on it and the bathroom was dirty. Being that I was working I was in the room often and not once did housekeeping check in on the room. I had to call down for new towels and toilet paper and additional soap. Even the safe in the room didn't work. I was able to open it when it was locked so that's pretty useless for a safe.

Our room had two televisions, but they were useless. I was excited to see that the TVs used Google TV, however the internet in the hotel is so bad that it's not possible to even use the TVs. I kept having them lose connection to either the WiFI itself or it would remain connected with a loss of internet connectivity. It was impossible to use netflix or even the provided Cable TV app. On top of this I was here to do work and I was barely able to do so with the crappy internet. I was able to browse the internet and have some choppy voice-only zoom calls, but that was about it. Attempting to watch any media or have a video-call was painful.

This hotel looks like it's falling apart. Broken light fixtures, peeling paint, stained & torn ceiling tiles, crappy internet, chips and gashes on the walls, especially around the doors, which is a bit unsettling. A fresh coat of paint, new light-bulbs & fixtures, and a little bit of TLC for this building would really go a long way. The hotel has a ton of potential, but if it's what I experienced under LuxUrban's management is typical everyone should run far far away.

I would not recommend this hotel to anyone and would highly suggest you look elsewhere if thinking about this place. This is at most a 2 star hotel; do not let the current ratings fool you. Any proper 3 star hotel would blow this place out...

I chose this hotel for a one night rest stop on the way to Texas from Georgia. I also chose it because of its proximity to Lafayette Square where I can allow my service animal to eliminate compared to other hotels in the area.

Unfortunately, all I can say is don’t stay at this hotel. Not sure how they got the 4 star reviews but this property is beyond run down and the staff is rude, incompetent, and unprofessional.

I’ve never in all the hotels I’ve stayed in been stuck in the elevator. The room was not clean, there were long strings of hair in the tub and the towels were stained, dirty, or missing. In addition to that there was no wifi, absolutely zero outlets in the room and the light to the closet was glaring in my eyes the entire night keeping me awake which defeated the purpose of stopping to rest.

Although this property claims to be pet friendly, they are not. Avoid if you have an animal of any kind whether a pet or service dog. I experienced numerous instances of harassment around my service dog, which is illegal. When we requested towels, the front desk employee refused to hand my partner the towels normally after I disclosed I have a service dog at check in. As soon as she approached the door she stated she was “scared of puppies”. Then she proceeded to refuse to move close enough to the door to hand my partner the towels we requested. Instead she kept quickly fanning the towels around which caused my partner to get locked out the room in her underwear trying to retrieve the towels that should’ve already been in the room until the person went back downstairs to provide another key. This is extremely humiliating and not the type of treatment or lack of professionalism you expect from a four star hotel. If the employee is so scared of dogs then maybe she shouldn’t work at a supposedly pet friendly hotel. Most importantly, disabled people with service animals deserve to be treated like normal human beings. It is not acceptable to refuse them towels or handed items in weird ways. Furthermore, service dogs are highly trained so id be intrigued to see how she acts with actual pets who are not trained. It seems this person needs to search for another job where they don’t interact with the public or people who use assistance animals.

The next morning I left for breakfast and 5 minutes after I returned the front desk called and left a voicemail claiming my dog was making noise when we were already in the room looking directly at my dog who was supposedly making noise and there was actually no noise. When I went to the front desk to gain clarity she claimed there were reports that my dog was barking when she actually does not bark at all ever. We knew it was a lie and another attempt to harass us over my service dog. I did speak with the GM who rightfully offered us a refund; however, the damage of harassment and humiliation had already been done. I will be submitting a complaint to the ADA and due to lack of professionalism, competence, and basic human decency I would not recommend this hotel to...