The Pontchartrain Hotel — Hotel in New Orleans

This is a historical and alluring hotel at first glance. Gatsby-esque, with multiple celebrity patrons (Sinatra/Capote). It seemed like the perfect place to spend our anniversary. We drove in from San Antonio. When we pulled up to valet area, my wife and I were left on our own to figure things out. On a four day trip from Texas, we had a large ice chest, multiple pieces of luggage, etc. As the valet fellow stood 10 feet away playing on his cell phone, my wife called out to confirm we were in the right spot. He told her she needed to walk up to him to ask about valet. He continued on his phone. She asked about a luggage cart while I processed our car. He said “You need to go inside and look for one”. We were shocked. After 20 minutes of searching for a cart, and all my luggage sitting outside, we are told we won’t have one for use. I mention before have a large Yeti cooler filled, large military style luggage, etc. 5 minutes later, and nice 90 lbs 4’11” gal said she would help us with our luggage. VERY nice young lady. Not the right person to be helping with luggage. My wife is already upset at this point, and has already complained to what seemed to be leadership at the front desk. We get to the room, its nice, begin to unpack and prep for our evening dinner plans. I iron and have a broken leaky iron that leaks hot water onto my leg. I iron my clothes EVERY DAY for work, so this was not user error. I’ve even owned the same cheap Walmart iron in the past. The real manager has heard of our troubles at this point and tried to make it right. Cut the room cost in half, and offered a bottle of champagne for when we get back from our dinner. Had a great dinner, came back, chilled wine ready to go, a nice note congratulating us on our anniversary. Went to Hot Tin rooftop bar. VERY cool. A line was forming, but hotel guest get immediate access. Enjoyed it. Went to bed. I work up a few times to a weird smell, but thought it was all in my head. At 5am, my wife and I both woke up to a horrible sewage smell. I thought it might be a gas leak, so we called down to the front desk, but they said they don’t have gas. We asked for some sort of assistance, or a room move. The smell was triggering the gag reflexes of both my wife and I. Two nice guys from the night crew came to help eliminate the odor, assured us we weren’t crazy and could smell it too. They put down some powder and sprayed some spray on the carpet. It helped for about 5-10 mins. My wife and I had to quickly begin our day a lot sooner than expected due to the foul smell. It just kept coming. A night manager offered to switch us rooms, but since the hotel was booked, we had to wait until the next check in time (about 3 pm). We were told that they would get us an upgraded room as soon as folks started checking out, comp our night, and they that would have our things moved to the new room by the time we got back from our tour. That was a very fair deal. By about 1pm, we made our way back. No rooms ready. My wife is beyond pissed. We went back to our port-o-potty smelling room, and tried to brainstorm our escape plan. Within 5 minutes, we got a call from the front office saying that we were going to be moved immediately into a larger suite. It was nice. They said it was where Stevie Wonder had stayed in the past. It even had a grand piano in the living room. We finally got a chance to relax. The restroom was on the opposite side of this suite, and when going to use it in the am, that sewage smell returned more faintly to the same area. To good news was the suite was so large that we couldn’t smell it in the bedroom. I will note that we went from room 207 to room 907. So this room was above the original smelly room. Maybe they share some piping that had burst. Not sure. The manager and most crew did they best to accommodate us. We eventually paid the price of one small room for two nights, one being in a large suite. And we were charged for a bunch of snacks...

Stayed for 4 nights over new years. The good -this place is in a cool building, in an OK location, it's great if you are a partier and want bars in your building, the jazz band was great, the restaurant's food was good, decor was unique and interesting, the staff was friendly and helpful.

The bad - waaaaaay too expensive for what you get. The location wasn't good enough to justify the low quality of the rooms/lack of amenities, you had to walk a mile or two in order to get anywhere interesting though the uber and trolley situation was easy.

They seem to have focused on the added touches of the room's decor without addressing the basics. We had three rooms between our family, very inconsistent. One had a dresser with a small fridge, one had a dresser and no fridge and a huge bathroom, our room had no dresser but two big closets, and no fridge at all, with a small bathroom with no vanity space and a huge, drafty, nailed shut window that was streaked with huge amount of green mold on the outside, and no vent in the bathroom and when you closed the bathroom door, no heat or cooling in the bathroom itself. The shower curtains (fabric and not water resistant so they got soaked) in all three rooms stopped 1-2 inches short of the shower floor, and the water sprayed everywhere even when I pointed it at the opposite wall. The floor was completely soaked at least 3 feet beyond the shower. We ended up building a berm of towels on the floor every time we showered after that which worked but was gross and messy. There was a single small towel bar over the toilet - literally nowhere at all to hang bath towels before or after using. There was no dresser or any type of drawers in the room for clothing. There was a huge TV hung on the wall that extended three inches past the wall on either side, directly in the path to the door and the bathroom so lots of bumped heads. There was no coffee maker of any kind in the room, and no coffee in the lobby or anything, so when the cafe was closed like at 5am when we had to leave you were out of luck - and with no fridge I ended up drinking a room temp can of coffee bought at the convenience store the night before. It was really difficult to get in and out at night due to huge lines for the bars - you had to fight your way through the crowd to get to the stairs or elevator, which was also used for the rooftop bar. We thought the rooftop bar would be cool for new years, and they actually closed it for a private event new years eve - but it wasn't actually private, you just had to pay $60 for a ticket. Seriously, this was an expensive hotel and they should have let hotel guests in for free.

We don't have "luxury" tastes at all, and the historical/partier vibes don't do anything for me, I would not stay here again. Personally I would have preferred a non-historical hotel in a better location with decent amenities and higher quality basics in the rooms. The other family members, who have high-class tastes and appreciate the luxury stuff, were even unhappier than we were. You get a sense from the website that this is a luxury hotel but not at all, it is historical without being in any way luxurious, and missing some basic amenities you expect...

This hotel is a really interesting property. I loved the look and the feel of the historical hotel. However, the rooms are outdated and lack basic amenities. The room has cracked ceilings, old, outdated bathrooms with a sticky yellow film covering the bathroom floor. I think this was to prevent slipping form the shower which had only a flimsy old shower curtain separating it from the bathroom. So why not add a shower door? The lack of effort into designing and outfitting the rooms was baffling. The whole space was just not well thought out or designed for guest use or comfort. I understand the historical nature of the hotel and the age -- but many updates can still be made to increase comfort and ease of use. The main curtains were old and not sized to the window (so the air conditioner blows it away from the window at a near constant basis). Why would someone not think of that when designing the space? The old air conditioner unit was loud and musty smelling. The windows were old and unusable (couldn't open them). Some of the outlets in the room were not working. The outlets were not in spaces that were not easy to use. The hair dryer was a cheap old hair dryer. There is an easy way to add value to a room -- why not get good hair dryers? It felt like so much was missed when designing the rooms. and the carpet felt very old and not clean at all.

As far as location, this hotel is also not near the downtown area so you need to take taxis back and forth (if you walk, you walk through some pretty seedy areas). There is a trolley that one can use, too. The trolley takes cash only (or you can use an app to pay). But plan on adding $10 taxi ride to and from all main sites. The rooftop bar in the hotel is really amazing though! And the service at the hotel is excellent -- everyone was very friendly and helpful.

But there are no amenities to this hotel. Although the hotel staff is so nice, they have nothing to offer at the hotel. There are no services to provide or manage for the guest. There is no coffee in the room, no microwave, no creature comfort room updates. You can't even open a window at this hotel! The picture of the rooms provided on the site are nothing like the actual rooms. This is more like motel quality rooms and offerings (no gym, pool, breakfast, open-area meeting space). There really isn't even much of a lobby!

If you want to stay away from the main city area, and don't care at all about modern hotel amenities, and don't mind musty hotel smells etc, this might be the place for you. I would not recommend paying more than $200 to stay at this hotel. The right price is around $150. It is a charming boutique hotel idea -- with potential for greatness under the right management. I wish someone would take more time to make the rooms more comfortable for guest use. It felt a bit like going to a white tablecloth restaurant and then being served on plastic plates and...