Place D'Armes confusion

Hello!

I%26#39;ve been doing alot of research here on the site regarding room preferences at the Place D%26#39;Armes. I would like to be pretty specific about the room when I make the reservation because according to what I%26#39;ve read here, rooms can vary quite a bit. However, I just called the hotel and I am told a few things that contradict other info I%26#39;ve received so I%26#39;m hoping somebody can shed some light!

Our ideal room would be a nize sized room with two beds, with nice view of courtyard or street and a private balcony. However, I was just told by someone I just talked to at the hotel that the ONLY private balconies are facing St. Annes or Jackson Square and that ALL of the courtyard balconies are shared. Secondly, I was told that there are in fact rooms facing the street with private balconies and with two beds. I was under the impression that all of the rooms facing the street with private balconies had either one king or queen bed, but none with two beds. And lastly, and most confusingly, when I asked about some rooms being different than others in terms of size, etc, I was told that no, in fact all rooms were the same.

Help! I need to reserve soon but I can%26#39;t figure out what I%26#39;m getting here! Please respond here or feel free to email me.

Thanks!

Place D'Armes confusion

I have heard other horrer stories about that hotel. Seems they give you what they have left when you arrive. I would look into staying somewhere else.

Place D'Armes confusion

I haven%26#39;t yet given up on this hotel. I have heard good things and it looks very nice but yes, I am a little disappointed. I have gone through previous posts on the forum and they all seem to indicate that the hotel has previously been very helpful in answering these types of questions. However, not so in my experience so far.

As I re-read my post it seems just as confused as I am! Basically, I%26#39;m looking to see if anyone can confirm whether or not there are rooms there with two beds and a private balcony.

As I understood it BEFORE I talked to the hotel, there rooms of this type, but they would be courtyard, not street. There%26#39;s a balcony on St. Anne%26#39;s and a balcony on Chartres. Chartres is a shared balcony and St. Anne%26#39;s has some private, but only rooms with one bed. ??

NOW I am told the opposite by the hotel, that the only rooms with two beds and a private balcony are street-side and that all courtyard rooms have shared balconies. ??

I have stayed there many times and had many types of rooms. If you want a street balcony room then it will overlook St. Ann and part of Jackson Square. I did not like this room because of the street noise. Right before dawn when the garbage trucks come in you will have to be a very heavy sleeper. Other than that, the room was very nice.

We have had several rooms with courtyards, none with courtyard view balconies. We had one in the outer courtyard we enjoyed very much, I wish I remembered the number, it was on the second level to the left of the hallway you go thru to get there. It had two beds and (and I love this!) the toilet/tub in a separate room as the sink. We have had rooms to the right and I do not advise them because the upstairs areas are private apartments and they can be very noisy. The upside of this back courtyard is you are usually all alone back there and can go out in your jammies and drink coffee and no one will see. There is complementary coffee in the rooms. But there is no pool in this back area, only fountains.

Lastly, we get an interior room when we are there for short stays. They are less expensive and generally newer.

I guess it depends on what you want. If you want to take your coffee out and enjoy a beautiful courtyard then I would ask for a courtyard room. The balconies are shared, but they are very small. Remember this is an old building. I think the view in the courtyard is lovely, but you can stay anywhere in the hotel and still sit in the courtyard. To get the continental breakfast you have to go downstairs anyway, so its an easy step to just walk out and get a chair. The only advantage of a street-side view is the sounds and glimpses of Jackson square. But, lets be honest, you probably won%26#39;t be in your room that often and that kind of balcony I feel is more of a ';nighttime drinking'; kind of view. And although they are private to the room, they are very close to the next room so you may as well share. Our room with this view did have two beds, so they told you wrong on that.

The interior rooms are all similar but the courtyard rooms differ simply because it is an old building converted into a hotel. They are all somewhat different.The hotel staff has always been wonderful to us and the only time we had a problem with a room (it was the courtyard room with a private apt above) we packed our luggage and they moved us to another room while we were out.

I don%26#39;t think you can go wrong with any room there because the hotel is so nice and the location is perfect. My advice? Ask for a courtyard view room with two beds. You may not get a balcony but when you get there you will see that they are not that important given what a balcony actually is. And go knowing that you may hear you neighbors and the room may be kind of old. If you go during a time that is not very busy you can be moved.

Hi!

The Place is a beautiful little hotel in an unbeatable location. There is at least one room facing St. Anne with two double beds and a private balcony. I think it is room 301 or maybe 303. The other is a king room with a private balcony. We%26#39;ve been in both, and both are very nice and spacious. We%26#39;ve also stayed in courtyard rooms which were nice. My only bad experience was with a queen room facing Chartres. We asked for (and were told it was) a private balcony room, but it was public, with no access from our room, and the room itself was incredibly tiny. Whoever told you that all the rooms are the same size either has a problem determining size or is just outright lying. The public balconies, both street and courtyard, are nice, but we felt like we had been hoodwinked since we accepted a queen bed (for the same price) instead of a king based on the verbal assurance of a private balcony.

I tried to book a room for my birthday in June, but was frustrated with the evasiveness of the reservation person in what I would be getting, so I gave up and booked with Villa Convento, where I know I%26#39;m getting a private balcony, although the rooms are small. Some other posters advised dealing directly with management, and that%26#39;s what I will do in the future.

Sorry, I forgot to mention why a balcony room is so important to me. I LOVE to open those narrow french doors in the morning and step outside to people-watch! It makes me feel like I%26#39;m living in another century. It%26#39;s part of the reason I keep coming to New Orleans. If this is not really a big deal to you, then a public balcony or interior room would be fine.

Hope this helps!

Michaelle

Yes, we feel the same way. Definately want the balcony experience. We will be spending alot of time away from the room out and about, but we%26#39;re also looking forward to just spending time relaxing so I%26#39;m sure we would make good use of it.

To further complicate matters, I just learned that reserving a balcony on the website doesn%26#39;t include courtyard balconies, only street-side. If I want to reserve a courtyard balcony, I have to reserve a courtyard room and then request a balcony, which may or may not be granted. ugggh.

I guess we%26#39;ll cross our fingers and hope for the best! I%26#39;m sure once we get there, we%26#39;ll find a way to have a good time no matter what the room turns out to be. We just want to make the best choices here. It isn%26#39;t often that we get to go on vacation.

One more question on this, why do people seem to like the balconies/rooms on St Ann more than the ones on Chartres? The balconies on St Ann look nicer but are the rooms themselves better? Are the views better?

The view is very similar from both streets, Chartres is parallel to the Cathedral, while St. Anne is perpendicular. Both views are very nice. We have only stayed in a room facing Chartres once, but the room was very, very small. I don%26#39;t know if this holds true for all rooms in this building, or if we just got a dud. The rooms we have stayed in with balconies on St. Anne were much larger, but again, maybe we just got lucky.

You really can%26#39;t beat the location here, but if you NEED the balcony experience (like I do for my 40th b-day), then you might want to try Villa Convento (villaconvento.com) on Ursuline St. between Royal and Bourbon. It is rumored to be the original ';House of the Rising Sun'; from the song, but that aside, it%26#39;s a pretty cool place. The rooms (clean and comfortable), are pretty small but you are assured of a private balcony. The plus points are that it is cheaper than the Place D%26#39;Armes (around $100/night for a balcony room); it is near the French Market, Coop%26#39;s, Lafitte%26#39;s Balcksmith Bar and great jazz on Frenchmen St. The fact that Croissant D%26#39;Or is directly across the street, and Quarter Master and Verti Marte are nearby are added bonuses. The downside is that it is not smack-dab in the middle of the Quarter like Place D%26#39;Armes is, so you will have a longer walk if you want to go somewhere near Canal St. although you can take advantage of the riverfront streetcar.

Hope this helps!

Michaelle

Villa Contento does look nice but from the info on the website, it looks like balcony rooms have only one bed. We need two, which is one of the things that has made this whole search so difficult.

We did wind up booking a Place D%26#39;Armes Courtyard room and specially requested a balcony. I%26#39;m still confused by the fact that reserving a ';Balcony Room'; on the website applies to streetside only and not Courtyard, at least from what I was told. Seems like ';Balcony'; would apply to any balcony, streetside or courtyard. But . . . hopefully I did the right thing and hopefully we get our balcony!

I don%26#39;t think you will be disappointed, the courtyard rooms overlook a very lovely courtyard. The courtyard area is beautiful and something like a private oasis in the middle of the French Quarter. I do hope you get a room with those narrow french doors that open directly onto the balcony. If you don%26#39;t, I think that you can go down the hallway and access the balcony. As a hotel guest, you can also take advantage of the public balconies facing Chartres St. Ask the front desk for directions on how to get to them, as the hotel layout is somewhat confusing. All of our visits to the Place have been very pleasant until last year.

As I said before, my main complaint with the Place was that when we booked our vacation last summer, we were assured that our request (made more than 3 months in advance) would be granted if we accepted a queen instead of king room, but when we arrived, we were given a tiny little room that did not meet our request, and the staff said the hotel was booked, so we were stuck with it (even though we payed for a deluxe room) since we prepayed. When I tried to avoid the same problem for this summer, the reservation person was very evasive about what we would get. I do love this hotel, but will only deal with management from now on for reservations.