My husband and I stayed at Place D'armes several years ago and had a lovely room with a private balcony on St. Ann Street. When we decided to stay here again, I called the hotel to find out how to request a similar room, since their website doesn't specify balcony rooms. I expained that the private balcony was central to our decision to book here, and was told to book a deluxe room, and in the "special request" area, ask for a balcony room. The hotel e-mailed me and said the only balcony room they had was a queen bed instead of the king I had requested. I told them the trade-off for a private balcony on St. Ann's was worth the smaller bed, but if a king room opened up, book that instead.
When we arrived, we were given room 221. No one offered to help with our bags, so we lugged them across the courtyard and up the stairs ourselves. When we opened the door to the room, I couldn't believe my eyes!! The room was the size of a postage stamp. The queen bed took up most of the available room, with enough room to walk on one side, and a desk stuck in an alcove you couldn't get to because of the luggage holder. The bathroom was literally 5 feet from the bed, and all it had was louvered doors, no real doors, just something you would expect to see for decoration. The real kicker was that someone was already occupying "our" balcony. We quickly realized there was NO access to the balcony (which was on Chartres St., not St. Ann) from our room. We had to leave our room and go down the hall to get to the PUBLIC balcony. It was nothing at all like the balconies that face St. Ann Street. It was uncovered and public, so we were unable to use it for much of our trip due to rain and others occupying it.
I immediatley went to the front desk to tell them there must have been a mistake in our room reservation, only to be told that was all they had available, since they were completely booked. I pointed out that I had made reservations several weeks in advance in order to secure a room that was acceptable and was told that special requests were only granted if available.
When I gave up and went back to our room, I realized that the pillows were very thin. We found one extra in the bathroom, and I gave that to my husband, and called the front desk for another. He told me all the rooms were booked and since he would have to take one from another room there were no extra pillows. No extra pillows??? Unbelievable! I slept with all the towels piled under my pillow that night, and in the morning found a maid and asked her for one, which she produced within 5 minutes. No extra pillows, indeed!
If I had known that I was paying for a tiny room with a public balcony, I would have booked elsewhere. The hotel had previously e-mailed me that they could meet my request if I would accept a queen instead of king room. I feel that they completely misrepresented what I was getting. The room type I wanted was the same price as the awful one I had. I paid premium price for a terrible room. I asked to me moved to another room if one became available, but no one even noted it. Every day of our six day stay, I asked. Each person said "Sure" but when I asked if they recieved our request from the previous shift personnel, I got a blank look, and a "No, Ma'am!"
One more thought - on the first night, as we lay down, we realized the bed was canted to the left. Throughout our stay, we woke up to find ourselves piled together against the wall, due the sliding toward the lower edge of the bed.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Would I recommend this hotel to my best friend?
most likely
I recommend this hotel for:
Young singles, An amazing honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Girlfriend getaway, Tourists
I do not recommend this hotel for:
People with disabilities, Older travelers, Families with teenagers
I selected this hotel as a top choice for:
Museums / Cultural / Historical sites, Great food / Wine