Holiday Inn Lemoyne

We are planning on coming back for our second visit to New Orleans in March 2008. We definitely want to stay in the French Quarter, but have a limited budget for a hotel. I have been looking on Orbitz, Expedia, etc. trying to find a good hotel deal, but I am finding most things are not available through these sites for the week we will be there. The Holiday Inn Lemoyne DOES have rooms available. We prefer small, boutique style hotels, and I realize a chain probably doesn%26#39;t fit the bill, but it is looking like one of our only options. Does anyone have any feedback about this hotel, or any recommendations for other lodging that I wouldn%26#39;t normally find on the above mentioned websites? We stayed at the Bienville House for our first visit and really enjoyed it.

Thanks!

Holiday Inn Lemoyne

My stay as the groom%26#39;s father at a wedding there was a disaster. They had the reservations wrong despite having made them 3 months earlier. We had to place my wife and her mother in with my brother in law and myself on a rollaway in my sisters room and they had the nerve to charge for the rollaway. And no apologies from a very arrogant staff including the manager. Their wedding coordination wasn%26#39;t any better with a shut off area being set up with food and no one knew it unless they headed out to the smoking areas. I wrote a letter to management but never even received the courtesy of a reply. And thats only the major items. I%26#39;d rather sleep curled up next to a Lucky Dog stand than ever go there again.

Try looking at the hotel.com sites or even try the bed and breakfasts mentioned here often. I guess the Bienville House was booked? They are also very good. My favorites are the Place D%26#39;armes, St. Marie, Prince Conti, Le Richelieu, Provincial, Bienville House. March is a tough month to get good rates. ALso just outside the quarter is the Holiday Inn Superdome which has a shuttle going to the french quarter fairly regularly.

Holiday Inn Lemoyne

I%26#39;ve had just the opposite experiences from what cajunyank had. Even though it is owned by Holiday Inn, it looks nothing like a Holiday Inn, or what I think of a Holiday Inn looks like. I stayed there one time over Christmas. It was beautifully decorated in the lobby for the holiday. The room and service were fine. Another time I arrived at the same time two busloads of high school seniors from Alabama did. They were having some sort of pre-graduation party somewhere in NOLA. The desk staff changed my reservation from a regular room to a suite at the end of one of the floors to be away from all the ';teeny-bopper'; action. The suite was nice but had no windows, so I opted to stay in the regular room. There was some noise ( as one would expect), but not unbearable. On the second night there was a lot of drinking going on with the teens (don%26#39;t know where the chaperones were) and a few fights broke out. The security staff and police arrived quickly and all was taken care of. I never had any problems while I was there. The teens all left the next day and were told they would never be welcomed there again. The hotel staff over-apologized for everything that had happened I wouldn%26#39;t hesitate to stay there again. Another hotel you might look in to is the St. Ann Marie Antoinette on Conti. It is old, but clean and very reasonable, price-wise. Great little bar - Claire%26#39;s - poolside. It%26#39;s a good place to meet locals and have a quiet drink ( or two). We have stayed at the hotel seven or eight times and enjoyed each visit.

Thank you both for your responses. Hotels.com actually has the least options of any of the sites I have looked at. Most of the hotels listed there don%26#39;t have availability, or have a note that says something to the effect of Hotels.com not being able to confirm rates. Yes, the Bienville House is booked, unfortunately. I would rearrange our dates in order to try to get a room there, but I am a grad student (or will be next year anyway!) and so we pretty much have to go during my spring break.

I checked Orbitz again today and saw that the Chateau Sonesta has lowered their rates to within my range. Any thoughts on that facility?

I stayed there May 20-26th 2007. I agree with ricajun, it did not feel like a Holiday Inn. It was a suprisingly nice stay. The pool and courtyards were a nice touch too. I got it cheap on priceline and have almost no complaints. We loved the balcony attached to our room. The only complaint is that there was construction in the building across the street and it was loud in the morning.

I stayed there in May 2005 (admittedly a long time ago) and I would stay there again. You really cannot beat the location for the price. I found that they did make a few mistakes - put us in a room with a king size bed instead of two doubles but fixed it promptly. The a/c was leaky and it took a couple of days to fix (I think 2) but they changed out the towels underneath regularly and kept us informed that the part was on order. We stayed for five nights total. The hotel was booked with a conference, so there was no way to move us to another room.

Location and staff were great. The bar at happy hour made great martinis. The worst part was the buffet breakfast - way too expensive for so-so food.

Of those two I would take the Chateau Sonesta. They are fairly close to each other but I think the Sonesta is better. I have never stayed at the Holiday Inn but I have seen the rooms and have had friends and family stay there. They had no complaints. I have stayed at the Sonesta and it was nice. The staff was wonderful. I would just advise you to get a room away from Canal St. It can be quite noisy sometimes. I would keep watching the rates. You might be able to get more options. If you can get the same rate through the hotel website, book through them. Then you can usually cancel without a penalty if you find something better. And if you aren%26#39;t dead set on March, try April during the French Quarter Fest. One of the best events you can go to in New Orleans.

Chateau Sonesta by all means..large rooms, high ceilings and easy access without going out in the rain if it is raining to the Red Fish Grille...Acme Oyster House is close by and many other good restaurants. My several times at the Chateau Sonesta were very nice and as far as the HI Lemoyne...almost every member of the wedding party that had rooms there had problems ranging from leaking air conditioners, inoperative remotes, burned out bulbs and on and on.