My boyfriend and I were originally booked at a sister hotel, and we were moved over due to noise issues. The staff at the Hotel Royal was great: very friendly, accommodating, and helpful in pointing us in the right direction to enjoy various parts of the city. The room we had was large and comfy, and the courtyard was lovely. I would definitely stay here again.

I have been to NOLA several times, but it was my boyfriends first trip. I wanted some place that reflected the beauty of the cuty without costing a fortune. I found it. We even enjoyed the no elevator! However, be aware that parking is at a cost & the upgraded breakfast is not going to fill you up. Overall- clean, quiet & a great location!

First off, let me preface this by saying that I visit NOLA a couple times a year to see family and friends and pretty much always stay in the French Quarter because of the food, shops, and entertainment value. This particular trip was special in that I proposed this past weekend and wanted to pick a romantic venue to spend the weekend with my fiancee'. We actually just checked out yesterday and have some thoughts on Hotel Royal. That being said, I'd like to break this down into pros and cons so I can give as unbiased of a response as possible.

Pros:
- The hotel is an amazingly restored townhome/manse style building and the aesthetics that were chosen are a very nice, modern approach

- The location is pretty great (during the weekend, more on that in a second) because of the proximity to all the festivities of the French Quarter and Jackson Square while still being far enough away not to hear drunken antics all night long

- The gentlemen that helped us with our luggage were amazingly helpful and eager to assist

Cons:
- I mentioned the location earlier and said I'd get back to it. Friday night and Saturday night are a breeze, but this hotel is right next to an elementary school that gets very noisy between 7-8:30am on weekdays. If you get a room with a balcony overlooking Royal St., you don't need an alarm clock. Wasn't much in the way of sleeping in on our final day there.

- I booked our room through the Hotel Royal website, rather than Expedia because I typically try to go straight through the company so they don't have to pay a commission to a booking site. This tactic backfired on me this time because of these two sentences:

"Hotel Royal provides limited on-site parking for our guests, which is available on a first come, first serve basis. If parking is unavailable upon your arrival at the hotel, several paid parking lots and garages are located within walking distance, as an alternative."

Awesome right? Only, it's never discussed on the actual website that this luxury will cost you 26$ a night. Now, I'm used to having to pay for parking as I travel a lot for work and realize this kind of comes with the territory, but to not list this on your main site and to only list it on your Expedia page seems a bit misleading.

- Here's my biggest complaint. As I mentioned before, I drove in to town with my fiancee' to celebrate our weekend together and so when we got to the hotel, all of our luggage was in our car. We parked across the street at the school's parking lot for a few minutes while my fiancee' ran across to check us into the hotel and find out where the parking lot was. She came back a few minutes later and told me that the woman at the front counter seemed pretty dismissive and was borderline rude to her and that no parking was available. I'd stayed in the car since that's where all of our luggage was and I wasn't sure I was in the right lot and wanted to avoid getting towed. We drove around to the front of the hotel and parked briefly in their designated zone while we unloaded the luggage and I went in to find out what the issue was with the parking lot as we were doing early check-in (this is another positive, was able to get us in two hours early at 2pm instead of 4pm) on a Saturday and I suspected they had to have at least one spot open.

As I'm walking in, I asked the doorman where the nearest public lot was and he said there was one off Decatur, about five blocks away. Upon checking in, the lady made the effort to actually check and see if they had a spot available (which they did, so I'm not sure why my fiancee' was told otherwise) and was still not made aware of the daily charge.

- We shared a balcony with another room that was right next to us. I understand that this is fairly typical of the French Quarter lodgings, but there should be some kind of optional divider that allows this with limitations. I couldn't get it out of my head the potential nightmare that could occur after coming back to the hotel only to find your neighbors are extremely drunk (which can be likely) and want to be social and there isn't a way to keep those interactions to a minimum.

- I read a review before coming here about there not being an elevator and the manager responded that they were working on a way to incorporate one but it certainly hasn't come to fruition yet. Just know that it's possible you'll be stuck on the top floor and it can be a long way up if you've been walking all day. (Might be possible to request a lower room though and they can't be faulted TOO much for not having an elevator since it's working with existing infrastructure)

Final Thoughts:

So, the hotel is amazing and the location is near perfect, so why won't I be back? Well, the schoolyard full of children sucked. The feeling that my fiancee' was just fed an answer without someone taking the time to check the information about the parking lot was another issue and the idea that had I not lucked out with parking, the nearest lot was five blocks away was a huge turn off. Though I can't verify that the woman at the front counter was being rude, because tone can always be misinterprited, I can say that when entering a hotel anything short of "She was really helpful" is a poor start to the stay. Not only did I get charged nearly 50$ for my car to be stored in an unguarded lot around the corner, but now the charges hitting my bank account are getting interesting. Currently there's a reversal pending, but a 180$ charge still on hold, so I will just have to wait for the dust to settle to figure out what the hell is going on with my account.

The short version is, with as many amazing places that there are to stay at in the French Quarter, little things actually count and make the difference to me whether I visit there again.

Before you read further: If you expect a cookie cutter chain hotel type experience, you won’t find it here. Likewise, as a warning, if you can’t manage stairs, you will have to stay on a ground floor as there is no elevator. If you plan to get up in the mornings it will work well; if you plan to be out all night and sleep all day (unless you are a heavy sleeper) you *might *have problems sleeping in. With those preliminaries out of the way, the review:

Like several others here, my review of the hotel is mixed. I liked a lot about it, but it is not for everyone and your experience will depend on the room and your expectations. This hotel is actually two older buildings: the “main” building and the “back” one and the rooms vary greatly, even within the same price range.

Pro: Ideal location in the French Quarter, very clean rooms, comfy beds, pleasant and helpful staff. Charming older building with a pleasant court yard ( and a very short walk to Croissant D’Or; trust me this is a solid plus)

Cons: What makes it charming is what makes it difficult. It is older, so in some cases, loud. Room quality varies. A minor quibble: the sheets weren’t fitted. Before you roll your eyes that I am high maintenance, this means if you toss and turn at all, like me, you may end up on the bare mattress. Ewww. Not a deal breaker but not so great.

We stayed for about 5 days in November and we ended up switching room. Like several other Tripadvisors. We had booked a "Master Suite" many months in advance.

Our first room was “Back 3” this particular room in not, in fact, a King bed, but two Queen beds. This might be great if you are traveling with a buddy, but takes up a ton of room if not; the space between bed and wall is about body sized. This is a balcony room, facing St Phillip, in the “Back” building. ( see photo). It was clean and the beds were very comfortable.

The major potential risk with the room is that it is over a bar. Ironically, my experience of this room was pretty quiet-except for one night when the bar patrons decided a karaoke session was in order at 3:30 am. Hey, this is the Vieux Carré so that is par for the course, but not ideal. Otherwise I did not have a problem and I am a light sleeper BUT no one was staying above us.; so that might have made things different. There was a bad sewer gas smell in the hallway but not in the room. Not the welcome you want. All in all, a disappointment for a “ master suite”. I do understand that an old building will have unique rooms, but It felt like a bit of bait and switch. I could care less about the size, I am not hanging around a hotel room much when I am in New Orleans, but to me, this room is no way on par with the other Master Suite room we stayed in. For example, the second room is significantly bigger, with a seating area, a mini-fridge and wet bar sink, larger closet, and a bath/shower with double sinks. The first room has a small pedestal sink, a shower and none of the rest. I think the rate or classification of the "3 rear" room is off base.

Helpful room tip #1: There is a no bedside plug but there is an electric strip under the bed. Helpful room tip #2: For the drunk or klutzy, watch your step when using the bathroom as it is higher than the floor.

I will say the staff handled the switch very well. From bell hop to manager they were, without exception, polite and friendly . I feel sorry for them as I get the feeling they deal with room switching on a very regular basis.

The second room we stayed in, “Main 11”, was more what we had in mind from looking at the website. This was in the main building facing Royal, with a great balcony on the top floor. Main 11 is a very pleasant, large, light airy room, but able to be dark enough to sleep. Had we only stayed here my review might not be as mixed. Room tip: if you are short be careful getting in and out of bath shower as it is quite high. As others have noted there is a school across the way which can be loud in the mornings. They do a recitation outside in the mornings which I actually enjoyed; but if I was hung over from a late night, I would have felt otherwise. Likewise, there is a fair amount of hallway and stair noise, but we got up to enjoy the day versus partying all night, so it didn’t bother us.

Bottom line: if I was planning many late nights, I would not stay here. If I could reserve a specific room (which I don't think one can) I would happily stay again; otherwise, it wouldn’t be my first choice, as it is too much of a gamble for my tastes.