The Royal Sonesta is an upscale hotel located in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans. The hotel is currently undergoing a major renovation. All rooms are being refurbished right down to the plumbing. None of the renovation work disturbed our stay.
If you're driving a car, you'll want to use the valet parking (extra $$$). Check in was uneventful. Unfortunately, when we arrived at our room, we found that it had not been cleaned and made up. As we were calling down to the front desk, the housekeeping supervisor stopped by to check on the room. The person who checked us in was either new or a trainee and he assigned us the room before it had been released for occupancy by housekeeping after final inspection. Housekeeping made up the room while we were out at dinner and the front desk gave us breakfast passes to make up for the inconvenience.
The rooms have been nicely refurbished. New carpeting everywhere as you would expect. Marble countertops and floors in the bathroom with new faucet fixtures. Sink and bathtub readily drain and are without loose faucet knobs. The hot water could have been hotter IMO. The bed had a comfortable pillow-top mattress and pillows were sufficient.
There are plenty of plugs to recharge phones, pads, laptops, etc. -- four on the wall just above the top of the desk and two more built into the side of each night stand beside the bed. That's eight total plugs that are not being used for lamps, TV, refrigerator, etc. Available plugs are often in short supply in many hotel rooms sometimes only one or two in the bathroom. The room also has a refrigerator, something appreciated but not always found in high-end hotels.
Another annoyance was the TV reception. The morning of our first stay, many of the channels were unavailable. We reported this to the frontdesk; when we returned, many, but not all, of the channels were available. The next morning, none of the HD channels were displaying. We again reported this problem and were told that it was now occurring hotel-wide. When we returned that evening, all available channels were properly displaying and remained so for the balance of our stay.
I said the hotel is in the heart of the French Quarter on Bourbon St. Unfortunately, Bourbon St. is noisy and so was our room which faced outward. Bands were marching around long after we wanted to go to sleep. We talked to people who had rooms that faced the inner courtyard. They said their rooms were noisy too because guests would gather in the courtyard and party there long into the night. I'm sure the rooms facing the street are noisier than those that do not. Also, the wedding parties wandering up and down the hotel corridors added to the overall din.
I decided not to deduct stars for the unclean room or the TV reception problems. Stuff happens but the hotel staff diligently rectified them which is what I expect. I also decided not to deduct stars for the noise in our room -- that's just the nature of staying in a hotel on Bourbon St.
If you're planning to stay at the Royal Sonesta, you'll be treated to a nicely refurbished room that is contemporarily furnished. But realize that you're staying in an area that is noisy and it does bleed into the hotel especially the rooms facing outward and near or on Bourbon St. If that's not for you, there are other upscale hotels located a few blocks from Bourbon St. which I'm sure are much quieter.