Our October 2009 stay

We arrived prior to the official 4:00 PM check-in listed on our confirmation. There was no sign outside indicating that we were in the Jean Lafitte House, but thankfully we had our confirmation with the address listed on it. We opened the large wooden door and walked into the resort down a long hallway. There were no signs indicating where to go. Finally we saw a tiny sign that read "office" on one of the doors on the other side of the courtyard. We approached the closed door, started to knock, and then the adjacent door opened and the housekeepers were greeting us. They were very friendly and helpful, but said nobody was in the office and someone “may or may not” be in later, but checked our name off their list and gave us two keys. That was our check-in process. Basically, there's no front desk staff/check-in desk and even if there was, there’s nobody to man it. Because of this, there are also no activities, nobody to give you directions and advice, and most importantly for us, nobody to get us a taxi back to the airport. You're basically on your own. Later that evening, envelopes (with keys!!) were left in the hallway for everyone to pick up their own. Ours was out there, too, with more keys. Anyone could have picked ours up, opened up our door, and taken our belongings while we were out.

The staircases to the rooms can be a challenge. Ours was up one flight, through a low doorway that we had to duck through, and up another flight. We were okay, but others might have difficulty climbing these stairs that are kind of oddly laid out. The rooms were fairly nice, and we loved the rustic brick walls and super-high ceilings. They made the rooms seem much larger. We could have used more furniture in the living room area. There was only one sofa to sit on for four people (although the two-bedroom suite we had can supposedly sleep up to 6). There was a nice big flatscreen TV in the living room, as well as one in each bedroom, and tiny flatscreens in each of the bathrooms.

The kitchen was a makeshift kitchen, so it was pretty useless to us. There was a small refrigerator and a mini fridge. A very tiny sink attached to a two-burner “stove.” (I use the term loosely.) And the counters consisted of a couple of old console tables. Underneath one was something I can only call a busboy's plastic box that contained the pots and pans.

Both bathrooms seemed fairly modern with marble floors and updated sinks and showers/tubs, but the towel racks in the bathrooms were loose and/or broken. And, while the TVs in the bathrooms were interesting to find, they didn't work. I think putting the money toward a kitchen would have been a better use for the money.

The bedroom closets each had a big metal rack thrown in them, which seemed out of place. Why not just put up a bar? It was so bulky, took up a lot of unnecessary space, and was awkward to hang anything or put my suitcase in it. I also had to decide which one item of clothing I would hang on the one clothes hanger I was given.

There are no resort amenities to comment on, and I’m not sure why there’s a tiny swimming pool in the middle of the courtyard. It’s not really maintained and the space might be put to better use.

Lastly, we felt a bit uncomfortable with the lack of security in our resort. First, the keys to the rooms were left out for anyone to take. Second, we had doors that opened out to a shared balcony which didn't latch very well. One small push and someone could have easily have gotten into our rooms. We slept with chairs against the doors, as if that would have helped prevent an intruder from getting in. To top it all off, on our first night, the power went out around 11:30 p.m. Now we had unsecured doors, nobody on the premises…and no light. It was a bit nerve-racking. We called the emergency number for the resort and advised them about the power outage. We were told that it was like that all over the city. Well, except for every house across the street from us, next door to us, and on the buildings and skyscrapers we could see peering over the well-lit houses across the street. They said they’d look into it. At around 4:00 a.m., the power finally came back on.

I wasn’t sure exactly when check-out was, but our confirmation from RCI said 10:00 a.m. It was at this point that I was wishing that we were at a “real” resort with a front desk and guest services desk. We needed some answers, as well as help getting a ride back to the airport. We called the Airport Shuttle. They said sorry, but no. We then randomly chose a taxi company (United) out of the phone book and got a ride in a dirty car (complete with potato chip crumbs on the seat), going 85 mph down I-10. (Our flight didn’t leave for another four hours, so there was no need to put our lives at risk.)

We were awakened every morning by the goings-on of the city. Our rooms were right along the street that was quiet in the evening, but crazy busy in the morning. Cars would drive by, horns would honk incessantly, city trucks would drive by, garbage trucks stopped every morning to pick up trash, etc. It was like being in NYC.

Was the resort clean? Yes, definitely. Was it in a good location? Yes, it was on the edge of the French Quarter. You could easily walk to everything within the Quarter. Would I stay there again? Probably not, for all of the reasons listed above. I like a minimum amount of little bit of service and attention when I travel. But at least we didn’t have anyone begging us to go on a timeshare tour during our stay!