Stay here for a remarkable experience in NOLA. Great area for the beauty and serenity of NOLA but not too far from all the action of the French Quarter. 1 block from the St. Charles Streetcar. They offer beautifully appointed rooms, 12' ceilings, incredibly comfortable beds, luxurious linens, the quiet and peacefulness needed after a long day out. Super friendly staff, free parking and free breakfast.

Let me be frank: I am the second person in the party of VoyageurAylmer whose review was published a few weeks ago. I will not come back on what he wrote but will write my own review.

We stayed at the Prytania Oaks for 2 nights in December (24th, 25th). I have nothing bad to say about the physical hotel/room. It was clean and quiet. We were on the second floor with a view on the street and the room had a little balcony. Since it was nice outside, it was great to use it although there was only 1 chair for 2 people. The water pressure in the shower was great. There is free Internet and free parking (a big plus but we found 3 free parking spots downtown on the South-East corner of Camp St./Poydras just besides a paying parking lot.)

Besides the service, we were disappointed with the location and the breakfast. The location was so-so. Yes, it is only a block to get on the St-Charles tram but if you want to walk, it is not great. To go to the Vieux Carré, it takes between 20 and 35 minutes (I timed it) depending on how fast you walk and you have to walk under some kind of overpass. Not great at night. The Garden District is about a 10-12 minutes walk in the other direction. As far as the breakfast goes, it was a buffet situated in the lobby of the Prytania PARK hotel, across the street. It was awful to have to go over there and come back with your hands full or with a tray and try to open the gate. Standing in the lobby to eat would have been as awkward. The choice was also very basic: store-bought jelly Danishes, packs of grits and oatmeal, juice and milk, yogurt. There were no fruit the 2 days I was there and even though there were individual packs of butter and jam, there were no plain croissant, bread or bagel to smear them on. The 2 days we had breakfast there, we had another breakfast about 1 hour later.

Now, let me come back to the response of the manager of my husband's review since there are a couple of inaccuracies in them that make us look stupid.

1) The OTA we used was not Canadian nor obscure. It was CheapOair.com.

2) The manager writes that she has never heard of it but strangely when the front desk clerk called her to explain the mix-up and asked what to do, she said to the clerk who repeated to us: "Yes, other customers complained about this site and we have registered a complain with the Better Business Bureau. The problem is that they used the details of the Prytania Oaks for Prytania Park and vice-versa." Clearly, they had knowledge of this problem before.

3) Twice she says that they "showed" us something on their computer. They never showed us anything. They "told" us. Anyway, I believe that their computer and our papers were not saying the same thing. The problem lies elsewhere.

In her response, the manager is very condescending, uses adages and makes it sound like we are novice travelers, not smart for booking through an OTA and that we were taught a good lesson. We have lived in different parts of the world and traveled all over. We always book through OTA, never direct. And we have never had any problems except this time. We were completely floored when this happened. It was X-Mas Eve, the day before had been my birthday, we had booked this months in advance and this is how we were treated. Let me add that the manager never showed up. It was the front desk clerk who called to see if he could do something but the manager said plainly no. We were amazed and shocked but never started yelling in anger even though we said we would definitely write it on TripAdvisor. I kept repeating: "This is incredible. I've never seen such practice before." The lobby is under video and audio surveillance. Please look again at your footage.

I don't know if the owners and the manager are one person. If so, there is nothing to do about it. If not, I think it is high time management be evaluated too. I say "too" because on the cards where guests can leave comments, it says that employees are evaluated and that their monthly bonuses depend on the reviews. Also I find it very odd that every time the manager replies to a bad review, it is never her fault. Never once does she takes responsibility. The hotel will never be able to make itself better with such attitude.

I am sure the manager will answer something to my review and it is her right to defend herself but keep in mind that in her response to my husband's review, there were 3 inaccuracies in it so whatever she writes back, take it with a grain of salt. You can say the same thing about my review and think that I am just a traveler scorned, but look at my contributions. I have several and know how to travel and know when service is good or bad. I will not come back to this hotel even though I'll definitely be back in New Orleans. Before choosing this hotel, read all the reviews, good and bad, and the manager's answers carefully and read the reviews for Prytania Park too since this is the same management.

We had pretty much decided we were not going to stay here again but after the last 24 hours, we definitely are not. The last night we were there, one of my pillows fell to the floor. When I bent down to get it, I glanced under the bed, it had fur balls everywhere under the bed. Our room had hardwood floors. I called the front desk to complain. The person who answered the front desk phone said she could not do nothing until the next day. We had a early flight so we were gone. I took a picture of the fur balls. I am not going to upload unless a traveler asks for it. The GM called and apologized and blamed it on the Executive Housekeeper being on vacation?!?! How long has this employee been on vacation? 6 months? And she is the GM, she should be taking responsibility, not passing it off on an employee. She is responsible party. The continental breakfast is awkward. It is held at the other property and is a block away. Who wants to carry two cups of coffee and a couple of danish back to your room walking down a street? They promote being green. Well, it takes 40 seconds, yes I timed it, for hot water to show up in the bathroom sink. How green is that? The pros are the bed was very comfortable and our room was very quiet. I mean we never saw or heard another guest or staff member during our 4 day stay while in our room.

We were looking forward to this stay as this was our first Christmas in the US. Three months in advance, after reading all the good reviews about this hotel, we booked a room through a hotel reservation website. What a disappointment! Upon check-in, the clerk told us that our room would be in Prytania PARK (a sister hotel with smaller rooms and not as well rated), even though our reservation clearly indicated that our room should be in Prytania OAKS. We were told that we would have to pay a supplement of 20$ per night to stay in Prytania Oaks. We asked if we could cancel the reservation instead and were told we would incur a one night penalty by doing so. The hotel manager simply blamed the website operator and said there was no other option: either pay the supplement or pay the one-night cancellation fee. We chose to pay the supplement, but shortened our stay by one night. We spent that last night in a 4* hotel downtown that turned out to be less expensive than Prytania Oaks and closer to the main attractions.

Unless you really want to be close to the Garden District, I'm sure there are many better options in town. How this 2.5* hotel ended up being rated #6 in New Orleans is simply beyond me.