Found this hotel by searching for "funky" hotels in New Orleans. Wanted a good location in a "neat" hotel for my daughter's 21st birthday trip, her first trip to NOLA and my 2nd. The Frenchmen had been called "funky" by a very famous travel guidebook, it is in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, in a late 1800's coverted Creole townhouse. Just the photos of the place alone were enough for me!

There were going to be 3 of us, and after reading the room descriptions, I booked a suite. The booking site also offered free parking, which from my first visit to NOLA I knew couldn't be beat.

We had stayed in a diffferent hotel on the other side of the quarter for our first night. While we were walking around the quarter that night, we ended up near the Frenchmen, and upon spotting the outside of the place, pointed to a 2nd story streetfront balcony and said "I want THAT room!".

The next morning we checked out of our other hotel ( it was really great, too) and drove over to the Frenchmen where we got buzzed into the lobby. I asked if perhaps, as I knew we were really early, we might possible park the car. The lovely young lady at the front desk checked our reservation and said "Well, your room is ready, you could check in now if you'd like". It wasn't even noon, so of course! We checked in, parked the car, and went up our suite.

The access to our suite was from a flight of stairs off the pool courtyard, at the rear of the property. We walked into a little hallway, and voila! This wasn't a suite, we had a 1 bedroom apartment.

The furniture was comfy. The floors are tile. The bedroom was separate, with a door and a window (!) to the hall, and a nice queen sized bed with 2 end tables and lamps. There was an iron and ironing board in the closet, but the mirrored closet doors were just "in" the closet. The bedroom being separate meant that my daughter and her best friend ( along for the birthday) could keep the room as tomb dark as they liked and talk as long as they wanted, and I could watch TV or sleep in the other room, if I wanted. The full bath had a regular bathroom vanity, and a medicine chest. With 3 women in a 1 bath apartment, there was plenty of space to put cosmetics, etc. We asked for and got extra towels. The toiletries were nice. There was also plenty of place to put the extra towels.

We had a kitchen!! With a fridge, microwave and dishwasher. You could see where there had been a stove, not that we needed one. Having a separate kitchen meant nice cold water, sodas and heating up leftovers, loaded the ice bucket once, and we had counter space to boot. There was also a dining table with a leaf, in case we had company for dinner, I guess.

The living room had a fairly comfy sofa bed, 2 end tables with lamps, and 2 other chairs, and a armoire with a TV/DVD player.

And the best part was our balcony, with a bistro table and chairs. The balcony was shared with the room next door, but somehow, we never ended up out there at the same time.

The location was great, at the intersections of Esplanade, Decatur and Frenchmen. There was a firehouse right across from us, and we could see the Old Mint from the balcony. We could walk down to the streetcar ( end of the Riverfront line), or walk out to the Esplanade Bus.

Breakfast was continental, with pastries, coffee, cereals and toast. I walked down/up Frenchmen to Loretta's and bought some yummy "extra" treats, and also to a small bakery across from Loretta's ( corner on N.Rampart and Frenchmen), as the girls over-slept breakfast Sat and Sun. Coffee was available all the time. There's a soda machine on site, and an ice machine.
There are a couple of small grocery stores in the Quarter, which make our "apartment" even better.

The Frenchmen has a neat feel about it. You MUST have a key to enter the property, or be buzzed into the lobby by the front desk. The dining room ( for breakfast) has a real dining room feel about it. Entrance to the rooms is from a side door from the lobby, where you walk down a brick walkway to the courtyard. There's a nice pool and hot tub, which was great for soaking for a before/after dinner break. There's a small toilet area off the pool courtyard. Off this same courtyard is walking access to the parking lot, and above the parking lot is a huge sundeck with tables and chairs for enjoying the music from Frenchmen street venues. The parking lot is gated. We didn't move the car once we parked it, we used the streetcar/bus pass.

I can't wait to come back to New Orleans. We will definitely use the Frenchmen again. I DO recommend buying a VISITOUR pass, we bought a 3 day pass, and it was an excellent deal. Book online, you can find free parking and if you can, book a suite!

The Marigny neighorhood is a real neighborhood, walk around, meet the people who live there. Night time is more lively, clubs abound with good music, that you can hear from the deck or "your" balcony.

This has got to be the worse place I have ever stayed at. The only part that I liked about is was the fact that I could open up my doors to such a unique culture. The staff was horrible, and I suggest that if you ever want anything stolen from you, check into this hotel. The maid grabbed my suitcase from under the bed, and went through all of my clothes, refolded them, and stole a $200 necklace right out of it's box. The managers response was "My hands are tied, there is nothing I can do." So I do not recommend this hotel to anyone.

The Frenchmen is cute, affordable, and close to tons of great places. Our room was small, but we didn't care. It was clean and very nice, the bed was extremely comfortable, and the AC worked great. There were two wedding parties staying there, and I think we were the only people there not with a wedding. The staff was very friendly and helpful. The only (and, admittedly, pretty bad) thing that went wrong was they lost our reservation, which had been booked on Venere.com. Luckily there was still a room available, but I'd recommend calling ahead to confirm a reservation after booking online. On our last night there, the wedding parties had cleared out and new people moved in next door. A loud fight broke out in front of our room. I assume this could happen anywhere in New Orleans, really, but the hotel was quiet and calm during the rest of our stay. Overall experience was excellent. Be sure to eat at the Prailine Connection down the street.

I don't know what some of these people are talking about. Let me start by saying I'm in my 40s and take a couple vacations a year. I want a decent and clean place to stay. I'll primarily be sleeping and showering in my room. I want the place to be affordable because I'm there to spend my money on food and entertainment. I'm not planning on hanging out in the hotel room all day everyday.

We stayed at the Frenchmen for 5 nights in July of '07 (that was even BEFORE new management) and we LOVED it!

The building is over 100 years old so let's take that into consideration. There are a few things that may look a little aged but that's part ot the beauty of the place. That's part of the beauty of New Orleans, period. The actual rooms that I saw were in fine condition. We had a room on the back side of the courtyard. I saw the inside of three of the rooms in that corner area. They were all small but each was unique, cozy, and nice. We had a good size restroom and there was a mini fridge in our room. We are smokers and all we had to do was step outside the door and relax at a little table by the cute little pool/spa to enjoy our coffee and cigarette. I didn't get in the spa but the pool was refreshing in July.

All of the staff was friendly to us. We checked in early. They held our bags and called a cab for us when we left. Our room was clean. The floors were tile so, sure, they picked up road dust if you didn't remove your shoes but I wasn't sweating it because I know that's what tile and hardwood do. Housekeeping came by around 10ish. When we weren't there they cleaned the room. When we were we asked only for fresh towels. I'm certain they would have cleaned the entire room if I had asked but I don't change the sheets and dust/sweep/mop every single day at home either. One night, I got separated from my bf in the Quarter and went on back to the hotel. I told the nightman as I passed through the lobby that I may be locked out but was going to check the room first and I'd let him know. I checked the door. It was locked. When I turned around to go back to the lobby he was standing behind me holding out a key. I don't know about you but I call that service!

Most mornings we grabbed a pastry and coffee from the hotel. Some of the pastries were fresh and some were wrapped. I assumed the wrapped ones were for the late sleepers or a late night snack...worked for me anyway. They also had bread for toast, bagels, milk and orange juice. Community coffee (regular and chicory) were available all day and they offered to make a pot if it had run out. We had breakfast one morning at La Peniche right down the street. and it was good also.

We met a two couples at the pool/hot tub and had a wonderful time with them. One couple had a car and they drove us uptown to Jaques-Imo's for dinner. It was fabulous and we had a great time! On our last night, there was a family who stayed at the pool rather late and were a bit noisy but apparently, there were no complaints. I turned on the TV to drown them out and I was so exhausted by then I went right on to sleep.

The hotel is in an awesome location. We flew in and didn't have a car. We walked everywhere we went...even all the way to Canal. Walking in the best way to be able to take everything in. We did ride the streetcar once and it dropped us right around the corner. We had some great times with the locals on Frenchmen. There are some truly gifted musicians in the area and everyone was really friendly.

New Orleans is a truly WONDERFUL place to visit. Everyone we encountered including hotel staff, restaurant staff, locals, and other guests were great people. You won't find any food or music anywhere that can rival what is offered in New Orleans. We had a great time and plan to go back when the gas prices drop (lol). I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Maybe you'll see at at the Frenchmen...that's where we'll be staying!