I will start out by saying we had a great time in the Lola Building. I am going to leave an honest review. I will mention pros and cons of the stay.
We originally had reservations for a different building of theirs, but they moved us to another building (The Lola) and upgraded our room. We booked a 2 bedroom, but got a 3 bedroom. The original building had work being done on it, so they let us know about a week before our trip and gave us all the info on the new building and room we would have.
PROS:
- The room was very nice. Aside from a stain on the couch and the kitchen counter not having been wiped, the place was beautiful. The bedrooms and bathrooms were large and very nice. The kitchen had everything needed (fridge, oven, microwave, dishwasher, etc), it even had a spice rack! I didn't cook while there, but still a nice touch.
- The bed was extremely comfortable. They are memory foam and I slept great. I ALWAYS check the beds before I do anything else when staying anywhere. (I had a bad incident with bedbugs many years ago while at a well known hotel chain in the US that caused me to be pretty vigilant in checking any and all beds).
- Hot water was great! It stayed hot for a long time.
- The staff was very nice and they got back to us quickly when we had any questions.
- They have a tablet hanging on the wall that you can use to look up recommended places in the area and they were able to message us straight through that as well.
- There are no windows in the bedrooms...that can either be really good for people, or really bad. I didn't mind so much because the sun wasn't shining in on me in the morning. But at the same time, it may make you sleep later than you want.
CONS:
- Parking - I know this isn't even anything that the building has any control over, but it was still an issue. The parking lot in the back of the building is privately owned by someone else, however, there are several spots in that lot that are free to people staying in the building. But it is first come, first serve. And if you leave your free spot, you are not guaranteed to get it when you come back. Parking in that lot is $20 a day...we were there from Sat-Sat. We paid $150 to park there for the week. As I said, we got there on a Saturday night, and the parking lot was pretty full, and the attendant said that the lot was always busy and buying a pass to stay there would be our best option. So, we did. PLEASE LISTEN....the next day, and every day thereafter (except for the Friday before we left), the parking lot was empty. The free spots would have been VERY easy to get. If I were you, come on a weekday or a Sunday night, you will save yourself a lot of money. Also know that I am not sure how busy that lot is during the "busy" times of the year. We were there mid April 2021. So Summer may very well be much busier there. And it may have not been busy because of the Pandemic. If worse comes to worse, pay for a night in the lot, then move to a free spot when available.
- The hot water in the place was great, but the water pressure was very much lacking. I have a lot of hair, and it took forever to clean it. But, I still appreciate the hot water.
- Walls are very thin. I could hear everyone in the hallway. Of course, most of the people didn't seem to have manners and stay quiet. They yelled a lot, even if it was in the middle of the night. We were right in front of the elevator on the bottom floor, so there was always someone coming or going from the elevator. That being said, I sleep with a sound machine and a fan, so I slept fine and the noise at night wasn't an issue. If you are a light sleeper and don't use any ambient noise, I recommend requesting a room away from the elevators and possibly on a higher floor.
- As comfortable as the bed was, the sheets were pretty stiff. Low thread count I believe. But the bed was comfy enough that the sheets didn't bother me too much.
- For those of you with long hair that use conditioner, bring your own. The conditioner they give you, doesn't really condition. They do have shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the showers. But I went to walmart (only a few minutes down the road) and bought some travel sizes of these things. Not saying the shampoo and body wash were bad, I just wanted to use the same kind of shampoo and conditioner. And I needed the soap I usually use at home.
- There are blinds (or shades) in the living room and kitchen where there are windows, however, there is the one window in the living room that looked like it used to be a door. But there is no shade on that one, and on several occasions, there were people looking into our living room. I feel like on that bottom floor, there should be shades on all the windows.
None of the things listed in my "Cons" would make me not book with Sextant again. All in all, we had a great time and our stay was very comfortable.
We did use our car a lot during our stay, so after paying $150 for the parking lot, and then paying to park in the streets of the French Quarter, it added up. It was probably well over $200 spent in parking. HOWEVER, street