The Rathbone Inn, until this year, was our favorite place to stay in NOLA for the Jazz and Heritage Festival. However, this year the experience was so bad that I do not think we will be staying there again. Our original reservation was “lost” and if we had not called back to see why the 100% non-refundable deposit was not drawn on our credit card, we would have been without a place to stay during the fest. On call back, we found the price was increased by about 20% over the original price of the room we had booked. Since rooms are scarce during the fest, we were forced with the choice of either accepting the higher price or going without a room.

We arrived and went to our first room – it was not as clean as we had expected – the small fridge was less than clean on the inside, the AC unit leaked on the floor (and our shoes) During the rainstorm, the ceiling leaked water.

Our second room was infested with fleas and the 3rd room was in disrepair – the towel racks were gone – even through the hangers for the bars were still there. The door lock had a deadbolt that did not work, the towels were stained and there were cockroaches, just to name a few of the issues, which we took up with the inn keeper. We were told there were no other rooms to move us to…

One of the nicest features of this Inn is the pool area and hot tub – except the hot tub was broken and no effort, over the course of the 10 days we were there, was made to fix it.

What a pleasant surprise! The Rathbone is on the upswing, and it's evident a lot of work and effort is going into bringing the Inns up to the level these wonderful old mansions deserve! We have stayed previously at the Rathbone, approximately 9 months ago, and chose to stay again with this visit to New Orleans. (the location is so convenient and perfect for us!)

Our suite was clean, attractive, comfortable....and any imperfections were over-shadowed by the friendly, "welcome home" service received by the staff. They score an A+ with us!

Given a choice, we always choose a Bed and Breakfast type Inn over the major hotel chains, as we prefer the charm and character associated with these beautiful old gems. The Rathbone isn't perfect, but it's on it's way!

We had a good stay during Fest 2007. Not like the experiences otherwise recently cataloged here. We got into our room on arrival and it was sufficiently clean, provisioned, and decorated. There was continental breakfast every day during our stay. Our room was cleaned each day. When we asked for additional things, we got them. The pool was clean and refreshing. The neighborhood is cool, close to Fest and the Quarter and we never had any concerns about safety.

We're just rebooked with Tina for Fest '08, and I'm happy to stay there.

No towels in room upon arrival! Request for towels ignored! Had to call another party to get towels. 2nd day - No maid service!!! Again no towels, Again promised towels, was told in dryer and upon completion will be placed in room and beds made up. Again neither done. Listened to Owner (Tina) excuses for lack of service. She has not credited promised amount back to my credit card and has not returned any of my calls. She did extend an excuse as to why credit not on ( three days ago) machine broken, did not even ask how charge got on then???? Just more excuses! LACK OF SERVICE ! NO PROMISE FULFILLED !!!!