Chateau Saint Denis Hotel

The staff were excellent, especially the front desk team, as they have been every year. Still, for the room rate, the hotel should offer better conditions and service. It’s run down and needs a proper overhaul. I’ve stayed here each year for the Madri Gras ball for the last 8 years. Only one of the two elevators was working, and even that one seemed unreliable. I understand the other elevator had been down for 3 weekw. For the second year in a row, our room keys stopped working after we were issued them and had to be replaced.

The view was OMG, beyond amazing, and the room was perfect. The whole STAFF was GREAT. Mallory was AMAZING, so sweet, genuinely kind, and incredibly helpful. The young woman serving breakfast was pregnant and made us feel at home with her warm welcome. Even the maintenance man, who thought he was a 49ers fan, was nice. I loved everything here and am already booking for July. When I visit Natchitoches, I won’t stay anywhere else. 10 out of 10, I’d absolutely do it again and highly recommend it!

The air conditioning wouldn’t cool the room properly. I set it to cool and even turned it down to 50° at one point, but I was still sweating. There wasn’t a light in the main room, so we had to make do with the lamps. The clock showed a time about 6 hours ahead, and I couldn’t fix it. It looked so much like a camera that I felt uneasy. At 3 in the morning, I went downstairs to get ear plugs because the neighbors were showering and snoring loudly and I couldn’t sleep. The staff woman was on the phone, yelling and laughing, and said something like “I’m going to kill myself.” It was disturbing at that hour. I put money on the counter to buy the ear plugs, but she didn’t look up or acknowledge me, just kept typing and talking on the phone. I felt awkward and nearly left. They were charging 6$ for microwave popcorn, but there was no microwave in the room, so I had to hunt one down. The room seemed as if it hadn’t been cleaned in a while. The sheets were stained, the floor was gross, and the bathroom hadn’t been checked or fixed. There were blood stains in the hallways, and one elevator was broken. We had trouble finding parking because the tiny lot was full and the second lot was closed. When we got to the room, there was no toilet paper, one holder was missing, the shower shampoo dispenser had been ripped out, and there was no TV remote. I use the TV as background noise, called room service about it, and nothing could be done. At first the hotel looked fancy and clean, but it turned into one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve had. The whole place was messy and unaccommodating, and it wasn’t relaxing.

The hotel itself seemed nice enough, but I’m done with this place and won’t stay there again when I’m in Natchitoches. I had booked and paid ahead, then at check-in the receptionist asked for my card. I assumed it was for incidentals, but she charged me for the room again. When I called after seeing the charge, manager Felicia explained they’d moved to a new credit card system, the second charge was a mistake, and she’d send it to the main office for a refund. A couple weeks later I called again. Felicia said she’d check, then called me back to say a refund check would be sent. It never arrived. After a month I called once more, and she said she’d look into it, but I never heard back. A few weeks after that, I called the hotel again and learned Felicia no longer worked there. The receptionist knew what I was calling about and the exact dates of my stay. She said the new manager wasn’t there and would call me, but no one did. I searched the hotel website for a way to reach the “corporate office” and couldn’t find one. They’re a bunch of crooks and thieves.