Royal St. Charles Hotel New Orleans

We were guests at this hotel the night of 5/18/08. Our hotel room was entered by a hotel master key and several expensive electronic items were removed... these items were NOT sitting out, they were packed into our luggage as we were preparing to check out and leave New Orleans. We had packed up and headed down the street to grab breakfast before checking out. We returned to find things opened and missing. These items were not left out in plain site, our luggage was rummaged through. A police officer was onsite within 30 min (which we had to call) to take the report.

The front desk manager (Gabby) was very rude during the whole process. We were informed by her and "Aurthur" that they had to do a lock check... apparently this takes 3+ hours to do (???). At least 4 to 5 times during this process (waiting on the lock check and dealing with the police) we overheard her talking with housekeeping via radio if room "402" was vacated yet to so they could flip it. Very odd that the MANAGER on duty doesn't seem to recognize which room # was just broken into and the guests from that room are standing in front of her. She never seemed to recognize us each time we returned to the front desk.

As we wait, we discover at least one other room was robbed (9th floor) and the lady we spoke with was just as upset about the treatment by the hotel staff as we were. My guess is there were several more rooms hit, the guests had not returned yet to find items missing.

It is now 2 days later and the General Manager of the hotel will not return phone calls, although she did tell us yesterday that the lock check DID show it was a hotel master key that accessed our room.

The Royal St. Charles isn't a bad hotel if you're traveling on a budget. The locations is superb, as it's located just a block or two from Bourbon Street and just a few more blocks from Jackson Square and the French Market area.

The Hotel, however, isn't without a few complaints. The rooms, halls and likewise aren't as well maintained as most travelers would expect. Stains and other age marks pop up more frequently than not. We also had requested a roll-away and got a small air mattress, kind of a downer. Also, the Hotel pub, Ohm, isn't much to talk about. We were told in a past life the bar was designed as an old street car. This seemed much more appropriate than the current decor which is a combination of Asian culture and Ikea.

All in all, not a bad spot to rest your head given the short distance to many NO historical landmarks.