Petit Lafitte Hotel

Everything about this hotel is amazing. The food is great. The ambiance is great. The beach is beautiful. The rooms are amazing! Very comfortable beds as well. I love the entire staff everyone is extremely nice and accommodating. This was my 3rd time Coming here and I will return again.

Unfortunately, during our stay in one of the lovely oceanfront cabins offered by Petit Lafitte, we had to put up with a lot of noise from the mini-split air conditioner of the cabin next door. The thing is that mini-split air conditioners, as the name implies, are split into two units: an indoor unit containing a relatively quiet air handler plus an outdoor unit that houses the noisiest parts of the mini-split system. Despite the latter, the outdoor air-conditioning unit of the cabin next door was installed just a couple of feet from our front porch and bedroom windows, so the noise coming from that outdoor unit was considerably loud. Furthermore, due to the poor location of the outdoor AC unit in a narrow space between our cabin and the cabin next door, the noise in question tended to be reflected and amplified by the walls and eaves of the two cabins, becoming louder and louder. Worst of all, the air conditioner of the cabin next door was running more often than it should, cycling on and off every ten minutes throughout our stay. The reason this happened is that Lafitte cabins are rustic wooden structures that have no insulation whatsoever. What cabins do have instead are significant air leaks, visible leaks that allow cool-conditioned air to escape and warm air to enter, forcing air conditioners to work overtime. As a result, there was an excessive amount of noise flooding our cabin at all times. We’re talking about an intrusive noise that affected our mood and disrupted our sleep. A noise that also prevented us from doing many of the things we wanted to do. For starters, we couldn’t enjoy the sound of the sea from our cabin, which is ironic since that’s why we chose this property in the first place. Simply put, the noise from the air conditioner of the cabin next door was a constant source of disappointment and frustration for us. Therefore, we have no plans to return to Petit Lafitte. Before we wrap up, we want to emphasize that the location of an air conditioner is critical to ensure that noise is not intrusive. With that in mind, a good rule of thumb would be to locate all kinds of air conditioners as far as possible from neighbors and noise-sensitive areas, such as bedrooms and spaces typically used for outdoor recreational activities. Who knows, maybe a solar chimney will do the trick here! After all, solar chimneys are silent and help improve the natural ventilation of buildings. Anyhow, in case you’re wondering, the cabin we stayed in was Cabin 10. That’s the one you should avoid. As for the remaining 23 Lafitte cabins, we sadly don’t know. Oh, and the reason we didn’t move was because the other cabins were already full.