After spending the first few weeks of 2020 in Mississippi, Shae, Truffles and I headed one state over to Louisiana. Our first stop was Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s state capital.
We had a few accommodation options, including a category 1 Hyatt Place that would’ve only cost 5,000 points per night. When spending some time looking at paid rates though, I noticed a great rate for the Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane and was able to get it even cheaper thanks to Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee program (see the ‘Cost’ section towards the end of the review for more about that).
We stayed there for a week and had a good stay. It was nice being in a one bedroom suite rather than a studio suite, the evening Mix had tasty food and complimentary alcohol and, like all Residence Inn properties, it has a bunch of amenities.
Here’s a complete review of our week-long stay at the Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane.
Check-In
Before arriving in Baton Rouge, we’d been staying at the Hyatt Place Biloxi. I have status with Hyatt, so we took advantage of a 4pm late checkout; that meant we didn’t arrive in Baton Rouge until about 7:15pm.
I’d received a text from the hotel earlier that afternoon letting us know that our room was ready and that we could pick up our keys at the front desk when we arrived. The check-in process was pretty quick as a result, so we were soon on our way down to room 138.
Residence Inn properties are usually much more spread out than other types of hotel chains, partly due to so many rooms being 1 and 2 bedroom suites and partly due to them only having a few floors rather than being 5+ stories high.
Although the Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane wasn’t quite as spread out as some other Residence Inns we’ve stayed at, the hotel had a map of the property available at the front desk. We were in room 138, so we drove down to the far right side of the hotel as there was an entrance right outside our room.
The print-off also provided other information about the hotel such as breakfast times, pet fee, location of the guest laundry area, etc.
1 Queen Bedroom Suite
We’d booked a 1 queen bedroom suite. When entering the suite, the kitchen was immediately on the left, with the living room straight ahead. The bedroom and bathroom were through a door off to the left of the living room.
Living Room
The living room had a good-sized sleeper sofa with a long coffee table in front. There was a power outlet behind the sofa that was handily placed higher up to make it more easily accessible.
To the left of the sofa was a large desk and an office chair. The desk had power outlets installed into it which also included a couple of USB ports.
To the left of the desk was a TV. It was on top of a cabinet with decent-sized cupboards where we were able to store some of our stuff during our stay.
The door through to the bedroom was off to the left of that. To the left of the door was a small dining table and a couple of chairs.
Back by the room’s entrance was a small closet which contained an iron and ironing board. There wasn’t any bedding for the sleeper sofa, so I’m not sure if that was just missing or if the sofa bed was already made up with the bedding; we didn’t use it as a sofa bed and so never checked.
Kitchen
To the right of the living room closet was the suite’s kitchen. One of the best features of staying at Residence Inns is the fact that every suite has a kitchen which includes a full-sized fridge-freezer, stove top, dishwasher and microwave.
The kitchen contained four place settings along with other cooking utensils and cookware.
Bedroom
The bedroom had a queen bed that was comfortable, along with blackout curtains that worked well. Both bedside lamps had a couple of power outlets which is a feature we appreciate for charging our phones overnight.
One improvement would be for these rooms to have a king bed rather than a queen. Although the bedroom size wasn’t huge, it seemed like there was enough space in there for a king bed.
Opposite the bed was a dresser with a TV on top.
The bedroom also had a closet, although this didn’t contain anything other than an extra pillow – presumably for the sofa bed.
Bathroom
The bathroom contained the toilet and a bathtub with shower, with the shower having pretty good water pressure.
Between the bathroom and bedroom was a sink and vanity.
The toiletries were Paul Mitchell and were good quality.
Overall, we liked our 1 bedroom suite. There was a few noisy guests during our stay which we could hear from the living room. Thankfully the bedrooms seem to be fairly well soundproofed though as we couldn’t hear them when going to bed. Even our dog Truffles didn’t hear anything as she’d have certainly let us know if she did.
Breakfast
Breakfast is free for all guests when staying at the Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane. It’s served from 6:30am-9:30am during the week and 7am-10am at the weekend. I’m a late riser, so I appreciated having a little more time in the morning to go down for breakfast compared to some other hotels.
Each morning there were several hot options which rotated each day, along with a good selection of other items. The food was pretty good, although the scrambled eggs were very buttery/oily and were often a little softer than we care for.
The Mix
In addition to complimentary breakfast, the Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane offers an evening social Monday-Wednesday from 6pm-7:30pm. It’s called The Mix and although it’s meant to be an opportunity for guests to socialize, more often than not everyone sits at their own tables by themselves.
At The Mix, the hotel provides complimentary food and beverages. We only ate down there one night; that evening there were serving rice and beans with andouille sausage, salad and honeydew melon. The rice and beans was surprisingly flavorful, so I ended up having a second plate of it because of it being so tasty.
The drinks included a few different types of soda, along with beer and wine.
Amenities
The Residence Inn brand is generally targeted at people looking to stay somewhere for an extended period of time, perhaps for work or when moving. As a result, they tend to have a good selection of amenities and the Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane is no exception.
On the fitness front there’s an outdoor swimming pool…
…a sports court…
…and a fitness room.
The fitness room was surprisingly small and only contained two treadmills and an elliptical – no weights, yoga equipment or anything like that. The temperature couldn’t be controlled by guests and so it was unfortunately pretty warm and humid in there.
There’s a guest laundry area on the second floor. This has an electric door which is helpful for when your arms are full carrying laundry in and out.
There were three washing machines and six dryers. I’ve never understood why some hotels have double the number of dryers compared to washing machines when it would make more sense to have it be the other way round.
The information sheet at the front desk said it cost $2.25 for the washing machine and $2 for the dryer, but it actually cost $2.25 per load for both washing and drying.
If you want to socialize with others, next to the swimming pool is an outdoor seating area around a fire pit. From what I can remember, there was also a grill there if you wanted to cook out.
The hotel is near a Walmart and several restaurants. If you don’t want to head out to those though, there’s a pantry area by the front desk where you can purchase food and drink.
Pet Policy
The Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane is a pet-friendly hotel. There is a pet fee of $100 per stay regardless of your length of stay; tax is added on, so it comes to a total of $109.95. That wasn’t too bad seeing as we were staying for a week, but it sucks if you only want to stay one night with a pet.
There’s a fair bit of grass around the hotel, particularly out front where there’s a large grassy area with a pet waste disposal station.
If you’re visiting with a pup, I can highly recommend taking them to Dog Park At Burbank Park as it’s one of the best dog parks we’ve visited on our 50 state road trip so far.
It’s actually four separate dog parks that are all connected. There’s a large space, then two other sections that each have a dog pond where several dogs enjoyed swimming when visiting.
There’s then a fourth fenced in area that’s for small dogs, with all four areas being a great size.
Service
Service was mostly good at the hotel with nearly all the front desk staff being friendly and helpful. Paying for our stay was a bit of a hassle though. We wanted to pay with two separate cards to take advantage of a couple of Amex Offers (more on that in the ‘Cost’ section below), so I went by the front desk the day before we checked out to provide those details.
That person said to come back the next morning, so I did that. It took a while for them to work out how to do this and still ended up not processing it properly. As a result, they charged half of our stay to the card which was already on file which wasn’t one we wanted to use in the end. When actually checking out later that day, a different person was working at the front desk and she wasn’t at all helpful. These two issues meant it wasn’t an ideal end to our stay.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in is available from 3pm, while check-out is at 12pm. I have Titanium Elite status, so we were able to get a 4pm late checkout as that’s a guaranteed benefit with Marriott Bonvoy for Titanium members.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is free for all guests when staying at this hotel. The speed seemed to be good and when connecting at the start of our stay, we were able to specify that we were staying 7 nights which meant we didn’t have to log back in each day.
Location
The Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane is just off I-10, so it’s in a fairly convenient location to an extent. Having said that, the road layout is a little strange around there, with turning lanes sometimes starting a long way back, with a curb between that lane and the lanes heading straight ahead. That meant there were a few times we overshot where we were meant to turn and so had to drive half a mile down the road before we could U-turn. That’s not the hotel’s fault, but it was a pain. The traffic light sequences also seemed to take forever to change, so it’d take forever to get a few hundred yards from the hotel.
In terms of stuff nearby, there’s a Walmart around the corner, along with other stores like PetSmart, Lowe’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. There’s a Chili’s and Texas Roadhouse within walking distance, with plenty of other restaurants a short drive away.
The hotel is only a few minutes from Mall of Louisiana, while downtown Baton Rouge is about a 15 minute drive away.
Parking
It’s free to park at this hotel. There are lots of parking spots all around the hotel with entrances on each side, so you can park closer to your room rather than having to go in through the main entrance.
Cost
When looking into our accommodation options, I noticed that the Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane was cheaper when booked through Hotels.com rather than directly with Marriott. Marriott – like other hotel chains – has a Best Rate Guarantee scheme. They guarantee that it’s always cheaper to book directly with them; if you find a cheaper rate elsewhere (such as through Hotels.com), they’ll match the rate and give you a choice of either an additional 25% off or 5,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. I covered the Best Rate Guarantee claim process more on Frequent Miler, so you can learn more about that here.
The price I booked with Marriott was $114 per night before tax, while the rate on Hotels.com was $79.80 per night before tax. Although my claim was successful, by the time Marriott processed my claim the rate on Hotels.com was showing as $93.48 per night. With the 25% discount off that amount, our nightly rate was reduced to $70.11 before tax. That’s still a great rate, but sadly not as great as the $59.85 rate we would’ve paid if they’d processed the claim a little more quickly.
With tax, our rate was $81.30 per night, so our week-long stay came to a total of $569.10 (plus $109.95 for the pet fee), but we managed to make it a little cheaper. I mentioned earlier that I wanted to take advantage of a couple of Amex Offers. Although the front desk messed up which cards to use, one of them was correct which meant we got a $45 statement credit.
When initially booking our stay, I clicked through from TopCashback and so we should in theory earn some cashback from them too. The transaction did track, but I’m not sure if making a Best Rate Guarantee will affect the tracking seeing as it results in a rate change.
Points Earned
With regards to points, I earned 2,454 base points and 1,841 bonus points from having Titanium status. A promotion Marriott was running at the time meant I earned an additional 2,000 bonus points.
The Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane also offers the Make A Green Choice program. You can decline housekeeping and earn 250 bonus points per day when doing so. We declined housekeeping for our entire stay and so should’ve earned 1,500 bonus points. That wasn’t awarded, so I sent a Direct Message to Marriott Bonvoy Assist on Twitter and they promptly fixed this.
They actually credited my account with 1,750 points rather than 1,500. As a result, we earned 8,545 points from our stay. Marriott only offers 5 points per dollar when staying at Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites properties which is why the number of points we earned is lower than if we’d spent a comparable amount at any of their other brands.
We paid for the stay with a couple of different Marriott Bonvoy credit cards that earn 6 points per dollar. After taking into account the pet fee and statement credit from the Amex Offer, we earned an extra 3,804 points.
Final Thoughts
We had a good stay at the Residence Inn Baton Rouge Siegen Lane. It was nice having a one bedroom suite, the food was mostly good and the price we paid was excellent, although that was mainly thanks to making a Best Rate Guarantee claim.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel three paws out of four – pawsome! She liked that there was a decent amount of grass around the hotel and loved the nearby dog park.
On the downside, the pet fee is fairly high and quite a few guests were very noisy. While that didn’t disturb her at night thanks to us having an actual bedroom, it was a bit of a pain in the evenings before bedtime.
Our Rating
Room = 4.7 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.5 / 5
Food = 4.5 / 5
Location = 4.5 / 5
Service = 3.9 / 5
Overall Value = 4.4 / 5
Total = 4.42 / 5
Address
Residence Inn, 10333 N Mall Dr, Baton Rouge, LA 70809
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