HotelChatter

Hotel News / → All Tags

New Orleans Hotels Slowly Re-Open

New Orleans hotels are slowly coming back on-line, but not for tourists.  The hotels that have opened are only selling rooms to aid workers, press, and other hurricane relief personnel. Makes sense.

So what is it like to stay at a New Orleans hotel these days?

At the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street, travelers must step through two containers of cleaning solution before entering the lobby. At the W New Orleans Hotel downtown, guests are greeted by a guard wearing combat fatigues and toting an assault rifle.

The guests aren't the normal crowd of tourists and merry conventioneers, either. They're relief workers, police officers, soldiers and news reporters and, for now, they're about the only people who can claim one of the scarce rooms available.

Related Stories:
·   Hotels Open Doors, But Not To Tourists [USA Today]
·   Starwood's Kevin Regan Kicks Ass in New Orleans [HotelChatter]
·   Starwood Rewards Donations, Talks of Re-Opening [HotelChatter]