"W" Hotel in New Orleans
 

Has anyone stayed here yet. Apparently it's pretty new & is quite trendy. I saw it in the guidebook & was just curious...thanks!

There are two W Hotels in New Orleans...W Hotel French Quarter and W Hotel New Orleans. I personally don't care for either and both get mixed reviews on travel boards. I suppose if you like the whole "Pottery Barn on steroids" concept you'll enjoy it. Finally, these hotels have little New Orleans ambience or atmosphere!

John is right, there are two, both opened within the last two years or so. There have been a number of posts about them here that should come up in a search. I have stayed at the one that's in the French Quarter _ and had a drink in the bar at the other _ and think they're OK, but not really worth the price in NOLA, where there are many cool little hotels and b&bs.

Actually just got here today (W New Orleans) and am wrting this from my laptop (gotta love technology!!) <BR> <BR>I'm really not into "trendiness" and all the stories that i've heard that you have to be "beautiful" to stay here. Well.... not my impression so far (but i'll add more when i return at the end of the week). It seems very nice, top notch, but not pretesious (i don't know how to spell it since i'm not). I even said to my g/f today that it's "nice with out being stuffy." The pillows are AWESOME though, my g/f already wants to buy them for our apartment! <BR> <BR>To give it a fair assessment though, i haven't had too much dealing with any staff yet. Also, i passed the pool/health club area today and the pool was closed (and it is HOT!!!! here), don't know if this was today only, or for the whole week. I'll try to remember to post at the end of my trip, but if i forget, just bump this thread and i'll be sure to respond. <BR> <BR>QUICK REPORT.... ate at Mother's had a shrimp po' boy, very good! Grabbed a late nite snack at Cafe du Monde of beignets and a frozen cafe au lait. Took them down to the river and sat on a bench while i ate, drank, and watched the ships go by.

THEREUARE - you finally made it! I can't believe you are actually here. I told you it was hot. Glad you went for the shrimp instead of the turkey. I didn't even know Mother's sold turkey - ha! Let me know how everything goes.

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This is the W Hotel NOT in the FQ, but rather located in the CBD on Poydras St. I stayed there with a VERY large group, and i thought the hotel was fine, yet others in the group had a disappointing experience (i'm not hard to please, but i know some in the group ARE!). Here it goes... <BR> <BR>The good: One of the most comfortable beds i've ever slept in! Fantastic pillows (50/50 goose/down) and a great feather bed under the sheets. The room is average size, and is equipped with a standard hotel phone, as well as a Sony cordless phone, VCR, TV, and CD player. Besides the bed, there is a couch near a coffee table (which has a gumball machine on it, stocked with "Hot Tamale" candy), and a long desk with enough room for the television as well as work space. The desk chair is a standard upright chair, but it's suade/velour. The bathroom was average size, and had a blow dryer as well as a magnified, lighted, make up mirror. The hotel's lobby doors open to a theatre style curtain, which has a sensor on it and automatically opens as you approach it, which was a nice touch. The lobby has a bar, a sitting area, a bookcase with some books, and a picnic table where you can eat any bar food ordered or have your drinks there. I would sum it up as "understated elegance." <BR> <BR>The bad: At the pool (which was closed for 2 days) i talked with a guest that stays there often, and he commented that the hotel is known to have the worst service among the W chain. My own negative experiences include: while in the gym the tv had the channel button missing, so i called down and asked if there was a remote control to change the channel to which they said they would send somebody up(nobody ever came). Little things like the tissue box was empty in the bathroom and was NOT refilled the rest of the stay by housekeeping (but things like this don't bother me, but i mention since i know it will bother some people). Other people in our group had worse experiences.... breakfast room service over 1/2 hour late 2 days in a row, exhorbitant prices for room service (higher than the typical rediculous prices), a 1 minute long distance phone call costs nearly $12.00 (YES, it WAS within the country!), and although you couldn't hear people in the next room, you could often hear people in the hall. Local calls were $1.50/hour then charged a higher per minute rate, toll-free calls were $2.00 each (so forget about using your calling card from the room for multiple calls). <BR> <BR>I'm one of those people that usually only has conact with hotel staff at check-in and check-out, so i don't require much except for a clean room without bugs or insects. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the hotel (it wasn't as trendy as i was afraid it would be) and i would have no problem staying there again. I would recommend the hotel to a "non-demanding" type of person (your typical Sheraton, Ramada, Marriot, Hilton, etc guest will be more than happy), but would advise against it for anyone who feels the need to be pampered all the time (and used to places like Ritz, Bellagio, Four Seasons, etc), utilizes room service often, or needs to make a lot of phone calls from the room.