Hotel New Orleans - not Intercontinental's best
Written: Oct 24 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great location on historic St. Charles
Cons: Dirty room; lukewarm service; poor customer relations
The Bottom Line: Although this hotel is probably "average" for a hotel, it is way below average for the class, cleanliness, and customer service one expects from an Inter-Continental. Avoid it.
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| caurieanne's Full Review: Intercontinental New Orleans |
My husband and I are loyal Hotel Inter-Continental customers. We are members of the chain's Six Continents Club for frequent guests and whenever possible, we stay at an Inter-Continental while traveling. All of our Inter-Continental stays up until New Orleans have been truly wonderful experiences.
Thus, when we decided to attend the American Dental Association's (ADA) National Convention in New Orleans this month (October 2002), we were delighted to see that there was an Inter-Continental in the City. Although the ADA provided us with a list of numerous hotels it recommended (and, yes, the Inter-Continental was on the list) we did not even investigate the others because our past experiences with this chain of hotels has been so great. Unfortunately, Hotel Inter-Continental New Orleans was an exception.
My qualms with this hotel began upon arrival—upon check-in we learned they did not have a room for us, even though we had made our reservations months in advance and paid for them (over one thousand dollars) as well. We were told to “come back” in a couple hours to see if a room was available. After four hours of air travel and arriving in a City we did not know at all, this news was most unwelcome. But what else could we do? All of the other hotels in the area were full as well because of the ADA convention. So, we waited…Finally—two hours later—they “found” us a room, but would not honor our Six Continents Club Membership (which includes perks like free breakfasts) because my husband forgot his card. This too was upsetting because all it would have taken was a phone call on the front desks part to confirm we are indeed members. We waited two hours for them to find us a room we already paid for, but they would not take five minutes to confirm our membership or take our word on the situation!
Once we finally checked into our room, we felt much better. The room was beautifully decorated and appeared lovely (despite its lack of view) However, upon closer inspection, we realized the room was quite dirty for Inter-Continental standards. It appeared to have been shoddily cleaned—an observation confirmed when we went to sleep and found DRIED BLOOD on our comforter! Yes, there were about three dollops of blood (the size of quarters) and several splashes of dried blood on the bed’s comforter. Please excuse this gross description, but the blood was flaky and obviously fresh!!!! I was totally disgusted by this—as such blatant uncleanliness in a hotel had never happened to me before. Housekeeping did replace the comforter right away, but it never should have been like that to begin with! We were totally repulsed.
Aside from the quick replacement of our bloody comforter, we found the service at the hotel to be lukewarm to poor. Examples that come to mind were the housekeeping forgetting to replace our coffee one-day and our towels another day (yes, forgetting our towels completely) Also, the hotel restaurant—La Veranda—was incredibly slow and the food was hardly worth its $20.00 (average) price tag per entrée. Do not waste your money on the restaurant and consider wisely whether or not you want to spend your money on this hotel at all. I never thought I would say that about an Inter-Continental, but in the City of New Orleans it is true. Hotel Inter-Continental New Orleans cannot hold a candle to the Mark Hopkins Inter-Continental (San Francisco) or others we have stayed at. New Orleans is a city with many choices and I was surprised that this hotel—for as much as one pays—focused such little attention on basic needs of the guests. It was quite a disappointment. Next time we are in New Orleans, we will be staying at the Wyndham.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
caurieanne
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Location: Upstate New York
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
I am a native upstate New Yorker and freelance writer who currently lives in Rochester.
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