Hotel Intel: Omni Royal Orleans, New Orleans
Photo below by Maggie Parker
While New Orleans is a colorful city with a boisterous personality, it took a rocky road to get here. And in no hotel is that more evident than the Omni Royal Orleans, one of four hotels in New Orleans inducted into the Historic Hotels of America.
The site of the Omni Royal Orleans at the corner of Royal and St. Louis streets was originally the New Orleans Exchange, a marketplace where Creoles of the French Quarter conducted business and trade. It later was the location of the first Creole hotel in the French Quarter—The City Exchange, which opened 175 years ago.
It was to be a “Creole palace, a place for aristocrats to meet and do business, to eat and drink and make love, to buy slaves and sell plots of land on the banks of the Mississippi,” John DeMers wrote in Tumultuous Life and Times of Omni Royal Orleans Hotel, French Quarter Royalty.
It’s been many other properties since then—including the Saint Louis Hotel, which was destroyed by a fire, and the state capitol building—and the current hotel honors its many identities in multiple ways (see What Pops).
While the location’s history wasn’t always pretty, the Omni doesn’t try to hide anything or only show the good parts. They embrace their story while trying to leave their own mark on the land, and they are doing a good job of it so far.
First Impressions
Photo courtesy of Omni Hotels & Resorts
It’s hard to take in the Omni Royal Orleans just by standing in front of it and looking up. You can try to cross the street for a better view but the streets are so narrow, going across doesn’t really make that much of a difference. So you’ll have to trust us when we say, it’s impressive.
The front facade runs the length of the entire block and while it’s only seven stories high, it seems to tower over you with its greatness. But even if it is a little intimidating, the plantation style arches and wrought-iron balconies that wrap around the building remind you that you’re in the South, where hospitality abounds.
Three sets of doors await your entrance. With marble staircases on each side of you, a plot bursting with fresh plants in front of you, and two statues holding chandeliers above the plants, you might wonder, “could there be any more grandeur in a relatively small entryway?” The answer to that question is, yes. Look up and you’ll see a chandelier of epic proportions—think Phantom of the Opera (OK maybe not that big, but you get the point). If you like glitz, seeing this gleaming piece will make you smile almost as brightly as this fixture sparkles. However, don’t let this burst of glamour fool you, there’s plenty of laidback Southern comfort to be found throughout the rest of the property, balancing out that initial shock.
Walk up the stairs on your right, veer left at the antique credenza topped with flowers, walk back toward the ballroom (where more chandeliers glisten through glass doors) and you’ll find a long marble reception desk and a small shop for snacking while you wait in line. Follow the marble floors to the center of the lobby, where archways look over the hotel’s main entrance and antique chairs offer a kitschy place to wait. The arched glass doorways straight ahead lead to their soon-to-be Champagne bar and jazz lounge. Keep going to reach the hotel bar and their restaurant, The Rib Room.
