Holiday Inn Express New Orleans Downtown

The good: The room was clean, stocked with plenty of towels and other necessities. Staff was nice. Overall, the whole hotel itself was clean, not just the room.
The bad: Express needs to be removed from the name. It took 20 minutes just to check in, with a line that only had 3 people. There is 24 hour construction going on right next to the hotel, so you hear banging going on the whole time, day and night. The elevators are a bit dodgy, they kind of come to a slammed halt and then still take a while to open. There is a decent gap between the room door and the floor, so light is always coming in and you hear everything going on in the hallways. They charge 29 dollars per day for parking, and there’s not always spaces available as people working on the surrounding buildings take the spaces.
So you can do better. It’s not horrible, but not great either.

This place has consistently confused me. For starters, I was trying to brush my teeth but the cold and hot water in the sink are confused or something. Then we realized our door doesn’t actually close all the way. Pull it shut and assume it’s locked… no way. I realized that then pulled the door shut «hard». I lost it one night because we tried to hit up the pool (which is tiny) and our room key didn’t work. No prob right? No, not at all. I tried to get assistance and waited 10 minutes. After the first 5 minutes I thought I should go back and see why we haven’t been helped. Before I could approach him. Someone else came with questions. He decided to help that person before coming to simply let us in the pool area about 50 feet away. That brings me to the front desk. Only one person working as far as I could tell. Not cool for quick questions or assistance with room issues. Damn… room issues! Our fridge didn’t work. I called and explained we would be leaving for the day and wanted to be in the room when the maintenance man came. Over an hour went by, no service. Another call, then 40 more minutes. Finally we went to the front desk and she sent the maintenance man in. WTF? At one point I tried to use the rest room in the mail lobby. Guess what??? Out of order. The breakfast is no good. I’m tired of complaining about this place now. Try and find something else if you can. Although I will say the staff is nice.

No keys could be made at check in and for 24 hours after. Had to be escorted by a security guard sleeping in the lobby each time we wanted back in our room. Phone didn’t work in the room. Room wasn’t cleaned the first day. Industrial side roll bathroom door didn’t stay shut, no lock, had large gaps around the door. Bathroom is 5 feet from the bed. TV remote didn’t work. TV was on a wall switch connected to a light that couldn’t be turned off. Neighbor across the hall TV so loud we couldn’t sleep. Phone didn’t work so couldn’t complain. Didn’t get wash cloths or tissue refill the 2^nd day. Asked for some at the desk and they sent a security guard later to our room at 1:15am! They didn’t code the key for the correct amount of days for my stay. Another trip down to the front desk. I paid $ 289 a night during Jazz Fest. Wasn’t worth a 3^rd of that. Its Super 8 quality at best. They get one star because the place was clean and I’m sure that’s only because it was new. Give them time to ruin that too.

I’m fairly certain this hotel JUST reopened under Holiday Inn Express management. Or at least I hope we arrived days after because the whole place was in disarray.
The laundry room and ice machines were all out of order (on every floor). The safe in the room wasn’t set up yet. The elevators are really slow and were constantly out of order.
The front desk was ok, but it took me 45 minutes to check in. It was 1am and my wrist is recovering from surgery and I was hungry. There was only one person in front of us. Just an abysmal greeting.
These are all things that can change and hopefully will be improved upon. What won’t change is the tiny little ‘pool’ — which is really like a wading pool for children. And a small fitness room with three or four machines in extremely close confines (which at the time of my stay were also not accessible).
The A/​C unit in our room was pretty loud and rattly and the windows are paper thin (though the walls seem to be thicker). You can hear everything outside, including any construction, traffic, people yelling, and children in the playground.
There is not a single good view in the whole hotel.
Free Wi-​Fi in your room!
The cleaning staff were SUPER friendly. Loved them. But they had a completely and utter disregard for the «do not disturb» sign which resulted in two interrupted naps and one other incredibly awkward moment which I won’t go into here.
Breakfast ends at 9:30 — wish they’d extend this to 10:30 for us more late-​to-​bed-​late-​to-​rise people. Seems like they have a good selection of DIY breakfasts (oatmeal, pancakes, yogurt, eggs) and juices.
All that said — the rooms are nice! Newly remodeled, super clean and modern, beautiful shower with a head that gives great shower pressure. Comfy bed and big plush pillows. High-​quality tv with a decent amount of programming.
If you’re staying a night or two on business this is a great, pragmatic place to stay. If you’re looking for more ammenities or a relaxing getaway it might not be as good of a fit.