Ritz-Carlton New Orleans Reopens With New Facilities And Services

NEW ORLEANS— The 524-room Ritz-Carlton New Orleans reopened yesterday post-Hurricane Katrina “stronger than ever,” according to general manager Myra deGersdorff, following $100 million in renovations. Like other Crescent City properties, the Ritz-Carlton took the setback from the storm as an opportunity to make improvements, both to the physical plant and to guest services. “Many of these upgrades would have been made regardless of Katrina, but they wouldn’t have been made in this quick a timeframe. With the hotel closed for 15 months, we were given a platform to really rethink how we could make the best use of this building,” said deGersdorff, who joined the hotel in July 2005, weeks before Katrina struck. The hotel is housed in a historic landmark building on Canal Street on the edge of the French Quarter, but one objective of the upgrades was to make the hotel both more contemporary in feel and more New Orleans-friendly. “It’s no longer your Grandmother’s Ritz-Carlton,” she noted. “We now cater much more intensively to New Orleans. In fact, in many ways we view the reopening as a celebration of the city and those things about New Orleans that bring people here.” Changes were funded by the hotel’s owner, WH Holdings. Upgrades include the addition of 8,000-10,000 square feet of meeting space, which gives the property a total of 24,000-25,000 square feet of space. The additional ground floor space was originally designated for retail use. Eight treatment rooms were added to the hotel’s existing spa, replacing administrative offices, which relocated to another part of the building. In guestrooms, bed linens and the bathroom amenity package were upgraded. In-room individual-serve coffee makers were added. New “totally New Orleans” staff uniforms, including uniforms in seersucker for front desk staff, bellmen, and the valet parkers, were designed. A new signature restaurant was added and the existing lounge was reconfigured to allow more entertainment options. “With added rotating performers well-known in New Orleans who play not just jazz, but blues, zydeco, and what’s known as New Orleans funk,” deGersdorff explained. ”The out-of-town customer used to have to go out to hear these kinds of music. Now they can have it all in-house.” In addition, the Maison Orleans, which was formerly a separate hotel within the Ritz-Carlton, now serves as the main hotels club level. Rooms feature four poster beds and hardwood floors. The Ritz-Carlton’s former club floors, which include many suites, are now part of the overall rooms inventory. The property also reopens as a completely non-smoking hotel. With the return of the Ritz-Carlton, only the Hyatt Regency and the Fairmont , among the citys upscale and deluxe hotels remain closed.