MOXY New Orleans Downtown
When I first stayed at the MOXY New Orleans Downtown a couple of years ago, it was one of only two in the country. As of June 2022, there are 30 MOXY properties across North America, a reflection of the trend towards this kind of stripped-down but trendy hotel that will appeal to visitors that can still stay out all night without having to take three days to recover, a club of which this reviewer is a committed member.
This relatively new kid on the block is set in the grown-up surroundings of the Central Business District, and while it’s unlikely that many captains of industry will be checking in, it’s undeniably close to downtown’s attractions and within stumbling distance of young people's nightclubs and supper lounges (is that where they go? - sub editors, please check).
The hotel’s aesthetic might prove divisive but you can’t deny it’s a strong one. Twenty-somethings will likely love the knowingly quirky lobby, which is organized around the bar. There are frames on walls that are wholly dedicated to taking Instagram photos, with suggested hashtags written everywhere, so your influencing is almost done for you. There’s even a hotel dog for added clout. Abstract sculpture and hints of industrial design features poke out amid the frivolity – if you’re (cough) 40+ like me, it may prove exhausting, but then again we’re not really the demographic that the hotel is looking to attract.
It’s not immediately obvious that check-in takes place at the bar, but if you look old and confused enough in the lobby, one of the staff will holler at you. In a friendly way. This is instantly a very different experience of hospitality, like booking into a trendy youth hostel. You’re on your own with luggage and planning as there’s no lobby staff or dedicated concierge, though the bar staff are helpful. Apart from the small exercise room, that’s all the amenities there are in this hotel that definitely expects you to be out hitting the town (is that what young people say? Do I mean ‘getting lit’? Kill me now.).
Utility chic is taken to its fashionable limits in rooms that will delight the Snapchat generation, but might leave more mature travelers flummoxed. Bare walls sport pegs for hanging clothes in place of wardrobes, and my Standard King Bed Room even had a collapsible stool hung on one of them. Everywhere the room is trying to invoke a conversation: the wall says, “Instagram this!”, and the pillow says, “I woke up like this” which is either fun or baffling, depending on your perspective. The low-rise beds and private bath/shower units are comfortable enough, and the press-button phones are cute.
Given that the reception desk is a bar, you’d think you’d be on steady ground with the drinks offering, and of course you are, with local beers and cheeky cocktails and it’s open 24 hours a day thanks to the local licensing laws, which means there’s always a bartender/receptionist on duty.
The food offering is a little less substantial, with a kind of basic canteen arrangement plus a smattering of additions. You can wander down for coffee and pastries easily enough of a morning, and there’s a small menu of heated food in the form of wraps and flatbreads and the like for snacking. A full dinner likely means adventuring out into the nearby downtown, but everything is close by.
It’s funny that an actively contemporary hotel brand is named after such an old-fashioned word, but it does reflect the enviable hubris of youth that defines the property’s aesthetic. Twenty years ago I would have lived in places like this. Now I can relax with detached amusement, living my relatively hashtag-free life and mostly checking into places that don’t serve drinks at the front desk. Wait. That last bit sounds worse.
Paul Oswell
Moxy New Orleans Downtown
When I first stayed at the MOXY New Orleans Downtown a couple of years ago, it was one of only two in the country. As of June 2022, there are 30 MOXY properties across North America, a reflection of the trend towards this kind of stripped-down but trendy hotel that will appeal to visitors that can still stay out all night without having to take three days to recover, a club of which this reviewer is a committed member.
This relatively new kid on the block is set in the grown-up surroundings of the Central Business District, and while it’s unlikely that many captains of industry will be checking in, it’s undeniably close to downtown’s attractions and within stumbling distance of young people's nightclubs and supper lounges (is that where they go? - sub editors, please check).
The hotel’s aesthetic might prove divisive but you can’t deny it’s a strong one. Twenty-somethings will likely love the knowingly quirky lobby, which is organized around the bar. There are frames on walls that are wholly dedicated to taking Instagram photos, with suggested hashtags written everywhere, so your influencing is almost done for you. There’s even a hotel dog for added clout. Abstract sculpture and hints of industrial design features poke out amid the frivolity – if you’re (cough) 40+ like me, it may prove exhausting, but then again we’re not really the demographic that the hotel is looking to attract.
It’s not immediately obvious that check-in takes place at the bar, but if you look old and confused enough in the lobby, one of the staff will holler at you. In a friendly way. This is instantly a very different experience of hospitality, like booking into a trendy youth hostel. You’re on your own with luggage and planning as there’s no lobby staff or dedicated concierge, though the bar staff are helpful. Apart from the small exercise room, that’s all the amenities there are in this hotel that definitely expects you to be out hitting the town (is that what young people say? Do I mean ‘getting lit’? Kill me now.).
Utility chic is taken to its fashionable limits in rooms that will delight the Snapchat generation, but might leave more mature travelers flummoxed. Bare walls sport pegs for hanging clothes in place of wardrobes, and my Standard King Bed Room even had a collapsible stool hung on one of them. Everywhere the room is trying to invoke a conversation: the wall says, “Instagram this!”, and the pillow says, “I woke up like this” which is either fun or baffling, depending on your perspective. The low-rise beds and private bath/shower units are comfortable enough, and the press-button phones are cute.
Given that the reception desk is a bar, you’d think you’d be on steady ground with the drinks offering, and of course you are, with local beers and cheeky cocktails and it’s open 24 hours a day thanks to the local licensing laws, which means there’s always a bartender/receptionist on duty.
The food offering is a little less substantial, with a kind of basic canteen arrangement plus a smattering of additions. You can wander down for coffee and pastries easily enough of a morning, and there’s a small menu of heated food in the form of wraps and flatbreads and the like for snacking. A full dinner likely means adventuring out into the nearby downtown, but everything is close by.
It’s funny that an actively contemporary hotel brand is named after such an old-fashioned word, but it does reflect the enviable hubris of youth that defines the property’s aesthetic. Twenty years ago I would have lived in places like this. Now I can relax with detached amusement, living my relatively hashtag-free life and mostly checking into places that don’t serve drinks at the front desk. Wait. That last bit sounds worse.
Paul Oswell
Moxy New Orleans Downtown