The Higgins Hotel New Orleans, Curio Collection by Hilton — Hotel in New Orleans

My family of 4 stayed for 7 nights in 2 rooms. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the hotel, but the lack of an updated website was certainly frustrating, so I'll try to answer some questions others will likely have.

Staff: Absolutely phenomenal. Every person we encountered was kind and happy to help. We enjoyed excellent service throughout our stay in all aspects.

Hotel/Rooms: the elevator requires a room key scan to get to your desired floor, which I appreciate from a security standpoint. The rooms felt brand new, very clean. There is no housekeeping unless requested (and we didn't). There was a tablet that should have controlled the TV and presented information, but it wasn't configured. Beds were perfect, firm and comfortable. The AC and heat worked as expected. The showers did not get hot enough, but that's not a supply issue, it's the scald guards on the fixture. Whoever installed them didn't calibrate them properly. We renovate houses, so my husband was able to crank up the heat on ours. Nights were quiet, this is a big deal for me and why I wanted to be west of Canal.

Parking: the hotel offers a small discount at the adjacent parking garage. They say it's $32/night, but it's really $35+ after taxes. I believe there were less expensive lots in the area, but that garage was most comfortable for us. You use your room key to scan in and out. There is no direct entry from the garage to the hotel, so you do have to exit the garage and walk down the sidewalk to the hotel entrance.

Food: Kilroy's is closed. Cafe Normandie is open for breakfast (@7am) and maybe lunch? We were never there midday, but did have breakfast there once and found the food and service to be good and the prices reasonable. After that, as there are refrigerators in the rooms we just bought an electric skillet and a french press at Walmart for eggs and coffee. We get up very early and I was not into waiting over an hour to eat. And the in-room coffee is not workable for us. Our girls ate cereal or muffins most days in their room. Provisions had several simple options, we got coffee there one day. Rosie's on the Rooftop opens at 4. We went once for cocktails, once for dinner, and the girls got a to-go dinner once. The cocktails were not great, just not well crafted. The food was mostly fine, definitely frozen to fry mostly. Burgers were well-received. My daughter thought the grilled chicken sandwich was rubbery. Wings were fine. My gumbo was good, but cool. The bacon-wrapped Brussels sprouts and yucca fries were probably my favorite items. My girls thought the beignets topped Cafe Du Monde's, but not Criollo's.

Location: Overall, good and convenient. You can't get closer to the WWII museum, if that's your target. There are also sweet pictures and plaques from the era all over the hotel, which we enjoyed. Driving in off of the highway, you'll pass under a bridge with a bit of a homeless encampment happening. And if you walk to the French Quarter, you're quite likely to run into some of those individuals. We actually only felt directly threatened in the French Quarter though, when some clearly psychiatrically disturbed people made overt threats. The street cars are not running, regardless of what Google says, but there is a bus that goes from the hotel to the zoo and/or Canal St. We found walking to the FQ to be fairly easy (maybe 15 minutes?)

Other recommendations: the WWII museum is phenomenal. Definitely see "Beyond All Boundaries" at minimum. The best restaurant close to the hotel was Mais Arepas. The arepas take a very long time, so get an app, but they're worth the wait. Gyu-Kaku was also really fun, but they were out of half their menu. The zoo is probably the best we've seen.

Overall, I'd stay at the Higgins again, and if asked, I'd easily recommend it to others. It is definitely not in the thick of the FQ, but it's quiet, classy...

We stayed here as part of a group. Our rooms were booked by the group, and we were encouraged to call the hotel in person to double check on any special requests. I am highly sensitive to chemicals & odors, so I called to confirm my request for a room with no scented sprays, etc.. The man I spoke to was very unhelpful and refused to enter my request. He told me I would need to call the morning before we arrived.

Let me add here that we recently stayed in a DoubleTree in Chattanooga, TN, and the front desk offered to call housekeeping and make sure they knew not to use Febreze and other scents in our room. So I know this can be done!

When we arrived at the hotel and checked in, I asked about the scent-free room. The Desk Manager said there was no such request on our reservation. I told him I wasn't surprised, because the man I spoke to previously was very unhelpful. "That was me," he replied. Well, touché! He hadn't changed at all! He continued to be unhelpful and unfriendly every time we saw him throughout the rest of our stay.

When he ran over the instructions for our stay, the Desk Manager made a point of telling us that there were two bottles of water in the room and that was our allotment for the entire 3-day stay. I told him we are Silver Honors members, and every hotel we have stayed in gives us a complementary bottle of water for each of us every day we stay. He said some hotels have the choice to do that, but the Higgins only gives one bottle per person for the entire stay!

My husband had a very unpleasant experience with hotel security one morning. He was up at 6 looking for a quiet place, and he found a chair in a corner of the second floor where he sat down to read his Bible. A security guard appeared, asked what he was doing (my husband told him he was reading his Bible), and the guy told my husband he had to leave, that the floor was reserved for a group. Yeah--OURS! And our first meeting was at 10 am! Our group never even got over to that part of the second floor, and we never saw anyone at all in that area. It was completely unnecessary for the guard to chase my husband away at 6 am. Not to mention, there was no sign saying that area was closed.

Quite honestly, after these experiences, our impression was that this hotel is trying to pretend to be in the classy range of an Omni--but all they do is end up seeming stingy and rude.

The hotel staff person that stood out as a shining light was Terrence, the Concierge. 💖💖💖 Every time I saw him he had a huge smile and a friendly word, and he was helpful with any little request. The staff who served the food for our group were polite and efficient. Fortunately the Desk Manager's and security guard's unfriendliness does not seemed to have infected the rest...

Stayed here with my family while visiting the WW2 Museum 2-3 weeks ago. The rooms are great, beds are extra comfortable & food/room service was very good.

It seems what the hotel offers in comfort, lacks in service and guidance. We ran into several (overall) minor irritants, but they’re ultimately what affected our experience.

The main irritant was that when booking, we were offered the “breakfast” option for extra fees, which we chose thinking breakfast would be included or that we’d receive some type of benefit. The first thing we did when checking in was asking how that would work. We were then told to just ask the cafe to bill our room. Nobody was able to answer what the difference with this selection was, as we ended up ordering room service (which I believe is generally an option anyway?) and that bill was added to our stay. I feel I basically paid extra for nothing, but again, no guidance was provided at any point. Be mindful when selecting that choice when booking.

The rooftop restaurant is very nice and we loved getting fresh air while eating. Not sure if there was only 1 waiter and cook the night we went, which was a Saturday night, but there were many inconsistencies when getting our food- some of us got their drinks, others didn’t, my plate came out first and then was asked to give it back so they can remake all our plates together. It was kind of odd, but we remained very patient and the food was alright overall.

After visiting the museum, we went back to the hotel and found that the housekeeper was cleaning our room- making beds where we had left belongings, cleaning bathroom, and changing out the towels. This was confusing and unexpected to us since there’s a bathroom note specifically mentioning they don’t change towels/linens daily but instead every 3 days unless requested. We had to wait outside of the room for about 15-20 mins to let them finish before we could go back in our room. This has never happened at any other hotels we’ve stayed at, where usually your beds are left intact until we leave. In the end we appreciated the refresh, it was just unexpected. Also, there was a white hair in the coffee area.

Lastly, the parking is within the same block so it’s very accessible, however, the room card needed to leave the parking garage & come back wouldn’t work properly. The attendant had to come out to us both times to manually let us out (very friendly guy btw) and even recommended that we would need to “pester” the front desk until they give us a working key, insinuating this was a regular reoccurrence. Keep in mind if you plan to go in and out of the parking garage!

All in all, very nice and clean hotel. However, given our experience, I don’t think we would stay at this hotel again if we...