Virgin Hotels New Orleans — Hotel in New Orleans

The hotel description indicates there is a coffee maker in the rooms. WRONG. there is a kettle. I asked for a coffee maker and was told to use the kettle or spend $5.00 for a cup of coffee from their coffee station. We stayed for 4 nights (4 of us) so that was about $100.00 spent needlessly on coffee. Sure we could have used the kettle but that's not convenient and not as advertised. The next biggest disappointment was the roof top patio and pool area. No where does it state that certain areas need to be "rented" for $250.00. We chose this hotel and spent an extra $1000.00 for a hotel with a patio and pool which we were unable to use because its first come first served and the only areas available were the rented spaces. Pretty sure they sell day passes to the public. Totally ridiculous. This is FALSE advertising. They need to indicate this on the web site so you can make an informed decision. We were unable to use the pool area the entire time we were there. full of young partiers who occupied way more space then they needed to leaving no space for paying guest with VIP access ... to nothing. Ridiculous. The music is too loud as well. Very misleading. The pool is very small. Looks bigger in the pictures. We did sit in the "rental space" for about 2 minutes and left once we were asked to pay the rental fee. In hindsight we should have just stayed and asked them to show us the "fine print" regarding this charge. Some of the staff were very nice but some were a bit rude. The restaurant was closed for a private event, one morning, so we had to go elsewhere to eat. The hotel itself is very nice and the rooms are very clean. The bed is amazing and so comfy. Some of the cloth couches, etc., in the lobby area are stained and a bit dirty looking but the entire hotel has a lot of charm and a great vibe. I would recommend it, if you don't mind not being able to use the patio/pool area because its very crowded, etc. One person took up a seated area for 6-7 people, by laying on the couch and her dog was laying on a chair, while her belongings were stored on the other chair. We spoke with three people on the roof top about wanting a place to sit and the lady with the dog taking up so much space and the response we got was "first come first served". We were offered the "rental space" on the roof top for the $250.00 fee. Virgin clearly prioritizes greed over customer service. We should have been permitted to use the roof top since the hotel room rate was more than a comparable hotel with no pool. very disappointed. Its really a shame that we were unable to use the pool area. As a result we will never stay at a Virgin hotel again; whereas, if we, PAYING GUESTS, were able to use the area we would have thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We paid a premium for a hotel with a patio and could not use. We booked this hotel because of the patio. We should be compensated financially for not being able to use this. WHAT IS VIP access? means we paid a premium for this hotel with a pool and the VIP access should have permitted us to access and USE the area. Very disappointed. FALSE ADVERTISING! Be aware!

Funny, the hotel responded saying they sell limited day passes to non hotel guests. More than 1/2 the people on the patio were not guests of the hotel. The loungers are for hotel guests, however, most of them were occupied by day pass people (not staying at the hotel). When I brought this forward to the 3 people working the roof top patio all of their responses were the same, "first come first served".

Ridiculous!

Like I said, false advertising to say you have coffee makers and don't. A kettle is not a coffee machine and is for making tea not coffee. Like i said we spent money for brewed coffee as we were not interested in paying for bottled water from our fridge to boil water to make a terrible cup of coffee.

Do better Virgin, just do better!

Overcharged on room tax and they won't return my emails or...

Booked for a two night stay during Essence fest. The hotel was busy and felt overcrowded and a bit overwhelming for EVERYONE on the day we checked in. On the trip heading toward N.O., we received notification that the pool was booked in 4 hour increments with one slot on Saturday and the other on Sunday. The restaurant was also booked on Saturday as well. The restaurant was not a deal breaker, but the pool area being cut off for at least 8 hours of our short stay from driving in for over 6 hours was quite disappointing. I called to try and cancel, but would be forfeiting too much for one night. Once again, it was Essence Fest and prices were high and there was no money to be lost for them. The notice did come within 24 hours. I'm certain not everyone cared because most probably were attending the events taking place, but it would've been nice to be able to cancel and not lose a whole night of stay. Not to mention, when we finally had the opportunity to visit the pool area. The young lady greeted us at the door and was nice. The pool area kind of tight and the pool itself was very small; basically 8 people in and you can consider it being a hot tub and not an actual pool to swim. We sat for maybe less than 30 minutes, in what seating was available (no event going on, just people hanging out) and decided to leave to grab food outside the hotel and come back to enjoy the room. The fitness center is nice and has a cool little balcony area to look out over the city. We did not use the fitness center either, but I will say it's one of the best ones I have seen with updated equipment and plenty of machines. Valet was superb! Vehicle requests were fulfilled quickly. We were greeted each time and one of the gentlemen opened my door for me. They even helped load up our luggage upon departure. I saw them do this for many of the guests. Being they are the first impression, they certainly fulfilled the assignment! Shout out to the Valet Crew! The room had some nice features. It was clean and smelled as such the moment we entered. I was very impressed with the toilet paper seal. The bed slept cozy. The mini bar was fully stocked and items/prices transparently listed on the T.V. screen, but we ate out and did not utilize any of the items. It was still a nice option if desired. There were full sized bottles of body wash and lotion next to the sink and in the shower, so absolutely no reason to not be clean or moisturize! It was genius to separate the shower from the toilet area, especially when there is more than one guests. Robes were available as well as an iron and ironing board. The availability of mirrors and convenient light switches were nice. Talk about modern - the use of a privacy light to inform housekeeping that turn down service was not needed. Would this be a first choice or anything upon returning, probably not.

Pros: Beautiful hotel. Valet offers the best customer service. Pool, restaurant on-site (even though we did not get to enjoy either). Grocery, pharmacy and MANY other eateries located within walking distance. Room was clean and stocked with useful items. 10-12 minute walk to the Superdome. Cons: Definitely not the place to stay during a major event. Did not get to even put our feet in the pool. Charged a standard $27 per night amenity fee for two nights for amenities that we did not partake in. Charged for a mini bar item (Diet Coke) that neither of us drink (gross personally) and we are not soda drinkers, but Accounting agreed it would be credited it back. Also, strange opened water bottle appeared while we were out walking and noticed upon our return. Could've been housekeeping, but the privacy...

This was a great three-star hotel experience. However, it's a four-star hotel with a four-star room rate (roughly around 390/ night when I went, which doesn't take into account the $31/ night room fee). Based on my experience, I have a feeling there's issues with management. Pros: Great location, funky hotel. Restaurant on-site had delicious food. Meh: Service was fine, but you had to ask for service. Cons: Check-in, housekeeping issues; we were skipped, decent amount of dust in the room, hair in the showers

Summary: Really cool hotel if you're looking for a place to take cool pictures for instagram and are okay with events taking place every night that take over key spaces. Hotel is expensive for quality of service, and if you're trying to treat your family to a really nice experience on par with what you'd get from a four-star recommend another hotel. My guess is that the hotel makes a lot of money from its parties and rooftop bar and invests a lot of its effort into those rather than into its guest experience.

Key notes: Check-in- massive hassle. Some of it was beyond control (i.e. cards not working), but there was a lack of logic and service. Couldn't get into the room with the room card given due a machine error (aka the card/ room were not the issue), was told to wait for an engineer that didn't show up after 15 minutes, and each time I went back down I had to ring a bell and wait for someone to emerge. For some reason, we were given a different room, which still didn't resolve the issue. As soon as I realized that there were two people working and not one, so one could leave, I asked for one to come with me to open the room so we could get in (by this point, we had been trying to get in for 30 minutes and it was late at night).

The front desk was frequently unmanned. If you didn't arrive when a party was taking place, there was no one at the front door to assist with bags (very minor issue, but I read a different review that talked about how it was a private company and realized that was why it was only at certain times of day). My guess is that the hotel is unwilling to hire enough people...

...on that note, on our first day we didn't get housekeeping services. I was traveling with my mother, who loves not having to clean while on vacation. This would have been a minor issue, but we didn't have enough TP when we first got the room, there was hair in the shower, some of the mugs provided in the room were clearly not cleaned prior to being in our room, and as stated I was traveling with my mother who was very excited for the housekeeping. When I notified the front desk-- to at least get some fresh towels-- there was no explanation why it happened and because I had noticed after 5pm, when the cleaning staff leaves, it was too late.

I want to acknowledge that I emailed the hotel with these issues and did receive 20% off one (1) meal and a $30 dollar credit for drinks or food from the hotel's restaurant or coffee lounge. This was a nice gesture, but would have been more appreciated if it had been given after I had brought up the issues with checking in and housecleaning.

Pool/ Common Lounge became party areas after 4pm/ 7pm respectively. For the common lounge, you needed to pay to access it in order to do the "Mariah Carey Experience". The pool had some neat pods to sit in, but you needed to pay to use them and were not included with...