The New Orleans Hotel

I usually end my blogs with a takeaway. But for this piece, you get a bonus.

Whatever you do, DO NOT use an online hotel booking site like Booking.com to reserve your room at the New Orleans Hotel, located in Eureka Springs Arkansas! This was something I learned the hard way.

While I use the site frequently, as well as others (no brand loyalty here!) to prepare my travels, I encountered a snag with this particular hotel. Booking.com let me make a reservation for virtually any date I liked. Including the incredibly busy Halloween weekend-a weekend when the town pulls out all the stops and hosts a three-day celebration culminating with a zombie crawl.

Only after I paid did I discover that the reservation was switched to the following year. To make an annoying experience even more irritating, the website states you will be charged a $150 fee if you cancel the reservation.

There must be some mistake, I thought as I returned to the website to make the necessary corrections. Nope, no dice.  As I attempted to change the date, I was warned of the $150 charge looming around the corner.

So I tried one more time to book a reservation for my preferred date-and year. Starting from the beginning, I carefully went through the steps of selecting the hotel and date I desired. Again, nothing was blacked-out. Double-checking several times, I ensured I requested a reservation for 2022 and entered my payment information.

Just before I hit ‘enter’, I received an alert. One that said I had already booked a room for that date-in 2023.

So that’s how we ended up traveling to Eureka Springs a year after I intended to just for the heck of it. Sometimes, you just have to roll with it.

I have to say the hotel really celebrates its history as one of the oldest establishments in town. It sits on a great location, right in the middle of everything. The streets in general are narrow and public parking is very limited. But once parked, nearly everything is within walking distance or accessible by public transportation. I’m betting you will have very little need for your car until checkout.

Taking advantage of the valet services is a must, but it won’t be quick. The front desk staff are also the valets-as well as the ones charged with answering incoming phone calls and personally seeing to guests’ needs. So be patient and allow a little extra time to retrieve your car. They are scrambling as fast as they can.

The hotel is an entertainment and dining destination in itself. The first thing that greets you is the two-floor balcony overlooking the street.  While this is a great place to unwind or people-watch at any point during the tourist season, it is the place to be during city celebrations like the Halloween Zombie Crawl. It also boasts a quaint little ice cream parlor, a gift shop selling t-shirts and souvenirs and two bars-the Quarter and the Voodoo Lounge.

The Quarter, located in the basement serves as a café and a nightclub depending on what time you visit. In addition to serving cocktails and a mean beignet, they have a dance floor and host karaoke nights and other events. The weekend I stayed over, they advertised a burlesque show-although it was really just a PG-13 strip show.  Like many spots in town, they rely upon their ambiance to draw you in. Try not to hold it against them.

The Voodoo Lounge upstairs is a smaller, more intimate bar. Not much bigger than your average kitchen, the lounge is run on a skeleton crew-usually no more than the bartender. That being said, the barkeeps know their stuff, and positively contribute to the laid back atmosphere. So long as you don’t get in their way, they will take good care of you. 

Nearly everything about the hotel is accessed either by climbing up or coming down stairs-sometimes several flights of them. This includes toting your luggage back and forth. While I am certain the hotel staff would be happy to assist, I didn’t notice any elevators or accommodations for people with mobility issues, so keep this in mind if you are planning a stay. And the bar downstairs didn’t appear to have any entries that could be accessed by persons requiring ADA accommodations either.

Considering the number of visitors at any given time that could use it, I would have liked to see that.

I was put in a room on the 3rd floor so I definitely got my steps in coming and going. The room itself was clean, well-furnished with antiques and quiet. The layout was kind of haphazard. The television was set on a dresser parallel from the bed, making viewing difficult. At the far end of the room directly under a clothing rack sat a mini-fridge on a small table, appearing to be an after-thought. One would have to push their coats and other clothing out of the way just to open it. But given it’s age and the efforts taken to keep the space as original as possible, it’s understandable.

The bathroom was especially roomy as was the shower. But the toilet leaked and so did the sink. Both appeared to show long-term damage. There was also a funky smell emitting from the room upon entry that I wasn’t able to locate. It wasn’t mildew-more like dank moisture with hints of urine.

I was relieved the smell wasn’t coming from the bedding, but I didn’t stick my nose down into the carpeting. Given the hotel’s reputation as a party-palace, I wasn’t about to.

While upkeep on any hotel is cumbersome (and the age and tricky foundation of the New Orleans Hotel would make this doubly so) the potential for hygienic and maintenance issues to eventually become serious safety matters bothered me. Not only for guests with allergies or immune system problems, but for the overall safety of those in the building.

And as the weekend continued, my concerns only grew. Just upstairs from the 3rd floor, I noticed an electrical box with a dirty rag sticking out of it.  Putting a minifridge under a clothing rack is one thing, entertaining potential fire hazards is quite another. I hate to think about the cost to lives and property if that place went up in flames. It would be a tragedy if that happened as the result of neglect.

The fact that the owner was on the premises hanging out with the guests did ease my mind. I have never seen a proprietor have such a good rapport with his employees. He joked with them, visited with their family members and even bought them an “end of shift drink” after the club closed for the night. I wouldn’t have recognized him if an employee didn’t point him out-they were obviously pretty impressed themselves.

And stair-fatigue, electrical failure and the possibility of black mold can be easily overlooked when compared to the New Orleans Hotel staff. I’ve raved about hotel workers before-and every single one fully deserves it, but these people take the gold medal. Besides being approachable and accommodating, they treat you like a regular. They are warm and friendly, striking up conversations with you just for kicks. Even if this isn’t something you are accustomed to, you will soon be wrapped up in conversation with a new set of friends as they tell you the latest gossip, and even invite you for drinks at the club when they get off shift.

And they really do hang out at the hotel after hours-further adding to its street cred. Even during the seasons when the tourist floodgates are opened, of all the places to go in Eureka Springs (and believe me, these guys know them all) they still prefer the hotel. To me, that says a lot.  Judging by the looks of exhaustion on many faces throughout town, those working during the festival were feeling it. But the New Orleans Hotel staff just shrugged it off. Most of them told me they actually enjoyed it.

They also told me they too, could use an end of shift drink. So come on, man!

My takeaway: leave your expectations of standards and professionalism at the door and get ready for an experience.

Do you have a hotel or inn you would like me to review? Let me know on Facebook, Instagram or at toilandtroublemediagroup@gmail.com