Renaissance Arts Hotel

Description:

• The Renaissance brand is the Marriott's attempt at a hip, W-style hotel, a place for younger business travelers to feel a bit better about themselves. There are two in New Orleans: the pleasant but overpriced Pere Marquette, and this, the Arts Hotel, so named because it's at the border of the Arts District and attached to a branch of Arthur Rogers, a well-respected local gallery. Don't expect painters in the lobby, splattering like Pollock or staging suspicious performance-art gags. What "arts" here means is that the designers made a concerted effort to incorporate art, specifically local art, into the decor. On first glance, it just seems like a throwback to 1970s business hotels (thanks to an atrium) with the simple addition of some brightly colored modern art. But the theme gets stronger once you enter the hallways, and comes into stronger focus in the rooms, which are hung with the works of several Louisiana artists (from Lafayette-based Francis Pavy to New Orleans's highly recommended Studio Inferno glassworks). The rooms feel less forcedly playful than those over at the Pere Marquette, and are well sized (look for a connecting room to get extra square footage) and include down pillows and covers. The hotel has a dull rooftop pool with a view of industrial New Orleans, and a health club of adequate elbow room.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

CitySearch

•  Boutique Hotel 2006 – Editorial Winner

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2009
•  Recommended 2010