Windsor Court Hotel

Louisiana
United States

The Experience

A unique experience in French-influenced New Orleans, the Windsor Court is unabashedly English and proud of its rectitude. It’s also impeccably and expensively detailed in the manner of an English Manor home. A spacious art gallery (actually, the reception area) greets guests with $8 million worth of oil paintings, all of them larger-than-life—a Van Dyck, several de Largellieres as well as a Gainsborough and Huysman, among others. The paintings compete for attention with countless objets d’art, 14 chandeliers, an army of leather-backed chairs and the massive George V Cup silver horse-racing trophy from 1910.

The Rooms

More than 80 percent of the rooms are suites, and floors 19 through 22 come with Club Suite status—that is, access to the exclusive and well-stocked Club Lounge. By all means, take advantage of this upgrade—access to the lounge and its amenities is well worth the extra cost. Room size overall is standard for a suite, but the English tradition of thick quilted comforters, decorative wallpaper patterns and crafted wooden furniture will make you feel like you’re staying in a well-tended dollhouse.

The Service

The hotel staff manage to be friendly and attentive with neither an air of pomposity nor obsequiousness. Tea time—two o’clock in the ornate tea room of Le Salon—can be a delightfully social affair complete with live chamber music. Guests seeking services that only money and connections can provide (A place on a Mardi Gras float? Your own private soccer field? Last-minute deep-sea fishing?) need only ask.

The Highlights

The hotel’s signature is its security and level of discretion, particularly for high-profile guests that regularly include emirs, princes and presidents (both Bushes and Clinton, to name just three), as well as celebrities and, of course, English royalty. The Windsor Court prides itself on ensuring privacy and maintaining elegance in the stately manner of the refined English upper-crust. The second floor Polo Lounge, stylized as a “gentleman’s withdrawing room” is a welcoming place for drinks; its crowd of cigar aficionados are gone, thanks to a 2006 statewide smoking ban. The extensive wine cellar has 10,000 bottles, 1,000 different wines and a sommelier on hand at all times.

 

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