Overall: Excellent location and value for points – but beware of dark interior rooms
Pros: Convenient location near all the action, but still a very quiet hotel; spacious common areas and lovely bar and restaurant.
Cons: Very dark interior rooms.
We paid: $0; 30,000 Hyatt points for 2 nights
Value: $627 including taxes & fees
How to stay here without paying full price:
- Get the Hyatt credit card and link it to your account. You can also get a card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and set it up to link to your Hyatt account.
- Hit the minimum spend required to reach your bonus – as of this writing:
- $3K spend on the Hyatt credit card in the first 3 months gives you 25,000 Hyatt points; AND
- $6K spend in 6 months (total) gives you another 25,000 Hyatt points;
- $4K for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card gives you 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
- Wait for your bonus points to land in your Hyatt account. Transfer points from Chase Ultimate Rewards to your Hyatt account as necessary.
- Once your bonus points/nights hit your Hyatt account, search the app or website for award availability. Standard Nights at the Eliza Jane are 15,000 points per night. Because this is a Category 4 hotel, you CAN use any free nights you’ve earned from your cardmember anniversary or other promotions.
- Book online through the Hyatt app or website.
- For a full guide, see my 5-step Guide to Booking Hyatt Hotels for Free.
Full review – Eliza Jane New Orleans:
Location: The Eliza Jane New Orleans is in a great location, in the Central Business District and an easy two-block walk to the French Quarter. The CBD is home to a lot of great restaurants and it’s just far enough away from the craziness of Bourbon Street that you can enjoy the nightlife without being in the middle of it. This hotel is also near the New Orleans warehouse/art gallery district, which you should definitely check out when you get a chance.
Hotel itself: This building is part of the Hyatt brand’s relatively new Unbound Collection, and thus it’s a unique luxury hotel with a boutique feel. This building is actually a combination of nine warehouses from the 1800s, including the Peychaud Bitters company.
This history is apparent everywhere in the architecture, with high ceilings, exposed beams, and painted cement walls. It manages to look both trendy and historic.
The Eliza Jane hotel is as trendy as any loft building, but the thing about ex-factory loft buildings is… Well, they tend to be dark. It used to be a long factory without many windows.
Dark hallways with trendy printing
My partner and I checked in rather late to the hotel, having flown in on a Friday night. I called ahead to let them know we’d be arriving around 11pm, which I always recommend doing so that they don’t give away your room. There was no problem here, however.
Upon arrival, we were offered an upgrade to an “Interior King Suite,” for an extra $20 per night (above the $0 we paid). As a Discoverist due to my World of Hyatt card, this was a little surprising to me. However, Discoverists typically don’t get free suite upgrades, and I was interested in checking it out. I said $20 per night was fine. Incidentally, later on when I got my bill, I was never charged the extra money at all!
Review – Our room at the Eliza Jane
Our room was #210, an “interior” King suite on the second floor. I was apprehensive that it might be loud since it’s only one floor up from the lobby, but that was no problem. It was seriously the quietest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in.
Part of this is because it’s a suite, and the bedroom is separated by a solid door behind the living area.
Between the living area and the bedroom is a hallway with a mini fridge, coffeemaker, and shelves. I always appreciate when a hotel allows you to use their mini fridge without threatening to charge you $50 for opening the door. The Eliza Jane was great about this.
I thought the hotel room was thoughtfully designed. Past the mini fridge was an open “closet” of sorts, which contained an ironing board and iron, plus space for hanging clothes.
The closet was adjacent to the bathroom, which I thought was modern and tasteful. I loved the C.O. Bigelow toiletries, which had a nice herbal fragrance.
The bathroom was beautiful but not especially large. That said, the Eliza Jane does what it can with the space it has.
The bedroom was beyond a door that closed, and it was as promised: An “interior” room, meaning there was no window in the bedroom.
All of these pictures are really dark. I took some the night I arrived around 11p and thought I’d take another set of pictures the next day, when I had potentially more natural light.
NOPE. More light never happened.
The thing is, there never IS any natural light in these interior rooms. Your one window opens up into the hotel’s hallway, which doesn’t let in much light.
I thought it was really weird that the Eliza Jane New Orleans did such a great job of decorating, but didn’t provide enough light. There were a handful of lamps, but no overhead LIGHTS.
As you can see, the ceilings are really high, and these lamps were only able to do so much. The result was that there was never enough light to really see well. All of these pictures required using a flash.
That was a big downside of the “interior” room, but a major upside was how quiet it was. Once we closed the living room door, we could barely hear anything. No New Orleans street noise, no other guests, nothing.
I’m sure the non-interior rooms at this hotel are less dark. Indeed, judging from other room pictures, that seems to be true:
Review – Common areas of Eliza Jane New Orleans
I thought this was one area where the Eliza Jane New Orleans really stood out. Their fitness center was very adequate. And, they have an excellent restaurant, Couvant, on site, as well as an interior bar and a lot of seating areas around the lobby. I enjoyed everything.
The fitness center included several cardio machines, a couple of benches, a weight machine, a set of dumbbells, and exercise balls. I appreciated that they provided towels, a large TV, water, and disposable headphones.
Couvant, the restaurant, is not a “hotel restaurant.” You’d go here even if you weren’t staying here. It’s contemporary French/New Orleans food, executed well.
We had a nice, very late dinner upon arrival. We charged our bill to the room with no issues. After I checked out, I noticed that I never received points for the restaurant. I had to call Hyatt to get them to manually issue me the points for the bill. This was a minor inconvenience and may have been caused by the fact that I booked with Hyatt points rather than cash. Nonetheless, it was incumbent upon me to check the bill and my Hyatt points balance.
I really enjoyed the Eliza Jane New Orleans’ extensive lobby area. We got a drink at the lobby area bar and did some work in their “library” while we had a couple of hours to kill before our flight. This was a comfortable, cool place to hang out.
Value per point
I spent 30,000 points on a stay that would’ve cost $627 for a Standard Room, for a total of 2.09 cents per Hyatt point. My suite probably would’ve cost more than the $627, but there were pluses and minuses to this room, so I am hesitant to assign additional value there.
Bottom line
I’d definitely stay at the Eliza Jane New Orleans again. This hotel usually provides an excellent value for the reasonable cost of 15,000 Hyatt points per night. New Orleans is a wonderful city and this is a great location from which to explore it. The hotel is also positively charming.
Next time I’d just be sure to avoid the interior rooms.
