International House Hotel

• 18.0 Feedback Score

  18.0 of 20 average feedback score from 46 people who have actually stayed at International House.

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  • Rooms

    17.5

  • Service

    18.0

  • Public Spaces

    18.5

  • Overall

    18.0

• 30 Guest Reviews

  30 Verified reviews from people who have booked International House on Tablet Hotels.

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• 35 Travel Tips

  35 recommendations and 2 travel guides for areas around International House.

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Style: Cutting-Edge

Atmosphere: Happening

119 Rooms

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About the International House Hotel:
International House Hotel is a newly renovated luxury boutique hotel in New Orleans. International House Hotel is located two blocks from the French Quarter in the historic Central Business District of New Orleans. It's recently opened restaurant Rambla from acclaimed restaurateur Kenneth LaCour, features French-Spanish Basque inspired food.

Tablet Hotels review:
It is time to go back to New Orleans: if not for the Mardi Gras shops selling Comme des Garcons, and fusion cuisine replacing the beignet. International House hotel still manages to fuse old and new successfully — it is modern without being obnoxious, stylish without being frigid. It is, in fact, one of those most rare things in life, a boutique hotel with soul.

Yes, svelte doormen dressed in monochromatic Banana Republic suits guard the entrance. The inside is done in the neutral palette and style made so popular by Christian Liaigre—textured cream fabrics, pale wood floors, gauzy white drapes and rattan rugs. The new restaurant, Rambla, is Basque-influenced and headed up by acclaimed New Orleans restaurateur Kenneth LaCour of Restaurants Cuvée and Dakota, The gift shop, Ren, is named for the Chinese character for humankind. But there is more to this modishness than meets the eye. International House has not relinquished its past, or its rich New Orleans heritage.

In the lobby, ornate pillars and decorative moldings are copied from the original 1906 blueprints, when this building was a bank. Chandeliers are based on 19th-century models, and the softly glowing gaslights outside the entrance are copied from 1918 drawings. The lobby is a gallery of old black-and-white photos and the front desk carries a library of classic jazz CD’s. Some rooms (the best) have an old-fashioned cast iron balcony, from which you can watch the French Quarter traffic, dangling wisteria from your fingers. And on the penthouse rooftop terraces the air is redolent with the Louisiana scent of bougainvillea, magnolia, and vetiver.

Then, of course, there’s the voodoo. Every night, the bar holds a welcome ceremony for the spirits with candles, thrift shop seats, and mirrors made of old church windows serving as an altar. And the usual romantic weekend package is given a, ahem, magic spin. A real live voodoo priestess can be hired for you very own love ceremony. Just give International House 30 days notice, a few fingernail clippings and locks of hair and she’ll ensure that your spirits are eternally joined. Now if that isn’t a taste of old New Orleans, we don’t know what is.