The Inn on Bourbon:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Beth Ables
General Manager
Inn on Bourbon Hotel
504.524.7611

                                                           The Inn on Bourbon:
                                                New Orleans, Up Close & Personal

(New Orleans, LA – May 28, 2009) -- - The owners and management of The Inn on Bourbon are proud to announce several exciting new developments. First, the hotel is celebrating the Grand Opening of the Salon de Gallier, a newly-renovated room that adds more than 2,300 square feet of space for wedding, parties, meetings and other special events at the French Quarter hotel. The new space actually doubles the size of The Inn on Bourbon’s event accommodations, and is being unveiled at a Grand Opening Party on Thursday, June 11th. The hotel is also launching a multi-faceted promotional campaign called “New Orleans: Up Close and Personal”, which promotes The Inn on Bourbon’s unbeatable value and key location in one of America’s most exciting cities. Highlights include special one-of-a kind promotional packages with some of the city’s top restaurants, including Arnaud’s, Bacco and Galatoire’s. Later in the year, The Inn on Bourbon will channel its ties to the French Opera House-- which stood on the site of the hotel 150 years ago -- for the “Opera on Tap” performance series. A series of live operatic and other musical performances, “Opera on Tap” is set to kick off in the fall.

“This is a very big year for us. For being known as such a small, intimate hotel, we have an incredible amount of perks and packages for the guests who stay here and the clients who book their events here,” explains the hotel’s general manager, Beth Ables. “With our new space, revamped guest rooms and new promotions, we want everyone out there to stay with us and experience one of the best values and most exciting array of offerings of any hotel in New Orleans.”

The Inn on Bourbon is located on the site of the French Opera House, which opened in 1859 and was epicenter of New Orleans culture. In addition to hosting hundreds of operas, the Opera House was the setting for balls and social events for New Orleans’ Creole society. After the building was destroyed by a fire in 1919, the location took on various incarnations, including a parking garage and gift shop. Eventually, Mr. and Mrs. Robert T. Tonti bought the property. Over the years and through the city’s economic ups and downs, the Tontis have continued to invest in the property and enhance it through various renovations and upgrades.

The decision to increase the hotel’s meeting and event space was made after Hurricane Katrina. The number of business meetings and events were on the rise, and the Tontis decided that a sizeable portion of the building, housing a jewelry shop, would make a perfect addition to the hotel’s existing meeting space.

The project took about a year to complete. The end result is a sumptuous new space that can hold up to 300 people, and accommodate a variety of events, including business breakfasts, seminars with classroom set-ups; organizational luncheons, featuring speakers or presentations; wedding receptions; cocktail parties and more.

The Salon is not the only new component at The Inn on Bourbon: The hotel has been involved in an extensive room refurbishment project, valued at approximately $4 million and involving all 186 rooms. To promote the new meeting space, refurbished rooms, and a host of other amenities, The Inn on Bourbon has launched an aggressive marketing, public relations and advertising campaign, targeting business and leisure travels from across the city and throughout the world.

The campaign promotes The Inn on Bourbon’s easily accessible location in the heart of the French Quarter, as well as what the hotel considers “one of the most convenient parking garages in the French Quarter.” The campaign is also promoting Cafe’ l’Opera, the hotel’s restaurant. Supervised by long-time employee and chef, Miss Minnie Joseph, the Café offers guests an array of mouthwatering New Orleans delicacies, including Miss Minnie’s Crawfish Burgers, Gumbo and Crawfish Etouffee.

Miss Minnie’s home-style cooking is being marketed as “real New Orleans home style cooking” not found in any other hotels in the city. “Miss Minnie is a true New Orleans original. She’s very humble about her work, but our guests appreciate the time and energy she puts into her cooking,” Ables says.

The Inn on Bourbon is also forging cross-promotional opportunities with other restaurants in the city, including Bayona, Arnaud’s, Remoulade, Bacco, Red Fish Grill, and Galatoire’s. For example, Inn on Bourbon guests who make reservations at any of these restaurants through the hotel concierge can pay their meal tabs upon check-out, when they pay their room bill.

Another key component of The Inn on Bourbon’s festivities for the year is its connection with the French Opera House. The hotel is celebrating what would have been the 150th anniversary of this once-famous New Orleans building. The highlight of the celebration will be special musical performances called “Opera on Tap,” the result of a collaboration between the hotel and the New Orleans Opera Association. “Opera on Tap” is a four-part performance series that kicks off this fall. Each ‘Opera on Tap’ event will feature evening performances by local, national and international operatic talent at The Inn on Bourbon’s Puccini Bar.

Even the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) is playing a vital role in The Inn on Bourbon’s marketing efforts. The museum and research center is helping the hotel research the history of the Opera House, and obtain copies of historical photos, playbills, programs and invitations associated with 19th century carnival balls and performances. Some of these items, including a Persac watercolor of the Opera House, will be on display for guests and the public to view.

“We want local and out-of-town visitors to realize that The Inn on Bourbon is a wonderful place that offers them the best of all worlds,” Ables says. “If it’s the excitement of Bourbon Street and the French Quarter that they want, they can stay in one of our rooms facing Bourbon Street. If they’re looking for a more tranquil setting, we can put them in one of our beautiful balcony rooms or suites facing our gorgeous courtyard. For parties, weddings and other events, they can take their pick of over 4,000 square feet of space, including our beautiful new Salon de Gallier. Whatever the preference, our guests and visitors are going to find it at The Inn on Bourbon.”

The Inn on Bourbon is located at 541 Bourbon Street. For more information, contact Beth Ables at 504.524.7611 or Nicole Dufour at 504.220.6945. Visit The Inn on Bourbon website at www.innonbourbon.com

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