The Omni Royal Orleans has been quietly undergoing one of the most comprehensive renovations in the French Quarter’s recent hospitality history, and with the public-space phases now complete, the hotel’s 345 guest rooms and suites are slated to begin their own transformation this summer. The property at 621 St. Louis Street — a AAA Four Diamond hotel anchoring the corner of St. Louis and Royal streets near Jackson Square — launched the two-year overhaul in mid-2025, working through the renovation in stages while keeping the hotel fully operational throughout.
The first visible change came in October 2025 with the opening of Fifi Parée, a coffee shop in the hotel’s main lobby styled as a Parisian flower shop, complete with hand-painted floral murals, black-and-white marble flooring, and deep green accents. The café serves locally roasted Congregation Coffee alongside a menu of specialty beverages and grab-and-go food, and is open daily from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Its name pays tribute to a cat named Mademoiselle Fifi who in 1910 became the first feline to cross the English Channel by airplane, accompanying American aviator John B. Moisant on a flight from France to England. Moisant himself has a deep connection to New Orleans: he died later that year while preparing for a flying competition near Harahan, and the crash site eventually became Moisant Field — now Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, whose MSY code is derived from the former Moisant Stock Yards.
Following the café opening, the hotel proceeded with a renovation of the Royal Bar into a music lounge, a reimagining of La Riviera — the property’s rooftop restaurant and pool deck — drawing on French Riviera aesthetics, and a refresh of the Rib Room, the historic ground-floor restaurant that has operated at the address for decades. General Manager Travis Tague said the renovation was designed to reimagine the hotel’s key gathering spaces while preserving the historic character the property has maintained since it was built on the site of the old St. Louis Hotel, which was destroyed in the 1915 hurricane. The work adds a new dimension to the property’s social presence, positioning it to draw more local visitors alongside its traditional base of leisure and group travelers.
With the public spaces now reopened and drawing guests, the renovation turns to the guest rooms. The 345-room renovation is the most capital-intensive and logistically complex phase of the project, involving new finishes, bespoke furnishings, and design details that draw on the French Quarter’s architectural heritage and the hotel’s own Creole-French lineage. All work is being phased to keep the hotel operational while individual room blocks cycle through construction. The full renovation, including the guest rooms, is expected to be completed by Spring 2027.
The Omni Royal Orleans is owned by TRT Holdings, the Dallas-based private company that also owns Omni Hotels and Resorts. The project adds to an active season of private hotel reinvestment across the New Orleans market, which has also seen major work at the Maison Dupuy, the Doubletree by Hilton on Canal Street, and the ongoing construction of the 345-room Warbler Hotel on St. Charles Avenue. The Omni Royal Orleans renovation represents one of the largest single-property hotel capital investments underway in the French Quarter, and one of the few in New Orleans currently touching both the public amenity program and all guest accommodations in a single phased campaign.
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