It could be an unintended consequence of Mayor LaToya Cantrell pulling the plug on Carnival activities in the French Quarter, but hotels all over town are reporting occupancy levels have bottomed out.
According to the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, hotels were looking to reach 60% occupancy in the weeks ahead of Mardi Gras.
But once the crackdown was announced by the Mayor, cancelations started to roll in.
The New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association’s Mavis Early told the paper Hotel occupancy over the weekend ahead of Mardi Gras had dropped to just 20%-25%.
The drop in reservations and occupancy caused Steve Caputo, General Manager of the storied Hotel Monteleone, to opine "Mardi Gras 2021 is a sad tale indeed."
And the hard news just keeps on coming. According to the paper, OpenTable, a restaurant booking application, reports reservations are 70% below a year ago.
The empty seats and low number of patrons were observed by one of the city’s leading restauranteurs, Ralph Brennan, who said: "But we really didn't see any traffic, it was very tame, very calm. Normally, on a day like today, we'd have the jazz band playing, there would be satellite bars and people would be swinging from the rafters. It's very weird."
Mardi Gras 2021, very weird, very sad.