The first AC Hotel in the United States, the AC Hotel New Orleans Bourbon/French Quarter Area, is set for it’s soft opening on October 7, 2014 with the grand opening on November 15, 2014. The hotel is being retrofitted into the Cotton Exchange Building in Downtown New Orleans with 220 rooms over 8 floors.

The New Orleans newspaper The Times-Picayune also published a small photo gallery including room pictures last month here.

AC Hotels are targeted to the next generation of business travelers – generally younger, more tech savvy travelers who put more emphasis on design.  Although the brand is new to the United States hotel market, there are 79 AC Hotels by Marriott in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. These properties also have minimalist designs, with an urban feel to them.

Two other AC Hotels are opening in early 2015 – one in Kansas City and one in Miami. Marriott plans more than 30 more AC Hotels within the next three years throughout the U.S. and Latin America.

Bottom Line:

While I’m excited about  a new Marriott brand of hotels opening in the USA, the name AC Hotel sound pretty awful and evokes images of … nothing. I’m thinking the hotels are going to be a slightly more upscale version of Starwood’s Aloft hotels.  It sounds like a cool concept that just needs a new name to help it establish more of an identity. What do you think?