According to local hoteliers, restaurant owners and hospitality leaders, Mardi Gras 2025 was a few hours shorter due to the threat of bad weather, but Mardi Gras 2025 was significantly larger than last year’s Carnival celebration.
Occupancy in 26,000 hotel rooms in downtown and the French quarter averaged 87% from Tuesday’s fat from February 28th.
St. Charles Avenue in the warehouse district of New Orleans will be cleaned on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 after the Zulu Parade.
And that doesn’t include data from around 6,000 short-term rental units in the city. This will probably increase the average occupancy even further.
By comparison, at the 2024 5-night celebration, the hotel occupancy averaged 81%, reaching 90%.
“The numbers are pretty high, especially when considering a short-term rental explosion over the past few years,” says New Orleans & Co. said Walt Leger III, president and CEO of the company. “All accounts, it was a great Mardi Gras.”
It’s a positive sign for the city’s hospitality industry, but not as strong as the years just before the Covid-19 pandemic, when Mardi Gras revelations regularly grabbed city hotel rooms over five days weekends, the occupancy of non-working is still not that strong.
Since then, the city has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic visitor level, but hotels and restaurants report that business is steadily improving.
Still, given the public safety challenges and potential image issues faced by cities after the Bourbon Street attack on January 1, it was particularly important to have a successful carnival season this year.
A few weeks after the attack, until the Super Bowl on February 8th, city, state and federal leaders revamped the security plans for the French quarter and the Mardi Gras Parade route. They deployed many new crime combat techniques to protect streets and sidewalks with bollards and barricades, strengthen the presence of law enforcement, and make people feel safer, as well as safer.
A streetcar headed for Uptown on Sunday, February 23rd, 2025 in a maze of security barriers lined up on the Uptown side of St. Charles Avenue. The rainy weather was quiet after forced rainy weather after forced Mardi Gras parade, including Famtal, Carrollton and King Arthur. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune | nola.com)
Experts said it paid off.
“There was concern about that,” Legger said. “So, while security is effective, it was really positive that it didn’t get in the way of people living in the Mardi Gras tradition and having a good time.”
Suitable for hotels, bars and restaurants
Hotel occupancy was strong overall, but French quarter and boutique hotels surpassed the market average. One-sixth hotel in France owned by the Valentino family, occupancy averaged 95%, up a few points since 2024, according to the company’s chief operating officer Chris Valentino.
Crowds gather on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 (Photo: Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Owner Zack Kupperman said that, like in 2024, Hotel St. Vincent in the Lower Garden area was 100% occupied. And the hotel performed financially, offering room rates 14% higher than last year.
Most of the hotel guests were not drive-in visitors rather than local areas, but tourists who flew to town for Mardi Gras.
Jason Sideman, who owns the Column and Henrietta Hotel on St. Charles Avenue, the Five Bar at Jackson Square, has earned 20% of the Mardi Gras in all business.
“If only we as a city could understand how to program the first and second weekends of Mardi Gras, that would be a big victory for the city,” he said.
“The robust Mardi Gras”
This year, tourists weren’t the only ones driving the Mardi Gras business. According to some indicators, locals also contributed to the financial resources.
The crowd will gather near Rex float as they pass Mardi Gras in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 (Photo: Chris Picaune | nola.com)
Ticket sales for viewing stands along the parade route on St. Charles Avenue rose 12% this year, according to Michael Valentino, whose hotel company manages four sets of stands on the downtown parade route.
The sales of about 2,800 spots on the stand were evenly divided between tourists and locals, Valentino said.
“People are increasingly looking for a comfortable, controlled environment to watch the parade, while they are on the streets,” he said. “So the stands really worked out this year. It was a robust Mardi Gras.”
The restaurant also benefited in part from a robust carnival season by enthusiastic local diners at “Friday Glass,” a celebratory brunch and lunch day that starts Mardi Gras weekend.
Carnival will be taking part in a Friday glass lunch at Justin in 2024, and will be leaking to Chartol Street to celebrate its growing tradition. (Photo by Mia Freiberger-Deviller)
“The Friday before Mardi Gras represents the busiest lunch of the year at French Quarter Properties,” said Dick Brennan, who also rose in 2024.
