Since it opened in 1886, the French Quarter landmark Hotel Monteleone has hosted William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and Eudora Welty. (Hotel Monteleone)

Two of five of New Orleans' Historic Hotels of America have reopened for business last month after Hurricane Katrina, and a third is scheduled to reopen next week.

"There was very minimal damage," says Erin Boreros, director of sales at the Bienville House Hotel, which plans to open its doors on Nov. 15. "We still have 20 rooms still out of order," she says, noting that water damaged the wallpaper in most of those units in the 83-room French Quarter boutique hotel, built in 1856.

About one-third of the city's hotels have reopened, according to the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation. There are 12,000 hotel rooms available today, as opposed to 32,000 before Katrina.

Most of the city's 266 hotels remain closed, however, including the Maison de Ville and the 1893 Fairmont Hotel, which is shuttered for hurricane-related renovations and will reopen next year. (Both hotels are among the 218 hotel members of Historic Hotels of America, a National Trust program.)

After most of the city evacuated on Aug. 29, the 98-year-old Le Pavillon, located near the relatively unscathed French Quarter, reopened on Sept. 18—one of three of the city's hotels to first to open its doors. Although floodwaters approached the front steps of Le Pavillon, the only damage the hotel withstood was four broken windows and two torn canopies. The French Quarter's Hotel Monteleone, built in 1886 and host to literary greats William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and Eudora Welty, welcomed guests on Oct. 17.

The Bienville House Hotel, which is still waiting for its gas line to be repaired, lost 75 percent of its employees to relocation, Boreros says. "Some have relocated to Baton Rouge, some to Houston," she says. Other than that, "everything is back to normal. We have quite a few [reservations] coming in during the latter half of November."

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