The lobby was nice enough with marble floors and countertops, a ticket/tour desk (for JazzFest, tours, etc.), and plenty of sitting areas. However, I was overcome with the feeling that I was in a youth hostel. There were young people camped out with backpacks and sleeping bags, lounging on the couches, sitting on the floor, and standing in line. It was a madhouse. I waited in a long line to get the key to our room. My friend and I were sharing a room with 4 other people who had all gotten there the day before and left a key for us.

We valeted the car at $15(+tax) a night, and lugged all of our stuff through the lobby (one of the main doors was broken, leaving everyone to go through one door) and to the elevators (one of the three were broken). We got up to our room, and the key card didn''t work. Well, in talking to my friend the day before, I thought that she said room "473", but when we had arrived at the hotel, the front desk told us room "453." Since the card did not work on "453," I thought it may have been a mistake, and tried the key on "473."

The key worked! We walked in and noticed was there was only 1 bed. We were sure there were supposed to be 2 and we didn''t recognize any of the luggage. I called my friend and asked "How many beds are in the room?" "Two," she replied. We were in the wrong room! I went to the lobby, had the key card re-programmed, which we later discovered re-programmed the other two keys to our room as well!

The room was rather large, with dark maroon carpet, coordinating beds, cable TV, particleboard furniture, a "welcome package" with some food and beads, a small bathroom. According to their website, the hotel (built in 1955) had been re-done in 1995. I think they forgot the bathrooms.

At night, we were disturbed by the loud noise from I-10 (the freeway was directly outside our window), the sirens and other city noise, and we could hear people in other rooms and in the hall.

Other things: The "24-hour" front desk NEVER answered the phone, my friend''s pillowcase got stolen, the "free breakfast" from 7-10 was donuts and coffee, the maid service would take all our towels and not leave us any (and we had to call FOUR times to get more towels, or corner a maid in the hall), and it took 30 minutes (and some arguing) to get our car from Valet parking the morning we left.

It was a room, it was clean, they didn’t seem to care that we had 6 people in a 4-person room, and it was about 10 blocks (we walked a few times) to Bourbon Street, but there are MUCH better hotels for the same price. I don''t think I''ll be staying there again.