I stayed at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans from November 5th through November 7th for a business conference. The room was large, clean, comfortable and quiet. The hotel itself is about 4 blocks from Bourbon Street and a 15-20 minute walk to the French Quarter, a bit out of the way as compared to some other hotels in the City. The conference room facilities were located on the 2nd floor without windows, but the rooms were fine and the food very good for a conference. The biggest downside of my stay was the wireless internet connection in the room. It was unreliable in staying connected, dropping my connection many different times. The signal was also very weak in the room. This is very disappointing for a business traveler who needs access to work networks and email. For 2012, wireless internet should not be an issue.

We celebrated our 14th anniversary at The Ritz Carlton in New Orleans. The hotels location is fantastic. We took advantage of the Club Level which is actually a remodel attached hotel to the Ritz. It is very exclusive and the hospitality goes beyond belief. They serve a great breakfast, lunch snacks, dinner Hors D'Oeuvres, and liqueur. 2 blocks from Bourbon gives you the right distance not to be disturbed and sits on Canal street in the heart of the city.

I traveled with several other couples during the weekend of Nov 9 -12. I think my review will be on par with most travelers to this hotel. The customer service is excellent. They were constantly checking to see if there was anything they could do to make your stay better. We stayed on club level we had a wonderful hot breakfast every morning that we had until 11 to enjoy. I've stayed at other hotels with club level service and they required that you keep all food & drinks in the club room area but not here - so if you wanted to grab some breakfast or light lunch and take it back to your room it was no problem. This hotel is located 1 1/2 blocks from Bourbon Street - so you have access to the party area without having to be exposed at all times. I will have to agree with others that the elevator situations can be very confusing- it took 3 sets of elevators to get to our room - but after a while you just get use to it. The final issue that I had with the room is the walls are paper thin. One couple traveling with us could hear the entire conversation of their neighbors on one side and a baby crying on the other. We even had security come to our room one night when all of our traveling crew met in our room.

The dirty little secret about expensive hotels: they nickle and dime you. If you want to stay in an expensive hotel room because you think you'll get pampered, this isn't the place. Yes, the room is nice, the bed is comfortable, customer service while you're there is good, but don't think you'll receive some of the basic amenities you take for granted at your average hotel such as having breakfast included, free wifi or a coffee maker in the room. Do yourself a favor stay at the Hampton Inn two blocks away for a hundred bucks. You'll receive the same customer service and quality hotel for a fraction of the price.

Good luck to you if you stay and leave something in the room. They won't even call me back after two attempts.