This is a solid 2 1/2-3 star hotel. Great staff and friendly. I was in Nola during hurricane Isaac and was accommodated by the staff even though the hotel was closed. Location is excellent. If you expect mints on your pillow pay more and stay at the monteleone hotel. If you want an affordable rate in Nola in a centrally located hotel then I recommend the cotton exchange.

I was traveling for a conference, so I arrived before checkin. They graciously accepted my bags to check for free... After paging the bellman for 20 minutes. When I got to my room, all of the linen still said holiday inn, the carpet was badly stained, as was the shower and sink, and the chair was covered in crumbs and hair. It's only about a 3 minute walk to the bars and tourist areas, but that also means the hotel is full of drunks yelling in the hallways at night. Also, at the time I booked, free breakfast was listed as a service. It isn't.

Im comfortable with any hotel-hostel under any circumstance, but I was staying with my girlfriend who has certain standards regarding hotels. I'll try to go through most of the "bad" things people keep mentioning:

- Check in: I arrived early (9:00 am) and even though check in is not until 4pm, my room was ready. There was only one person before me, then Tyra found my reservation through Priceline in 5 seconds and handed me my keys, tours brochures and a map of the city. I guess I was lucky and didn't have a problem with the reservation through a third party like others pointed.

-Room: My room was 534, all the way at the end. Big enough for two, definitely dated but at least clean. Bed was really old, you can tell the mattress hasn't being changed in forever as it was completely uneven. We had warm water in the mornings, hot water at night, so by the second day, I opted to take my showers at night and didn't have an issue with it. A/C was working fine, also the wi-fi.

-Cleaning crew: We put our Do not Disturb sign throughout the weekend, but every morning when I would leave for breakfast there was a nice lady cleaning the other rooms, I asked her for towels twice, and she handed them me to me right away. I can't say more about it.

-Elevators: There's only one, we stayed the weekend of Voodoo Fest, and it was booked to the max, but we never had to wait for the elevator for over 3-5 min. It's really not a big deal, unless you need your personal elevator.

Didn't use valet or the pool, but I went upstairs, and it looked tiny but clean.

The only complain I have and it could actually define if we stay there again is the fact that on the 3rd day as I was getting out of the shower my girlfriend started freaking out cause there was a roach in the room. Needless to say, I killed it, but I knew that was it for her. As others noticed, there was a lot of ants in my room too. I went downstairs and supposedly someone went upstairs and "sprayed" the room but I was leaving for the festival so I don't know if they did. luckily we didn't find another roach, but the ants remained, not being an issue though.

Overall, I personally would stay there again but only if I'm bringing the guys for a weekend in New Orleans, as we are guys and I guess we can deal with a bug or a dated room. for the price you are getting an excellent location right in the middle of everywhere. Get out and to the left the french quarter, to the right the garden district, right across from a 24 hours convenience store, a block away from Bourbon St.

I felt like this hotel really tries to at least satisfy the minimum requirements to make you have a pleasant stay, but come on...pest control could be a lot of help to avoid having a girlfriend like mine that hates roaches probably not wanting to stay there again. Eventually if they invest a little in better beds, and a lil bit of updating...they will be awesome and better than a chain.

The room was just big enough not to feel cramped, the bed was comfortable, the place was clean. We got a great price, too.

The location is perfect: it's only a block and a half off Canal--cross Canal and you're on Bourbon St. That gives you the advantage of being able to use the airport shuttle that serves only downtown hotels, not French Quarter ones, while also providing you with peace and quiet when you're done partying. The location appeared to be totally safe, with cops everywhere at night, and a drugstore on the corner at Canal St. sells everything you forgot to pack.

If you book online, be sure to print out and bring the confirmation number--I only wrote it down, and they couldn't find it.

Picky people will find fault with the lack of a TV remote (although I am sure the front desk could have supplied one if I had been too lazy to walk five feet to the tube) and the not-quite-hot-enough water. In our standard king room, the enormous bathroom door opened INward, making it awkward to close without practically putting a foot in the toilet. Some fool probably did this to comply with fire code, so the bathroom door can't block the exit. But if you were in a wheelchair, there would be no way to close the door, and thus no way to access the bathtub.