I’m planning to go to New Orleans April 18th to the 29th to work on a no-budget film. I won’t be paid. So I’m looking for someplace cheap to stay. Basically I need a bed, a toilet and a shower. The action will be in or near the French Quarter.
Unfortunately my travel agent could only find rooms for $1,100 and up. Any Big Easy Dopers know of any cheap hotels?
Correction: May 18th - 29th.
A friend of mine is going to NOLA to visit her husband before he ships out for a year in Iraq and she’s looking for the same thing. They don’t have a lot of cash on an E-6’s income plus they have 3 kids so they’re looking for a suite-type hotel.
I highly recommend the India House hostel - I’ve stayed there for two Alternative Winter Breaks in New Orleans, about two weeks each time, and I really like the place. A bed in a group room is $17/day, with private rooms at $45/day. You get what you pay for - the place is a bit beat-up, but it has a fun bit of character to it. The random seventies-style Buddhas painted on the wall everywhere give it a cheery, hippie feel. Also, breakfast is just three bucks - a big plate of sausage, eggs and toast.
The hostel is right off Canal Street, about a mile from Bourbon Street - you can walk it, or catch the streetcar a block away. Here’s the URL: http://www.indiahousehostel.com/
Edit: Johny LA, this place would probably work for you, but Ruby, there’s no way I’d recommend India House for kids.
Mr. Excellent: Unfortunately I’m neither a student nor a foreign traveller, and thus not qualified to stay there. 
Darn - Sorry, I didn’t know that was a requirement.
Last time I stayed in the French Quarter, I stayed at St Peter House. Rooms there are $90 a night for your dates. I can’t imagine you’d find anywhere that’s central and not a complete shithole. There’s plenty of cheaper, crappier places out near the airport, if you can do the commute.
Call Brownie…I hear he is doing one hellofajob for Bush down there.
Seriously though, a friend of mine was just there last year working on a film and (although they had a huge budget) he found the best way to go was to find a sublet.
He went on-line (I think through the local newspaper down there) and found quite a few places. He said it was cheaper to sublet for a month than rent for a week! Just my 2 cents.
I’d check neworleans.craigslist.org and see what’s available. As you have a pretty good lead time, you could also post an ad asking for room.
If you’ll have a car, check out places by the airport and on the West Bank of the river. IIRC, things by the airport can be as cheap as $49.00 a night and things on the West Bank - - not too long a drive from the FQ - - are only a little more.
Stuff in the FQ itself will be pricey, but I’m astounded that your agent is quoting a price north of $1,000.
My wife, our two daughters, and I stayed at the Iberville Suites in November for $90 and it is a very nice hotel that shares its building and services with the Four Seasons and is only a couple of blocks from Bourbon Street. Anyone that is willing to push $100 a night can have cushy accommodations there and I would bet there are pretty nice rooms within walking distance of the French Quarter for $75 a night or less.
Looks like I’ve found a place in the Quarter for $350/week (B&B type of thing). And my friend can put me up for a couple of nights, and he has a friend who might be able to put me up for a couple of nights.
I totally missed your post recommending stuff out by MSY. Normally I’m pretty good at reading for comprehension, but not this time.
Glad you found a place, Johnny. Enjoy your visit.
Agreed. My wife and I went there back in 1996 for a convention. All the hotels were booked, as were all the bed’n’breakfasts. But one woman at a B&B referred me to a woman who was renting out an apartment. We got a place one block off Tchoupitoulas for a week for $300. But that was two moves ago and I lost the info (and the place was probably destroyed in the flood).
Tchoupitoulas is the street that runs closest to the Mississippi River levee from the upstream end of the French Quarter upriver to Audubon Park. As the river levee itself is the highest ground in town, and as the toe of the levee is the next highest, anything 1 block off Tchoupitoulas would have been dry during and after Katrina. I hate to imagine the catastrophe that would have to happen for that part of town to flood… just about everything in New Orleans would be underwater.