After finding reasonable airfare, it is necessary to find accommodations when staying in a city where I do not have any family or friends. I believe I spend an unbelievable amount of time researching when it is time to book a hotel room. The number one factor for me is location followed up by value. I spend an embarrassing amount of time reading reviews on Yelp. Then I have to follow up to see if the reviews corroborate with TripAdvisor.
Regarding that value component, I hit the interwebs and Reddit to find the lowest rates. Through all that work I realize that my best option is to go to the hotel’s corporate website and join their rewards program.
Through that I found my latest hotel find, Courtyard by Marriott New Orleans French Quarter/Iberville in New Orleans, LA. This Marriott branch was conveniently located about two blocks away from Bourbon Street. The staff was very friendly and allowed us to check-in early! I was struck with how large the rooms were and very clean. The beds felt cozy and I liked how the room had a living area and sleeping quarter.
The bathroom was clean and the cleaning staff did a stellar job of cleaning the room daily. I appreciated that the staff was on point. Being that we were in New Orleans, we had several late nights and even later mornings (really afternoons). I was impressed that no matter what time we left, we always came back to a clean room.
The bathroom was stacked with plenty of white towels and standard shampoo/conditioner/soap if needed. Since I bring my own products, these were not sampled. The shower was hot and could get even hotter (which is always a plus to me).
The only surprise (I will not call it a disappointment) was the view. We had the perfect view of a pretty sterile looking courtyard. Another surprise was the entry to the hotel. You must come up from the street level on the elevator. Then you need to find the registration desk. Again, not a big deal but it did take some getting used to.
The television was equipped with Wifi and they even had Netflix. Full disclosure, I do not travel often so finding out that Netflix is now a “thing” to have on the hotel room television is a score. I was glad the location was away from the “activity” (read noise) of Bourbon Street.
I look forward to going back to New Orleans. I would stay at the Courtyard again but I usually try to stay in a new hotel everytime I go out of town.
Living up to some of the words in its title, 
I think it is safe to assume that most older buildings on South Beach have elevators that might be on the smaller end. The hallways were a cross between dark like the club or dark like those cheesy haunted houses that pop up every October. Not feeling the dark hallway at all, put in some light. The hallway also had a very pungent marijuana odor that was on and off throughout the stay at SLS (not judging but you should know this). 
The Real Teacher Ces 