I would like to share my experience staying at this property in the past week. My husband and I had our reservations for 7 months prior to arriving here and we booked a deluxe room and payed a "deluxe" rate. Upon arrival I asked where our room was located and they said in the back of the building, which I learned from various web-sites is the dingier part of the hotel. The bottom line is that I knew they weren't fully booked, as I kept checking turbotrip and there was plenty of availability for the first 4 days of our 5 day trip. The "deluxe"
room was actually a standard room (which was $99 and we were paying around $160 a night. When I called and made my reservation I requested a courtyard view, and the person on the phone said, oh, yes, that's a deluxe room, so I said give me a deluxe room then.
On check-in I was told that they did not guarantee courtyard views. I put up a fuss, and the manager said that he could give us a suite for the first 3 nights, but then would have to move us back to a standard room for the last 2 nights. I felt that I'd paid for a deluxe room, as my confirmation said deluxe room, and so the bottom line is you never know what your getting these days, even with a confirmation. If I'd known that I'd end up in a standard room, then I would have only paid the standard rate of $99 a night instead of the "deal" through AAA of a 10 per cent discount. There was no misunderstanding on my part. It was obvious that the hotel had other plans for our deluxe room and decided to move us into this really cramped horrible building in the back of the hotel, of which we looked at, promptly walked out of, back to the front desk. I told the manager that there was no way I was staying in that smokey room, and then he put us in the courtyard ANYWAY, but for only 2 nights. Then on the third day, the front desk people called us and said, "Your new room is ready." So I repeated my story to them that I did pay for a courtyard view (which was a much nicer room by the way) and they gave me the same story again about how I'd only paid for a standard room (even though my confirmation said "deluxe" room - or "premium" room) and then we moved to yet our third room, which ended up being the best one of the three.
I just thought the whole experience was very odd. But I just wanted to let those of you who are planning to stay there know what you might be up against. Beware of the 500 building facing Decatur street. Tiny, tiny
rooms!!!!

Odd experience, indeed. Will definitely cross that off my list for our next trip to New Orleans. Reminds me of a place we stayed once, where ALL rooms were called Deluxe, even though they were just Standard.

If the hotel is AAA approved, you have some recourse. The AAA TourBook says, "When you find your room is not as specified, and you have written confirmation of reservations for a certain type of accommodation, you should be given the option of choosing a different room or finding one elsewhere. Should you choose to go elsewhere and a refund is refused or resisted, submit the matter to AAA within 30 days along with complete documentation, including your reasons for refusing the room and copies of your written confirmation and any receipts or canceled checks associated with this problem." Although that's not exactly the same as your situation, you should complain to AAA anyway -- you might be able to get some satisfaction from them.

Thank you both, for your replies.
That's very interesting about the AAA
recourse. I just finally accepted one of their rooms (the supposed standard room which ended up being better than a "deluxe" room. I'm starting to think that this is what a lot of those French Quarter hotels pull (with the exception of Le Richelieu) after speaking with my good friend who also had a very similar experience at Maison Dupuy last year -- almost identical to my story! Hmm.
Makes you think, doesn't it?
I will call AAA and report this.

Sorry to hear of your travail, dana, but my immediate response was...yeah, so what else is new?
This kind of malarkey seems to happen every 5th or 6th trip for us (we travel maybe 20 times a year). No real rhyme or reason except that the better the hotel, the harder they seem to try to 'make things right' in the end. Mid range hotels can be pot luck much of the time. Sometimes a computer booking problem, sometimes it's an overbooked hotel issue, sometimes the length of stay overlaps into a full capacity period, sometimes it's just simply bad front desk management. I've learned much about these issues from a friend who books clients into one of the US's premiere hotels. It's a strange business at times.

Thanks, Jerry, for the reply. That's very interesting, especially hearing somebody's viewpoint who does travel a lot. I travel about 3 or 4 times a year max and I've just never run into the old "I have a confirmation for better category and they wouldn't oblige me syndrome"! I have heard of that happening to a lot of people, and now I am among the masses. I think the word "overbook" sums it up, and yes, our reservation did run into a peak period, i.e., the first 4 nights were no peak, but the 5th, no availability all over town. (I checked the travel sites before I left home) What ever happened to first come, first serve?
Maybe these hotels will knock this stuff off if word gets out, or if there was a "Hotel Board" or something that would sanction places to messing with people.