Having spent a long time looking through various reviews of various hotels in New Orleans, I decided on the Grand Boutique as it seemed to have a good specificataion and was not as expensive as many other hotels that were nearer the French Quarter.
What a mistake choosing the CGB was!
It is about 2 miles from the centre of NO, it is easily walkable if you have the energy and the cheap streetcar does stop immediately in front of the hotel, but there is not a lot in the immediate area except Burger Kind and Wendys and some small pubs. If I were to return to NO, I would certainly stay much nearer Canal Street where everyone else did! It appeared to be a clean and safe area despite some runours to the contrary. The convention center is a 15min very easy walk once you know the way.
First impressions of the hotel were dismal! The reception area is very small, and mostly used as a holding area for customers awaiting tables in the Cheesecake Bistro which forms most of the ground floor of the hotel building (under different management to the hotel though). The Bistro was actually very popular and well worth a visit. Reception staff appeared courteous at first, although this did not last when the problems began.
We were only one floor up from reception and had to use the lift/elevator as the stairs are a fire escape only - how lazy is this!!
The corridors were very large and clean, but that is when the musty air hits you first - which gets stronger as you enter your room!
The rooms are very large and spacious. At night or when the curtains are closed they are very dark, despite having all five table lamps turned on.
The bed was clean and comfortable. The bath looked in need of a good scrub, the shower was fine. The lock did not work on the bathroom door and the loose toilet seat and broken hairdryer had to be replaced withing our first 24h. A small coffee maker is supplied which is useless if you are a tea drinker. The fridge is a nice size and does its best to keep you awake at night.
The television has plenty of free cable channels, although movies were pay per view only, as was the Nintendo 64 unit (quite coslty per hour charge!).
The rooms windows do not open. The air-con unit appears very old and is not climate control as stated on some sites and is extremely noisy - you can not sleep and have it on at the same time!
My two biggest complaints about this hotel was the breakfast and the wireless internet access.
The breakfast, which is meant to last until 10am, often runs out after 9 and simply comprised of distgusting coffee, cheap fake orange juice, a plain bagel, a muffin and a very small cake. Then there was barely no room available in the small reception area to eat it - by the end of our week we were unable to bring ourselves to go near it and bought breakfast elsewhere.
The complimentary wireless internet access did not work. On our first day I went to talk to reception about it who stated that I was not the first and it would be fixed the next day. It never was! Most of the staff would have the same line of telling you that it is going to be fixed tomorrow. One more honest worker told us that it had never worked properly since it was installed! The manager was most unhelpfull, and refused a discount as we had pre-payed through Expedia (who I have taken this up with). You could connect to their network - but then it seemed as if they were not connected to the internet!!
I fail to see how the Clarion Grand Boutique is three star - it is no better than two star properties I have stayed in - and miles away from being four star!!
I probably will return to NO (conference depending) - never to this hotel though.