ACCOMMODATIONS IN NOLA

Please note when making your travel plans: the conference kicks off with a reception (and hassle-free check-in) on Tuesday evening, September 3. Sessions start early Wednesday morning.

Due to the fact that 4S 2019 will be taking place during hurricane season in New Orleans, we encourage conference attendees to purchase travel insurance. More information on what kind of insurance to buy can be found here: Hurricane Insurance Review.

Conference Hotel

The Sheraton New Orleans has rooms for 4S attendees at a discounted rate of $159 per night. Click here to reserve.

6S Accommodations: The Quisby Hostel

6S, the student section of 4S, has arranged a discount at the Quisby Hostel for conference participants (anyone, not just students, can use this!). The Quisby offers 4-person and 6-person rooms. Use offer code NOLA15 to receive 15% off your booking; the promo code will work for any dates between August 31st and September 9th. Participants who reserve individual beds will be placed in the same rooms as other conference goers. 4S does not have a block of rooms/beds reserved, so book as soon as possible, as it is first come first serve.

Alternative Accommodations

Photo by April Leigh

Are you thinking of using AirBnB to find your accommodation in New Orleans? Here is some context about the New Orleans housing market before renting with AirBnB. There are many contributing forces to New Orleans’ current affordable housing crisis: discriminatory Katrina recovery spending, paltry tenant legal protections, real estate speculation, regressive taxing rubrics, and the short-term rental market. Your visit can have a direct impact on that final and major contributor to housing hardship in New Orleans. While some AirBnB rentals do help homeowners make their mortgage payments, many of them are permanently for rent to tourists, squeezing a tight housing market to the point of active displacement. A recent report by Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative documents that whole house rentals in New Orleans have increased by 233% since 2015 and 568 listings are run by just 10 hosts. If you pick an AirBnB at random you have almost a 1 in 2 chance (44%) of renting from someone who has multiple listings. Even if you avoid renting from landlords with multiple listings, a sizable portion of your payment goes to AirBnB corporate, which pays lobbyists to advocate against housing justice reforms in New Orleans and your payment will support a housing bubble that disproportionately benefits the white middle class and burden’s working class renters. Taking this information to heart, as visitors you can do the following:

  1. Look at the accommodation alternatives below.

Housing advocates are emphatic that there is no such thing as harm reduction in the short term housing market in in New Orleans. But if you are unable to find housing from the below list at a price point that is affordable to you and if you wish to stay in a short term rental please consider making a donation to housing justice causes in New Orleans such at Jane’s Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative (link) or the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (link). If you’re a senior professor, you could even consider making a donation on behalf of your graduate students that may resort to short term rentals out of financial necessity.

Additional care to take if engaging in a short-term rental in New Orleans:

  1. Avoid hosts with multiple listings.
  2. Avoid AirBnB rentals in neighborhoods marked in red, orange, or the darker creamy brown in the image below (ie almost nowhere with fast or direct access to the conference venue).
  3. Avoid these hosts identified by a local nonprofit as AirBnB mega-landlords.

Image by Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center

Alternatives to short term rentals

Black-owned hotels

The Moor

4511 canal street , New Orleans, 70119

info@stayhomage.com

(510) 296 8684

Online booking

Located in the mid-city neighborhood, you can take a street car directly from the hotel to the conference venue (it takes 30 minutes. The 47 (every 15 mins) or the 48 (every 8 mins)). It is walking distance to the New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park (a huge 1,300 acre park), historic cemeteries, and St. John’s bayou. Here’s a write up on The Moor. Their most affordable room, the studio suite, is less than $100 a night and includes a kitchen.

NOPSI Hotel

317 Baronne St

New Orleans, LA 70112

Online booking

844-439-1463

A more conventional hotel owned by a black woman in the central business district. An 8 minute walk from the conference venue. You’ll probably need faculty money to afford this one.

Dutchess B&B

Online booking

For larger groups try the Duchess. They rent out each floor for $600 a night but can sleep up to 12 people and both have kitchens. This could be a great option for grad students to stay together for cheap.

Unionized Hotels

Harrah’s Casino

8 Canal St

New Orleans, LA 70130

1(800) 427-7247

Online booking

A five minute walk from the conference venue. If you go to the casino, you can play the penny slots and get a free drink or two. (Tip the server generously.)

Hilton Riverside

2 Poydras St.

New Orleans, LA 70130

(504) 561-0500

Online booking

A ten minute walk from the conference venue.

Loews New Orleans Hotel

300 Poydras St,

New Orleans, LA 70130

(504) 595-3300

Online booking

A seven minute walk from the conference venue.

Innkeepers Association of New Orleans

Online booking

This website features the consolidated listings of dozens of traditionally licensed bed and breakfasts.


Please feel free to use this text for your conference in New Orleans. The text is licensed in the public domain (CC0). We do not own the images.


Would you like to make a guide like this for your event or city? If so:

  1. Search for reports from local housing justice organizations. Read them carefully, summarize their insights, and link to them. Use their recommendations to craft your suggestions.
  2. Find unionized hotels here find black owned hotels here, the Latino Hotel Association and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association sadly don’t not have a directories. Some indigenous-owned hotels are listed here. These lists are incomplete and you will also need to some time googling by city and state.
  3. Something we didn’t do for this list is have clear accessibility information. Please do better than us!
  4. Feel free to use any of the text above without need for attribution. Please do include this note on how others can approach making one for their event or city.
  5. After you’ve read the reports, distilled their findings, listed unionized hotels and hotels owned by structurally marginalized people, and crafted a first draft of your document then share it with local housing justice for feedback.

Compiled by Nicholas Shapiro.