Marriott New Orleans and other hotels offer ‘Papa Noel’ deals

With sleigh bells ringing –– and surely an appetite for etouffee –– Papa Noel (that’s Santa Claus to us out-of-towners) is readying himself for a holiday destination guaranteed to be brimful with festive cheer.

Boasting a full holiday calendar in December, New Orleans will be offering its visitors free jazz and gospel cathedral concerts; caroling; themed meals and free cooking demonstrations; and the nightly Celebration of the Oaks tour in City Park.

And, as has become tradition, numerous hotels about town are offering “Papa Noel” rates for December stays. For a full list of participants, see the Christmas pages on New Orleans’ tourism site. One such deal, by New Orleans Marriott, is detailed below.

Deal: This Marriott, located on Canal Street in the French Quarter, is offering “Papa Noel” rates from $89 to $159 per night (pretax) for stays Dec. 1-24, 2009.

Tested: The specially priced rooms are said to be limited, but I was able to find the lowest rate, $89, on a late-December weekday night. More often, via the online reservations system, I found the $99 rate pop up for weekday stays.

These definitely beat the rack rates of $249 during the same time period, though, it must be said, you would be unwise to pay rack rates given the various online specials, like the aforementioned, on the hotel’s website.

Contact: Marriott, (888) 364-1200

– Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Photo: New Orleans Marriott is one of many hotels getting into the holiday spirit in the “Big Easy.” Credit: New Orleans Marriott

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 5:59 am by Susan Derby and is filed under Deals, Festival, Hotels, New Orleans & Louisiana, Southern States, Weekend Getaways, Winter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.