I'm staying at a Hampton Inn on St. Charles Avenue here in New Orleans. Along with Courtyards, these are usually not my favorite hotels. They're clean and basic, but with little character. This one is much the same, although it's close to the client we're visiting and does have the advantage of being on the streetcar line (which I rode home from dinner last night - not quite as memorable as either the cable cars in San Francisco, or even yesterday's cab ride, but my one bit of real New Orleans for this trip).

The Good: Spacious room and bathroom. Shower curtain rod that bows out from the bathtub, eliminating that uncomfortable shower curtain-cling. Lots of towels. Reasonably quiet.

The Bad: Another different funky smell in the room. No high speed Internet access. Slow dial-up access. No phone on the desk requires crawling under it to plug into the phone jack on the wall. Air conditioner blows right on you while seated at the desk. No body lotion or hair conditioner. No electrical outlets on the top of the desk - more crawling around on the floor. Lousy view onto the rooftops of other buildings. No minibar. Vending machine would not take my Yankee dollar.

The Ugly: Hideous blond furniture. Weird sepia-toned photographs of statues that border on child pornography. Tacky wallpaper, peeling at the seams in the bathroom (we can , but can't make a wallpaper glue that resists steam).