Just north of Nicholls on La. Highway 1, the New Orleans investor-owned Carmel Inn and Suites is offering rooms at a student discount for lease terms by the semester or the year. For a room with a single king-sized bed, students can pay $500 per month, or they can pay $700 for two double beds. Each room includes the usual amenities you would find at most hotels-a television with stand, a desk for study or work, a microwave and a small refrigerator. Electricity, water, sewer, cable, local phone service, high speed wireless Internet, access to a laundry facility and swimming pool, along with a 24-hour staff and night security, are additional services provided.

Students who are undecided about where to live-in residence halls on-campus, in off-campus apartments or in a house-now have this option available. The decision may come down to cost and convenience.

Stanley Su, general manager of Carmel Inn and Suites, said students should consider the inn as an additional option of the types of student housing available.

“We feel the rooms are more affordable than an apartment. Most apartments around the area cost between $600 and $700 per month. That’s not including utilities,” Su said. “Also, many students don’t want to live on campus because they want more privacy.”

Since the decline in the national economy has caused many people to postpone, cancel or take shorter time for vacationing or business trips, and with lower occupancy during the fall and early winter, hotels and inns are trying to discover more non-traditional revenue-generating ideas.

Since Carmel is a locally-owned hotel, Su believes the reuse of hotel rooms for NSU students is a great way to recover costs from unoccupied rooms.

“Many of the rooms each night would go unused if we hadn’t come up with this idea,” Su said. “At the same time, we can have a competitive advantage in the local market because we can work with the community and make this offer to students where hotel chains don’t have that ability.”

Su said plans are in the works to provide student-only access to a community kitchen area on the property, similar to what can be found in dorms on most university campuses.

Since the start of this semester, two Nicholls students have already chosen to live at Carmel. With more attention and exposure, additional NSU students will show interest, Su said.

“We believe in our slogan that we are clean, comfortable and hospitable,” Su said. “We want to show that we provide a great service, that students feel comfortable and that our staff will take care of you.”

For more information on applying for a room at Carmel Inn and Suites, contact Stanley Su at (985) 446-0561 or visit the Web at www.carmelinnofla.com.