Your Stay
in New Orleans

The Story Behind Bourbon Street Balcony Rentals

I fell into this job from a newspaper ad in 2003. 

I was regional sales for the Southeast in a position that was supposed to be a maximum of 50% travel — in reality it was closer to 90%, consuming my weekends and sending me to New York, Oregon, and Arizona when I was supposed to be covering the Southeast. I was burnt out. On a whim I sent my resume to an event sales ad in the newspaper and was surprised when the call came back almost immediately. I met with the office manager, who asked if I could come in on a Saturday to meet the managing partner. Why not? He asked me what it would take to get me on board. I gave him my numbers and my parameters. He agreed. That was the beginning of twenty-plus years I never planned and wouldn't trade.

What I Walked Into

The venues I represented in 2003 had live jazz with Grammy Award-winning artists performing regularly, a dueling piano bar, and a Bourbon Street nightclub. I was back in food and beverage — where I belonged — and I knew immediately that I had what people visiting New Orleans actually wanted. Bourbon Street. Not a checklist of amenities. The Bourbon Street Experience.

Katrina came in 2005 and took my home. It took the jazz club that was my heart. It reshuffled everything. Most people would have left. I didn't, because there is no place like New Orleans. We beat to a different drum here. We celebrate everything.

The party ramps up mid-September with football season — Saturdays for LSU, Sundays for the Saints. Halloween kicks off with the Krewe of Boo parade the weekend before and builds into something close to a mini Mardi Gras: spectacular costumes, haunted history tours, cemetery tours, witches brunches, Day of the Dead celebrations. New Orleans folklore makes Halloween feel like it was invented here. December brings the Christmas parade, holiday parties, and New Year's Eve. January 6th kicks off Mardi Gras — weeks of balls and parades before the big day. Right behind it comes St. Patrick's Day with parades all over the city, then St. Joseph's Day with the Italian American parade. April ushers in festival season: French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest, and more festivals than most cities see in a decade. May is graduation season, capped by Memorial Day. June brings Pride Month, then the 4th of July and Essence Festival. The heat of summer slows things slightly — people escape to the beach — but we still have Mid-Summer Nights Mardi Gras, Red Dress Run, and Dirty Linen Night in August. Then football season starts again and it all begins over.

That energy doesn't exist anywhere else. Not in Europe, not in Hawaii, nowhere I have ever lived. New Orleans culture beckons you home.

By 2006 I had our first balcony location. I had something you can only get in the 7 short blocks of the entertainment district on world famous Bourbon Street — the visual people see in their mind's eye when they think of New Orleans. Beads flying over the crowds from above. The balcony experience.

What the Balcony Changed

Standing above Bourbon Street changes everything. You are not in the crowd. You are above it — close enough to feel it, elevated enough to own it. The moment I started selling balcony events I knew this was the experience I had been building toward.

What made it work wasn't just the location. It was what I brought to it.

To make sure every client and every guest has the real bead-tossing experience, I show clients what to buy and where to buy it — from a local wholesaler, not a tourist shop. I pick up their orders personally so there is no shipping, no storage, nothing for them to figure out. For corporate events we take it further: beads and boas in company or theme colors, branding carried throughout the venue and onto the balcony so the experience feels intentional from the moment guests walk in.

Before anyone arrives — client or guest — everything is already open and displayed. No boxes stacked on the balcony floor. No bags. All packaging removed, beads laid out on the balcony tables, ready to grab, wear, and toss. Guests walk in and know exactly what to do. That staging is the difference between a party that happens to have a balcony and a real bead-tossing extravaganza. It is an experience unique to New Orleans, and we make sure every single guest has it.

No other salesperson in this industry does this work. I have never understood why.

What Covid Tested

When the shutdown happened, clients had deposits sitting with operators and no venue to return to. I went to work on their behalf. I got the operator to host events at the one remaining venue they had, so those celebrations still happened. Taking care of the clients I had booked was never a question.

I stayed loyal to my clients through Covid because I am sales. All I have is my name and my reputation. Every person who books an event with me has trusted me with something real — a milestone, a celebration, a group of people they care about. They are not a name on a contract and a date on a calendar. I sold them an experience and I want to see it through.

The venues I had spent years building eventually changed hands or closed. I rebuilt.

What You Get When You Book With Me

I am not a booking platform. I am not a venue coordinator who hands you a checklist and a room key. I handle everything — contracts, event orders, setup, staging, the bead experience, the walk-through — so that when you arrive, your only job is to welcome your guests.

Send me your branding, your promotional items, your welcome bags. I will install and set up everything before you walk through the door. You freshen up. You relax. You arrive fifteen minutes before your event for a walk-through and find everything already in place. Your check-in table is ready. Your bar is ready. Your beads are displayed. You gather with your team downstairs, get a drink, and greet your early arrivals. By the time your guests come up, it looks like you planned every detail — because together, we did.

Most venues hand you the room and wish you luck. I have never operated that way.

Why It Matters That I Show Up

People frequently assume I own the venues I work. I take that as the highest compliment. It means I showed up the way an owner would — because I believe that is the only way worth showing up.

Twenty-plus years on Bourbon Street has taught me one thing above everything else: the experience your guests have is determined before the first guest arrives. The setup, the staging, the details that nobody notices because they're already perfect — that's the work. That's the work I do because your guests deserve a night that delivers on what Bourbon Street promises.

There is nothing else quite like it in the world.

Sharon Hart Director of Sales, Bourbon Street Balcony Rentals