One problem you are experiencing is that it is a Saturday night during football season. Most hotels post higher rates until the NFL schedule comes out. Once the Saints schedule is released, rates should go down as long at the Saints are not playing at home that Sunday. If not, you may want look outside N.O. proper.
This part is a quote from my reply to someone else about N.O. hotels:
The last three years, we've stayed at Drury Inn on Poydras Street. We love it. It has an included evening meal, nothing extraordinary, but is good and filling. The breakfast is really good. One of the best things we like about it is that it has an attached parking garage. You can park on the level of your room and go directly in the hotel from there. Most hotels have valet or off-site parking. You can watch the price as it typically drops closer to time. We updated our reservation several times back in January and ended up with a rate around $135.