JW Marriott Opens Its Largest Hotel in North America & Second-Largest Property Worldwide
Jennifer Billock February 23, 2015
JW Marriott’s new property in Austin, Texas is not merely the largest hotel in the city, it’s also the company’s largest hotel in North America!
JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts recently announced the opening of its first property in Texas’ capital. The JW Marriott Austin is the largest hotel in Austin, as well as Marriott’s second-largest luxury property worldwide and the company’s largest hotel in North America.
The new location has 34 stories and more than 1,000 rooms, plus three restaurants and a full-service Starbucks. Standard rooms have either a king-size bed or two queens, and each cost around $399 a night. Two suite sizes, executive and presidential, will average at $799 and $2,000 per night respectively. The hotel also has a pool deck, a bar on the fifth floor, and more than 110,000 square feet of meeting space.
Marriott hopes this massive hotel will be a welcome addition to the hospitality and dining scene in Austin.
“Austin is a natural fit for the JW Marriott brand,” said Mitzi Gaskins, Marriott’s vice president and global brand manager. “As one of America’s fastest-growing cities, Austin is home to a thriving culinary, music, and arts scene, completely aligned with our guests’ passions.”
JW Marriott Austin’s first guest to check in will be Major Walter Engle, a Fort Hood-based Army officer. The company donated a weekend stay to him and his family as a thank-you for his 18 years of service.
“We are honored to host Major Walter Engle and his family as our first guests and look forward to offering them an unforgettable experience — right in the heart of this vibrant city,” said Gaskins.
[Photo: Marriott International]
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The quoted rack rate lasted but a split second (and was a quantum leap from "close to comparables"). Austin hoteliers have been notoriously ambitious and with the Lege is session and the usual flood of lobbyists and their 'spense accounts in town for the season, perhaps some yokels will fork over the $399 (although with crude prices in the tank even the 'erl bidness "spendalots" are squeezed). It's a long, long way from the "rack" rate for the cinq-a-septs at the old hot pillow Rio Motel on IH36, 1960 or so.