Just completed a points stay at the W Austin. From the discussion here, I was a little worried about service issues, but it turned out to be a great stay.
We booked the stay to visit daughter who attend UT, and to celebrate wife's 50th birthday. I realized after booking that we might have made a mistake since UT graduation was taking place the same weekend we were there, but we encountered no problems at all.
Check in Saturday afternoon was fine. We arrived early at 1 pm, tired from an early flight, but were told that we had received an upgrade to a cool corner suite, and that we could wait at the pool until it was ready. We handed over the luggage and hit the pool- not a huge area, but plenty of seats, and open bar and very attentive waitress. She not only brought our drinks, but got us a tube of suntan lotion to use at no charge since we were obviously not used to being out in the Texas sun. After about an hour of relaxing with mojitos by the pool, I received a text message that our room was ready.
Suite was very nice- large screen tv and nice sectional couch in the living room, another large tv no the wall in the bedroom, and wrap around windows with great view of the river. Nice little touches in the room- instead of an alarm clock, wires in a little box by the bed to plug in an ipod or blackberry without needing your own adapter. Since I use my iphone as an alarm clock, and often have to move a mattress to find a plug in most hotels, this is a great idea. There was also a note that said they have ipods available to borrow if you want one for a workout.
Speaking of workouts, this was probably the most functional hotel gym I have ever visited. Many cardio machines, and a full complement of weight machines, plus a large aerobics studio.
The highlight of the hotel was the "living room" bar area off the lobby. We returned to the hotel around midnight Saturday night, and it was packed. We found a sofa to sit on together in one of the four rooms and settled in to watch people. We then heard a familiar voice saying "mojitos, right?" It was the same waitress, Dawn, from the pool, who not only remembered our drinks, but also our names and room number. She also remembered we were there celebrating wife's birthday, excused herself and returned with a small box of very tasty chocolate as a birthday gift. If I had any open positions, I would have tried to hire her- the service was that good.
The only negatives of the stay were the high parking fees, but there are cheaper options all around the hotel, so do your homework and decide if the valet service is worth it. They did have the car ready within 5 minutes each time we called, so I can't complain about the service level.
Checkout was fast, although I did have to stop at the desk to have the internet charges removed. I received my corrected email receipt right away.
All in all, wife has a new favorite hotel in Austin, and we will be back.