Originally Posted by
jmugrappler
Hey everyone, I did not see a specific thread for the recently opened Thompson in Austin. I have a stay mid next year and figured I would start this thread to collect everyone's thoughts.
One question I had was about suites at this property. I called the globalist line to apply a suite upgrade to my stay yesterday. I was initially told that they do not participate in the suite upgrade program, but the agent called the property to confirm. She subsequently told me that none of their suites would be available as they were still under construction; This could be the case, but sounded a little suspicious as there are suites available for my dates. I will try again at in a couple days.
I had a stay shortly after they opened and can confirm the suites are all on the higher floors that are not complete yet. Based on what I was told, the completion date for the rest of the property was still up in the air and it also sounded like the hotel hadn't decided on what would be the standard suite yet.
I had a corner room that was pretty spacious for a non-suite. The hotel is still very much a work-in-process so if you aren't OK with some hiccups I would stay elsewhere for the next couple of months at least. The coffee shop was open and the bar by the pool was about to open, but everything else seemed pretty far away from completion. Overall I had a really good stay and gloablist breakfast could be had in what sounded like a temporary restaurant space on the 2nd floor or via room service. I never went to check out the breakfast spot on the 2nd floor, so I don't know what the setup looked like. I opted for room service and everything was delivered on a cart with real plates and silverware. The menu was small, but food was great and it was good to see a property deliver real room service (instead of the paper bag to go style room service you see at many other hotels currently). Coffee shop was solid, but a little pricey.
The setup is really odd with the Tommie (basically you get off the elevator and turn one way for the Tommie hallway and the other way for the Thompson hallway), but they have 6 elevators so wait times shouldn't be too bad even when both properties are busy. The main negative was the hallway noise was pretty terrible. Hopefully they'll add something under the doors to dampen that some, but you could hear housekeeping on the complete other end of the hall knock and say "Housekeeping" every few minutes as clear as day.
The property reminded me a lot of the W Austin (in a good way). Lots of concrete and pretty modern (but not over the top like some Ws). I think this hotel will be a great option, but I plan to wait until the restaurant and main bar are open before returning. It will also be interesting to see what type of crowd it attracts. The W is a much different hotel during the week vs. the weekend, and I wonder if this hotel will end with a similar feel.