aisleorwindow

Bumping this thread as we are looking at Austin for NYE and would like to be close to the "action".
Would people recommend Hilton Austin, Embassy Suites Town Lake, or something else?
(Will be using points for this stay).

willywilkes

Anyone know anything about Home2 Suites by Hilton Austin Airport - I booked it on Feb 3rd for arrival on April 15th and I was doing a price check to see if any of my bookings had dropped, and I noticed this one wasn't coming up in my search results. Do a little digging and now the site for this hotel says "This hotel will soon be joining the Hilton Portfolio of Brands and is presently accepting reservations for arrival April 30, 2017 and beyond."

What do we think, am I maybe booked into a soft opening and my stay will be fine, or did they delay opening and they aren't going to tell me my confirmed room isn't actually at an open hotel... I know I can reach out directly but if I don't have a room there I would like for them to reach out to me - seems like the right thing for them to do...

Anyone had a similar situation? Thoughts/ideas?

mphall

Chicago Wine Geek

I've logged about 400 nights at the Austin Hilton so I'm a little biased. But it is a fantastic property. Good food options, great gym, pool, and hot tub on the roof. Super convenient to 6th street fun. No free parking, but I don't think you are going to find that anywhere.

sdsearch

None in downtown with free parking. Here's how you can tell:

Go to www.Kayak.com. Select hotels. Do a search for Austin for your desired dates. Kayak has a field on left for Hotel Chain, type in Hilton and one of the selections is all Hilton Honors hotels, select that. Now sort by Distance. You'll see half a dozen HH properties within a mile or so of downtown, then the next distance is 3.6 miles. Now back on the left hover over Free Parking until "only" comes up, then click on that to see only the hotels in that list with free parking. Voila, all the hotels less than 3 miles from downtown have disappeared. Much of what's left is airport hotels.

Meanwhile, you didn't explain what, if any, Hilton status you have. Hilton Gold or above will give you a vary nice free breakfast (including cooked to order eggs) at HGI, for example, but Hilton Silver or less won't.

Keep in mind that Austin in not a very big city, so staying near the airport is not the location headache that it would be in a larger city with the airport much further away, if you have a car. But if you were planning to do stuff by walking from the hotel, then yes, the free parking hotels are likely to limited with options for that.

aztimm

If you want to stay in downtown Austin to explore that area, then my recommendation is to stay downtown and NOT rent a car. Parking is definitely at a premium. If you want to go somewhere for a day here/there, you could always rent one for a day (I know for Hertz, many HLE's will do after-hours returns, but check to verify).

If you just want to do a few select things in downtown Austin (such as the Capital, LBJ Library, etc.), then my suggestion would be to rent a car, stay elsewhere, and drive/park in town just for those activities. There is parking (I think 2 or 3 hours) for the LBJ Library, as well as some other sites. It will probably be far less expensive to stay out of downtown, but then you lose the flexibility to just walk out the hotel door to dinner, drinks, etc.

Uber is very popular here, and I'd recommend using it to/from the airport, especially if you are traveling with someone else. There is also a bus you can use. However, if you are staying outside of downtown (say near The Domain), those rides would quickly add up (and there is commuter rail that may be viable from the Domain).

jeffers

I live about 500 yards from the new Home2 and HGI airport hotels.

They are actually a decent distance from downtown (under 10 minute drive) and brand new. Would recommend if driving in isn't an issue. Of course not walkably in amongst the action though.

mphall

I am a diamond member but would love to find an Austin Hilton with view or something for 4 nights. I don't need to stay downtown if there are other options. Trip advisor is not too helpful. Thanks very much.

ehallison

Instead of Uber, download the Ride Austin App before your trip. Very easy to set up an account. It's a not-for-profit ride share app - similar to Lyft & Uber, but they take less of the ride cost & give more to the driver. (they also claim they do better background checks than Lyft/Uber, with 100% fingerprinting of drivers). We've used it, with Lyft as a backup in case there's not a close Ride Austin car.

earlyriser

My TripAdvisor review from the Homewood Suites Downtown Austin - AVOID!:

While in town for a conference we elected for a "cheaper" Hilton option as a diamond member and were mostly disappointed because despite a high-level room, it was simply too noisy to sleep well. The hotel is located in between Rainey Street where there are many restaurants and bars and the freeway. After reading previous reviews we elected to stay in a room on the motorway side but it was very noisy and made a good nights sleep impossible. To make matters worse, the hot water in this hotel is unreliable which made it difficult to wake ourselves up in the morning. This seems to be a known issue to staff and their recommendation was to let the vanity tap run for ten minutes before getting in the shower. On the five days we were at the hotel, this strategy worked on three of the days and I had lukewarm showers on the two other days while my partner elected not to shower at all. This is simply unacceptable for a full service hotel, and a massive waste of water! Generally, the staff seemed disinterested - including no Diamond member recognition - but, I am not sure I can blame them as they must receive many complaints due to these issues.
Otherwise, the room was quite nice, spacious and comfortable. The fitness centre was decent for a workout and the location was within walking distance to the conference centre. We also ate at Rainey Street which was nice and it is close to the delicious Iron Works BBQ.
Next time I am in Austin, I will definitely be avoiding this property.

DELee

Wanted to give this thread a bump. Looking at Hilton properties near Tech Ridge Center and the HGI Austin North looked decent. Also just called and they said that they're serving breakfast/dinner in their restaurant.

Any feedback on this property, recent or otherwise?

David

DELee

Ended up booking away from this HGI and to the HGI Arboretum and HS TechRidge. Links to review posts below:

Hilton Garden Inn Austin NW/Arboretum {US-TX}

Homewood Suites by Hilton TechRidge Parmer @ I-35 (Austin) {US-TX}

David

aztimm

I was doing some searches on Google Maps and noticed an Embassy Suites with a Round Rock address, very close to the, "Round Rock Premium Outlets."

Looks like it has been open about a year:
Embassy Suites now open in Round Rock | Community Impact



Hotel info:
Embassy Suites by Hilton Round Rock
270 Bass Pro Drive
Round Rock, TX 78665
512-308-3883

Actually pretty convenient for me, if I have people coming to visit. While not in downtown Austin, nor Round Rock...it is a decent location. There are a few restaurants in the area, walking distance to the outlets and Bass Pro Shop, and possibly to Ikea (but 1431 is a busy street so I'd be hesitant to do that, plus if you buy anything you'd need to lug it back).

I know that some people are looking for places in the area for the 2024 Eclipse, and while this won't be in the area of max totality, it wouldn't be too bad. A room during that time is $147/night, which isn't bad (considering properties in Waco are charging $2000+, if you can find availability).