Boolean64,

Any experience you can relate on this? Thinking of staying with wife and teenage daughter...

Thanks.

Was upgraded to a cool corner suite. Note and bottle of water left in the room. Large bottles of bliss products provided. Breakfast benefit was generous and the food quality was good. Pool was a bit less crowded than the Westin and thus you could use it to swim. Amazon echo in the room though not all that useful. Staff at the front desk and in the restaurant were very friendly. Pillows were a bit less comfortable than other W pillows I have used.

W vs JW Marriott? Pros and cons?
 

This is one of my favorite domestic Ws. The service is usually great and my suite upgrade percentage is probably 60-70%. The hotel is pretty well maintained but its older than the JW, so the rooms always show a little more wear and tear. Also, unless you love lounges the W platinum breakfast easily beats the JW lounge breakfast. If it's not too hot/too cold, I enjoy eating in the outdoor section and the per person credit isn't absurd, but it's plenty to have a nice breakfast. They recently limited the SNA pool to the accessible corner suite and the Corner suite with a balcony (most of the corner suites are regular corner suites with no balconies), so my SNAs don't clear as much as they used to, but they're still pretty good about upgrades.

The JW is an enormous hotel and everything from the pool to the valet to the elevators always seems a little too crowded for me. The W pool is also a disaster with crowds on the weekend, but I've found the hotel in general to be a little less hectic. As mentioned above, the JW is newer and it feels that way. The rooms are brighter and more open than the W rooms with larger windows and better views. If you do manage to get a suite, the JW standard suite is also larger than the W corner suite and the bathroom is much better (bigger, more open). Austin on the weekend is still somewhat of a party destination, so both hotels have pretty active bars over the weekend, but the JW seems less crazy than the W, and sometimes I enjoy not walking into a night club (although the W Austin crowd is fairly tame compared to some other Ws). The JW lounge is pretty nice for a domestic lounge, but it also gets too busy at times.

I usually choose the W because of the better breakfast and higher percentage of suite upgrades, but the base room at the W is small so if it looks like a busy weekend where upgrades might be non-existent I will choose the JW for their larger standard room. The W is also usually a little bit more expensive, so if it's more than $50-75 extra, I'll also stay at the JW. Neither hotel is going to wow you from a luxury standpoint, but they are both solid representations of their respective brands and I'd gladly stay at either in the future. Location wise, they are within 2-3 blocks, so not much difference there.

If you venture outside MR/SPG, the Four Seasons is my favorite hotel in town, but they are doing some renovations and the restaurants were all closed on my last visit. Not sure what the current state is, but I'd probably avoid it altogether until everything is finished. As the only true luxury game in town, it is also stupidly expensive almost all the time, and generally not worth the up charge. I used to stay there all the time, but have only been back twice in the last three years because in no way do I think it's $150-250 better than the W or JW and that's usually how much the rate difference is.

Been a few years, anyone stay here recently?

any recent experiences?

Recently completed a 2 night stay here. Fairly neutral experience.

We booked a “Spectacular Room, Guest room, 1 King” and that's what we received at check in around 3PM. We asked if any upgrades were available, and they said they could put us in a “Cozy Corner” suite if we waited a few hours, but our assigned room was on a high floor and we didn’t want to wait so we stayed with the Spectacular.

During check in as a Titanium member, we were given a guitar pick key card which gave us 15% off (maybe 10%, I already forgot) food and any non-alcoholic drinks . There was no mention of elite breakfast during check in, but reading posts above maybe there is elite breakfast?

We noted coldness from the front desk associate- it felt very transactional and not too welcoming.

After checking the room out, the Spectacular room wasn’t much different than the entry level Fabulous Room I had last time I stayed, so I’d suggest saving your money. The room was comfortable and had a great view of the river and the park. I don’t think they use the same beds as other W properties- this one felt a bit firm around the edges and I didn’t sleep as well as I usually do at other W locations. The shower took quite some time to get warm, ~1 minute.

We spent some time at the pool on our second day. It's starting to show its age, and a lack of care. The chaise lounges were worn and many had torn fabric. There were plenty of leaves, garbage, and cigarette butts on the pool deck too. It really needs a thorough cleaning. The pool itself was nice. Service at the pool wasn’t great either. There were three people working at the pool, and other than us there was a cabana with about six people. We wanted food and drinks but after some time none of the staff checked on us so we went up to the bar and ordered. After this they checked on us every ~20 minutes.

After checkout we realized we left a jacket in the room, and we were able to easily arrange it to be mailed back to us. Sterling from the risk team was incredibly helpful with this!

Overall the stay was fine, and I’d stay here again, but really wish they would clean up the pool area.

Chipping in with my experience. Stayed on Jun 30 to use up an expiring 50K cert. Booked the Fabulous Room, Guest room, 1 Queen for 42K points. Applied SNA and received upgrade confirmation email on Jun 26 to a Cool Corner Suite, 1 Bedroom Suite, 1 King, Corner room

Arrival
- "Wheels" valet service was efficient, although pricey ($55) although that seems to be the normal price for the area
- Liked how it had in-and-out privileges, so I didn't need to keep paying $55
- Also liked that the valet tag has a QR code - before you leave your room, scan the QR code so it sends them a text message. This way your car will be ready for you outside

Check-in
- friendly service, also received the guitar pick as a Titanium member. Super cool that it also acts as the door key
- very disappointed with the elite breakfast - $16 per person
- annoyed that there was some sort of dance thing that night going on in the "living room" beside the lobby, it was super loud and made it a bit hard to hear the check in agent

Room
- wasn't surprised by anything. The pictures of the Cool Corner Suites are very accurate
- soundproofing left a bit to be desired - I was on like the 12th floor and it was past midnight and I could STILL hear that dance music from the check-in area :mad:
- I really love the bedroom, SUPER spacious compared to my house. Thought the red "psychiatrist couch" was cute (my girlfriend thought it was weird)
- I also really like how effective the blackout curtains were. Sunlight causes me to wake up, and I slept in quite nicely
- There's also something special about the W bed. My girlfriend quite literally is unable to sleep and even she was able to fall asleep on that bed

Breakfast
- TRACE restaurant was a bit of a walk, got kinda lost trying to find it
- As mentioned above, $16 elite breakfast credit per person ......
- ....... but the cheapest meaningful breakfast entree is $16 :o:( (Texas Market Migas $16, Trace Breakfast $17, Eggs Benedict $16 .... because it's not filling to pay for $14 waffles or pancakes or $12 chorizo breakfast tacos)
- and then throw in 2 coffees for $4.50 each and yeah .... not free breakfast, very sad :o:(
- Coffee was burnt too .... like worse-than-Starbucks burnt. No amount of cream could rescue it

Away Spa
- surprisingly, the spa gets booked up :confused: was able to make a same-day appointment for the afternoon
- friendly staff all around

Pool
- checked out the pool after the spa, and it was Friday afternoon and the pool was quite full. The cabanas were all taken as well as all the pool chairs
- plenty of towels and the bar service was quite efficient
- there was an artificial turf area behind the bar where you can play cornhole

Overall, not bad hotel. I would happily use a credit card free night cert to stay again

Can anyone comment on the breakfast situation and ongoing renovations?
Thanks

$25/person credit at the restaurant. French toast, pancakes, and 2 lattes + tip cost $54, and $4 showed up on my folio. Not a large breakfast, but I enjoyed it. Renovations appear to be completed.

NUA success (1 bedroom suite)
 

Completed a 2 night stay here in June. Booked a standard king with points for a weekend, so I was pleasantly surprised that the NUA cleared for 1 Bedroom Suite, Lake view corner. Its not a large suite but quite adequate and I have to say its a very nice W. Room comes with a punchy (Marshall?) bluetooth speaker. One of the lamps in the bedroom emitted a weird buzzing noise which at first I thought was a phone alarm going off in an adjacent room, also had some issues with the shower controls. Breakfast was great (Elite benefit was $20 or $25, can't remember sorry). Pool is narrow and we were a little hesitant since it looked crowded but had a nice time (DJ was playing more dancey stuff). Hotel guests could also use the seating adjacent seating area which had shade/cover. Seating is sparse, maybe 5-6 beds and 2 larger spaces. For the cabanas at the pool, you had to reserve them using some generic app (rates were ridiculous though). Location is great, lot of food options within walking distance and steps away from Austin City Limits. Would recommend.
PS Also at checkout I mentioned the issues with the room and they were very nice about it and said they would add some courtesy points (thats a first). Was more surprised to get a follow up email from someone at the hotel a week later.