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JW Marriott Hotel, Austin, Texas [Master Thread]

JW Marriott Hotel, Austin, Texas [Master Thread]

Old Sep 17, 2018, 4:11 pm
  #31  
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Any updates?

Any recent stays at the JW Marriott Austin? The most recent post was over 18 months ago.

Would love to know:
1) How does the hotel treat Plats?
2) Has the newness worn off or is the hotel being well-maintained?
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Old Sep 17, 2018, 5:00 pm
  #32  
 
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Originally Posted by controller1
Any recent stays at the JW Marriott Austin? The most recent post was over 18 months ago.

Would love to know:
1) How does the hotel treat Plats?
2) Has the newness worn off or is the hotel being well-maintained?
I was there in early May of this year, on a paid stay. As a Platinum Premier member, I was "upgraded" to a room on the top floor -- but not a suite or anything beyond "top floor." In the past, on some award stays, I have received corner junior suites. I'll be there again in November on an award stay. Hook 'em Horns.

The hotel is definitely being well-maintained from what I could see.

-mvitale
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Old Sep 18, 2018, 2:51 pm
  #33  
 
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Tough with upgrades - access to club lounge is most likely what you will be getting.
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Old Sep 18, 2018, 3:42 pm
  #34  
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JW vs W Austin? Pros and cons?

I realize that the niches clash, but Im curious what people think of as the strengths and weaknesses/pros and cons of the JW vs the W in Austin? Im a legacy SPG fan of W hotels. But Im also curious about a very good JW.

Im Ambassador status. Ill be in Austin in mid-Dec.

Any thoughts or experiences with both properties that can be shared?

Thanks!
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Old Sep 18, 2018, 7:37 pm
  #35  
 
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Stayed at both on points as platinum ambassador. No upgrades at jw. Suites at W

no lounge at W. V good breakfast lounge at jw.

I guess deoends whats important to you
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Old Nov 12, 2018, 9:19 pm
  #36  
 
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I see they are now accepting suite night awards for the executive suite. I've been upgraded to that room once or twice and it is very nice. I like it better than the suites at the W and the Westin, but you're stuck with lounge breakfast (which was fine, but very overcrowded in my experience) instead of the nice restaurant platinum breakfast offered at the W and Westin.

There aren't many executive suites, so i'm sure this will still be a tough upgrade to get, but it's great to have the chance to confirm it in advance now.
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Old Nov 12, 2018, 11:07 pm
  #37  
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Originally Posted by spgplat21
I see they are now accepting suite night awards for the executive suite. I've been upgraded to that room once or twice and it is very nice. I like it better than the suites at the W and the Westin, but you're stuck with lounge breakfast (which was fine, but very overcrowded in my experience) instead of the nice restaurant platinum breakfast offered at the W and Westin.

There aren't many executive suites, so i'm sure this will still be a tough upgrade to get, but it's great to have the chance to confirm it in advance now.
Thanks for the tip. Since I order room service for breakfast and dont care about the lounge, the SNA for my 1 night at this hotel seems a better risk than the W (which is also more expensive). I also need just 2 more nights at legacy Marriott to reach my 10th year of Plat status, so this is a no-brainer.

This will be my first JW Marriott ever. Hoo-rah.
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Old Nov 13, 2018, 9:14 pm
  #38  
 
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Originally Posted by spgplat21
I see they are now accepting suite night awards for the executive suite. I've been upgraded to that room once or twice and it is very nice. I like it better than the suites at the W and the Westin, but you're stuck with lounge breakfast (which was fine, but very overcrowded in my experience) instead of the nice restaurant platinum breakfast offered at the W and Westin.

There aren't many executive suites, so i'm sure this will still be a tough upgrade to get, but it's great to have the chance to confirm it in advance now.
My November stay at the JW is coming up this weekend. I applied for SNAs on this stay (a points stay) about a month ago -- when I noticed that they could be applied at this hotel, on this reservation. When I originally made the reservation, I couldn't apply SNAs. I got my email at T-5 days that my SNA had been approved. I will be staying in an Executive Suite, Corner Room, Lake View. This'll be a nice room. I've stayed in this room type before (what I called a "Junior Suite" in my post a few months ago above in this thread), but not with the Lake View. Man, I love Austin. This hotel is definitely a nice one to stay at.

Hook 'em Horns. BTHOOISU.

-mvitale
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Old Nov 14, 2018, 6:58 am
  #39  
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Stayed a few weeks ago - feels like the convention center property it is. SNA failed. Mid-floor room. Felt like just an updated Marriott to me...
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Old Nov 14, 2018, 9:12 am
  #40  
 
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Originally Posted by mvitale
My November stay at the JW is coming up this weekend. I applied for SNAs on this stay (a points stay) about a month ago -- when I noticed that they could be applied at this hotel, on this reservation. When I originally made the reservation, I couldn't apply SNAs. I got my email at T-5 days that my SNA had been approved. I will be staying in an Executive Suite, Corner Room, Lake View. This'll be a nice room. I've stayed in this room type before (what I called a "Junior Suite" in my post a few months ago above in this thread), but not with the Lake View. Man, I love Austin. This hotel is definitely a nice one to stay at.

Hook 'em Horns. BTHOOISU.

-mvitale
Nice, and based on your description of a junior suite from your prior stay, the executive suite may even be better than the room you had before. The executive suite is definitely a true (non-junior) suite. It's probably 800+ square feet with a large living room and a bedroom that completely shuts off from the living room via two sliding doors. I think there was even a small 4 person dining table.
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Old Nov 19, 2018, 9:38 am
  #41  
 
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Just finished a stay here this weekend and have to give this place two huge thumbs up again. A couple days before check-in, I called to ask about getting connecting rooms. After spending 10-15 minutes trying to make something work, the agent apologized profusely and said the best she could get us was rooms two doors away from each other, but that she would keep checking to see if they could make something work. So I was beyond thrilled to check in and find out my executive suite (confirmed upgrade with SNA) was upgraded to a presidential suite and the second room was connecting. The hotel was packed for the Texas football game too, so the additional upgrade was very unexpected. The presidential suite was huge and very nicely furnished. It looked almost identical to the pictures on the website, but ours was not on a corner, so the bedroom just had one long wall of windows and not the wraparound windows in the picture. It looks like our bedroom was larger though. The lounge was perfectly nice as usual, and it didn't seem as overcrowded (it was still pretty busy though) as during my prior stays. We still chose to eat breakfast in the restaurant because lounges aren't my thing, but for a domestic lounge its certainly one of the better ones. They solicited feedback during our stay, and I said everything was perfect except the hotel should have Coke products instead of Pepsi. Within an hour, I received a call explaining the Marriott-Pepsi deal (which I already knew about) that prevented them from providing coke products in the lounge, but they wanted to clarify that we could still purchase coke products at all the restaurants and a few minutes later they brought us up some complimentary diet cokes. I thought that was a great response.

The hotel has a lot of the same issues that any gigantic conference hotel has (elevator wait times, slow valet, crowded lounge, check-in/check-out lines,etc.), but I've always felt like the staff recognizes those and tries to do the best they can to mitigate any problems. From proactively warning me the night before about long valet wait times the next morning to providing valet parking at the self parking rate because self parking was full, most of the staff just seems to get it, and that's hard to find at a lot of hotels.

It doesn't seem like that long ago when the only SPG option in Austin was the terrible downtown Sheraton. Now there are three great Marriott/SPG options in downtown and a few more as you get outside of downtown and into the suburbs (Westin Domain and Sheraton Georgetown are both solid if you need to be in those areas).
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Old Dec 1, 2018, 1:29 pm
  #42  
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Thanks to the discussions and comments here, I chose to risk my SNA for an Executive Suite and stay at this JW rather than try the W. (Id read here and in other threads that not everyone liked the W suite options as much as this Executive Suite.)

Today, exactly 5 days prior to my stay, I was notified by email and app notifications that my SNA had cleared to the Executive King Corner Suite. As this will be my first stay ever at any JW Marriott, Im really looking forward to seeing what the brand is about.

Thanks to eveyrone herein!
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Old Dec 7, 2018, 11:32 am
  #43  
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I risked a stay and suite upgrade here...and I won. Then I lost.

My stay here at the JW Marriott Austin has been a bit of a revelation. I now understand precisely how and why the JW Marriott brand fails to deliver as a luxury brand while still offering a nice but still uneven product.

A more thorough review will follow, but...

The pros:

(1) Upgraded beyond my SNA cleared Executive Corner Suite to the one Presidential Suite. It’s a truly beautiful suite with lots of well thought out spaces, wonderful views, furnishings, and just an overall nice suite. I call it corporate boardroom chic in design style.

(2) Nice location.

(3) Lots of food/beverage outlets and options.

(4) There is an Executive Lounge.

(5) Staff try to please.

(6) I was given 2 pm late checkout despite this being convention hotel.

(7) After air con fail, they did eventually get the suite bedroom to below 67 F as originally requested and promised. (It actually got as cold as 62 F!)

There the good news ended.

The cons:

(1) The air con wasn’t working at all in the suite bedroom despite reiterating that priority several days in advance—even going so far as to decline an upgrade is the lower tier room had better air con. It actually took several calls to ge the engineering team to resolve it properly. They actually first came and left without ever having done anything at all.

(2) The lobby is a zoo. The check in is a zoo. The entrance is a zoo. Nothing luxury about any of those.

(3) The elevators are slow and don’t come as often as they should. And one of the 3 elevators to the top floors didn’t seem to be working at all. These made the elevator area sometimes a zoo, too.

(4) Room service breakfast took almost an hour despite being promised in 35 min or less. The waffle was lukewarm at best. It had pecans despite a request for no pecans. The coffee was dreadful. They did comp the breakfast, thankfully.

(5) Calling any department requires being put on hold for at least a few minutes, sometimes as long as 7 minutes. Everyone seems to need to check with someone else, making me wait even longer. Sometimes, I’d call and it would put me on hold music for several minutes before someone picked up. Nothing luxury about that.

(6) No special welcome amenity with welcome note of any sort was waiting in room or delivered. I asked about it this morning and manager was surprised it didn’t get delivered last night. He said it would be delivered at noon...and it’s 12:30 pm and nothing yet.

(7) There is no phone in the Presidential Suite bedroom. Seriously! The only phone is in the living room on the desk. To call that stupid and inconvenient is an understatement.

(8) The Executive Lounge that offers the complimentary Plat breakfast benefit is only open from 6-9 am. I don’t use lounges, anyway. But I find that 9 am closing time surprisingly early for breakfast. At least 10:00-10:30 am seems more reasonable.

(9) Despite the 2 pm late checkout and the Do Not Disturb in the door, a housekeeper knocked on my door at 11 am. I was pretty irritated.


I’m glad I tried a JW. But there’s no question that the large room count makes for a unsatisfactory luxury experience by any measure. I now understand why I have always preferred W, even with its quirks. W room count is almost always much lower than this JW or most JWs IME. Service is vastly better with fewer rooms, and W service is almost always vastly superior to the service I’ve experienced here.

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Old Dec 7, 2018, 11:59 am
  #44  
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Originally Posted by bhrubin
I now understand why I have always preferred W, even with its quirks. W room count is almost always much lower than this JW or most JWs IME. Service is vastly better with fewer rooms, and W service is almost always vastly superior to the service Ive experienced here.

We have yet to try a JW, but your report makes me think we havent missed much.

I will be curious to hear your thoughts on the W if you try it next time. We received excellent service there on our visit in November 2017. We are looking forward to a return visit next year.
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Old Dec 7, 2018, 1:35 pm
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by bhrubin
I risked a stay and suite upgrade here...and I won. Then I lost.

Interesting to read you take on a JW, mirrors my impression of my one stay at one. No hurry to try a North American one again. Thanks for the review.
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