Wow. Austin hotels have gotten expensive!! (Houston, Dallas: rentals, houses, wedding)

[orngkat]

The date is May 15 so perhaps not a good weekend. Nevertheless, I was shocked at prices I found. I'm guessing Homeaways are equally expensive.

[JH6]

So, I looked for a room on a random Thursday in downtown austin.

I came up with 200-500 dollars and UP.

Never seen anything like that in my life.

Even hotwire mystery rooms are 200 dollars.

Sorry but the Radisson downtown is not worth 300 dollars per night, nor is any other Radisson on the planet.

I booked a apartment on AIRBNB, and the day of the reservation the guy called and claimed he had a plumbing problem and cancelled the reservation. That was my only experience with AIRBNB, it was not a good one.

Lucky for me, I live in Round Rock, so I did not NEED somewhere to stay, I just wanted to do some drinking after a concert and not worry about driving home.

The cheapest "decent" place I stayed in Austin was the Omni in South Austin off the 35.

It was like 95 dollars on hotwire. It was just OK, but they call it 4 star.

95 dollars is fine. I have stayed at nice places in Fort Worth and Dallas for under 100 dollars.

[TXEX06]

Looked up hotels for this weekend and the Omni downtown is running $800 a night, W and Four Seasons in $700 range. Even little 1/1 places in the east side on AIRBNB are running close to $400.

[Aquitaine]

I booked a apartment on AIRBNB, and the day of the reservation the guy called and claimed he had a plumbing problem and cancelled the reservation. That was my only experience with AIRBNB, it was not a good one.

If you report this to AirBnb, they will usually give you a considerable credit on your account and take action against the host. They are pretty severe about hosts canceling at the last minute. Bad things still happen but they are quite responsive when they do.

[cBach]

Well, I'm kind of surprised at the rates, but I took a peak at mid July and was able to get around $180 and then looked at next January and got $150 downtown, so that shows the off season is quite a bit cheaper. Then I checked a typical non F1 fall weekend with a football game and it could be had for $250, a typical non SxSW spring weekend could be had for $280.

So the budget visitor is advised to go to Austin in the dead of winter or the heat of summer if they want deals.

What this shows us is what we already know, that Austin has a dearth of hotel rooms. Everyone on here wants to know what to invest in, well, if you want to make sure money, building a hotel is where it's at. Downtown could absorb at least 2000 rooms without a problem.

[Aquitaine]

The Statesman did an article on this today - about how many hotel rooms Austin is adding. It's a lot (unfortunately the paywall prevents access if you don't subscribe)

Downtown

[Phisch]

Maybe opt for accommodations farther from downtown and use Uber?

If looking for a wedding, outskirts might be better and arrange for a shuttle to/from the wedding?

[scm53]

Originally Posted by cBach

Downtown could absorb at least 2000 rooms without a problem.

Almost 1,100 are under construction in a single project.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by Phisch

Maybe opt for accommodations farther from downtown and use Uber?

If looking for a wedding, outskirts might be better and arrange for a shuttle to/from the wedding?

When I had my wedding (late June), Barton Creek Resort and Spa had a mid summer deal of $199. That's a pretty darn good deal! Of course, that's off season rates for Austin.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by scm53

Almost 1,100 are under construction in a single project.

Yes, and 1000 rooms just came on the market with JW Marriott which I was already including as the current market. So that leaves 900 rooms that Austin could absorb and I know of about 500 currently going in but they are smaller boutique type hotels.

When I was in New Orleans, I was comparing to Austin and it's hard to believe New Orleans has at least four 1000 room hotels within a mile of each other: Marriott, Sheraton, Hyatt Regency, and Hilton Riverside. But of course, it's hard to believe there are 28,000 downtown hotel rooms in New Orleans compared to about 8,000 in downtown Austin. Goes to show you we have some big festivals but we still aren't a major tourism destination. I predict this will change though.