Hotels Near Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum in Austin

I arrived at the Stephen F Austin Royal Sonesta at 2am after a delayed flight. It took 20 minutes for me to check-in due to issues with the hotel computer system. It might have been worth the wait, because I was upgraded to a suite. But I'd say that the suite was quirky: two rooms, nice furnishings, but no amenities. For example, the bar area in the living space had a sink but no accessories or drinks that you might expect to find on a bar. I fell asleep at 3am, and was woken at 8:45am by construction noises directly behind my bed. The noises included loud voices, drilling, banging, and scraping. Even with top-of-the-line ear plugs, it still woke me up. When I reported this issue via text message, the hotel manager looked into it instantly. He was on my floor talking to the hotel engineers by the time that I left my room. The manager recognized that I was the guest who had complained about noise, and apologized. He let me know that the work was supposed to be completed later in the day, and expressed sympathy for my rough morning. The manager set me up with some perks that made my stay more enjoyable and made up for the bad experience. So, all's well that ends well. The rest of my stay was good, especially because the hotel was in a really convenient location -- walking distance from my business meetings, restaurants, and tourist sites.

Came to town for a concert and chose the Hilton for its proximity to Moody Center and lovely photos of the property. From the moment we pulled in and were greeted by the valet staff, to checking in with Chris Hartfield (sp?) at the front desk, we knew we’d picked the right place. Chris was very welcoming and even worked to get us into a larger room which was not available online. He was so kind, gave us information to help us with our evening around town and made us feel at home. Our room was clean and spacious, the decor was nice and beds/bedding was very comfortable. We chose to take a Lyft to the event but took a nice walk thru Austin on the way back to enjoy the city. Highly recommend and wish we could have stayed longer.

In the words of Bette Davis, “What a Dump.” In its favor, we had a nice view of Lady Bird Lake from our window, which was pretty to wake up to, and the water pressure in the shower was great! The bathroom seemed partially updated and was pretty decent. Free parking, too. There were a few HBO channels on tv. However, the hotel is very dated and not very clean looking. The indoor parking garage was filthy and was dimly lit. Didn’t feel very safe in there, so we parked in the outside lot whenever possible. No greeting from the night time desk clerk when we came back from dinner, as she seemed to purposely be avoiding eye contact with us (she wasn’t on the phone or busy with someone else). The elevators were very smudgy and too dark, also. The beds slumped a bit in the middle, the linens were old and tired looking, and the chair in the corner looked worse than some I’ve put by the curb. An old leak on the ceiling was poorly patched up, and there were stains on the desk chair, carpet and walls. The door to the adjoining room didn’t provide enough sound proofing, as I heard our neighbor’s phone convo loud and clear. The pool area didn’t look very inviting, as there were no umbrellas or trees to block the strong sun. We wanted to stay in downtown Austin to be within walking distance to things, so this was the least expensive option. But not much could be walked to from there, and the area it was in was a bit sketchy, so we ended up taking Ubers, anyway. We had booked our last night at a hotel in the Arboretum area, because this one went up to a ridiculously high amount for Friday night (music festival in town), and it ended up being just as convenient to take an Uber from there (15-20 mins) to downtown. Plus, the hotel was much nicer and way less expensive. Live and learn.

To begin, the atmosphere is lively! I am a lively person, but being there for business I was sad that I didn’t have more energy to truly enjoy the experience. This is a great hotel for a bachelorette or weekend getaway for sure! First, the front desk ladies are super friendly and welcoming— they also provided a poker chip for a complimentary drink. The bar was great as well and I thoroughly enjoyed the signature cocktail. The bartenders were very nice and accommodating. On to the room... small, but honestly, the cleanest room I’ve ever seen! It reminds me of European rooms which are small, but the fun isn’t in the room, right?! Very pleased with the comfortable and clean room. I’ll certainly return for pleasure on the next round :)

Stinky room and hotel!!! I will never go back to this hotel ever I was not impressed with anything at this hotel and for the price they charge you can get sooooo much better with free food drinks etc, I know cause I stayed at another one 15min away from there! The only thing I can say that was good is it was a very quite hotel, I only stayed one night but during that time it was very quite and the guy did change our rooms immediately because of the smoke smell

This hotel has all the basics: spacious rooms, comfortable beds, very decent continental breakfast, and everything works. However, it is in desperate need of a face lift - new carpets, upholstery, etc. There is a strong smell of ”old”. We went first to a Target to buy air freshener which we used liberally in both rooms all three days we were there. If you can deal with that, this hotel provides good value.

Unfortunately my husband and I will not choose to stay at this hotel again. (We stayed recently overnight in late March, 2023, before catching a plane the next day.) Pros: the staff working the Night Shift upon our arrival was courteous and tried to be helpful, and the morning breakfast was acceptable. However this did not make up for the hotel’s shortcomings which were numerous—as I will outline here. Cons: (1) the microwave had no plate and was therefore unusable until shortly before we checked out, when at last someone located a replacement plate. (2) the carpet was dirty with visible stains (3) the window shade would not open properly (4) the very heavy dishwasher door fell open unexpectedly several times, once hitting me (hard!) on the leg. (this was especially concerning since the dishwasher is installed in the entrance to the room and one must walk past it to enter or exit the room) (5) the dishwasher leaked water onto the floor, posing a slipping hazard (the water was hard to see ) (6) there were unsightly yellow stains on the bedding of one bed (7) no toaster was provided (8) the water coming from the two faucets smelled and tasted like mold. After returning from our trip we outlined all of these problems in an email message to the manager on duty, but we have never received any sort of reply from him. (We tried to reach him several times by phone before we left the hotel, but he could not be reached)

We pulled in about 2:00 am. We were tired and pleased to find a place near the airport at a reasonable rate. Our plan was to relocate to a better/different place in the morning. It turned out that the staff and facility were so good, we extended our stay for a few more days. A huge THANK YOU to the staff at the Wyndham Airport location. A great value because of the great staff!

Front Desk Shante was a delight!! EVERYTHING a guest needed to know about the hotel and surrounding eateries was right there! I showed up road weary and was greeted with a beaming smile, fantastic disposition, and unchallenged professionalism. The room was clean, quiet, loaded with the necessary amenities and downright comfortable. The proximity to the Capital was a huge plus for a Monday morning commute!!

It’s a little far from downtown but very convenient to the highway, so it’s not a dealbreaker. Super clean. Price was right.