Cambria Hotel Austin Downtown — Hotel in Austin

Cambria Downtown Austin

This property is brand new. The building gives a really good first impression, the architecture is interesting, looks clean and has spacious common areas.

Location The location definitely has its upsides and its downsides. It is located between Rainey and East Streets, and if you know anything about Rainey, you’ll know you have entertainment very close. Tons of restaurants, food trucks, live music with a street magician or two thrown in for good measure. The other side faces the freeway, so it’s loud, dusty and generally not very nice to look at. The area in general is under construction, there are many many street closures and construction crews all over the place. There must be 20 buildings undergoing construction right now. This makes it difficult for ride-share, delivery or any other reason you might need to give directions to the place as to get where you need to be in a car is akin to a small miracle. If you do manage to find the place, there is valet parking in a covered garage which is nice. The other difficult thing is that the address of the hotel is on Rainey, but the entrance in on East St.

It’s an easy walk to the trail that goes along the Colorado River, so if you like to run, bike or hike it’s an nice thing to have close by.

Logistics The hotel has a small lobby on the first floor, but the front desk is on the 5th floor. Registration and check-in were flawless, and then accommodated a two hour early check-in for me.

Along with the front desk on the 5th floor is the fitness center, the pool (outdoor) a restaurant (graffiti) and a nice half-round bar.

The elevators require a card to get to any floor other than 1 or 5. I was on 11 and the rooms were very spacious with nice furnishings. The bathroom has a bluetooth mirror with a light, a large walk-in shower and all of the regular amenities. There is a desk, two benches, a chaise and a nice large bed. Alongside the bed is a wardrobe and wet station with the coffee, ice bucket and glasses.

The lights are strange. They are on a motion sensor so if you lay still long enough, the lights will go out. Kind of annoying if you don’t like to sleep in the dark.

My room had a view of - you guessed it - construction of the building next door. That’s pretty much all I can see.

The air conditioning didn’t seem to operate right anytime I was there. It was set to 68 but never got cooler than 73 and nothing I did with the thermostat seems to fix it. It was in the upper 90s when I was there and sometimes the room was too warm to be comfortable.

There was a hair longer than anything on my body in the shower and the bathroom garbage can needed to be cleaned. Other than that, the room seemed clean.

The walls were practically paper-thin. I could hear people above, below and beside me and the conversations could be heard.

The staff was friendly and helpful, especially the younger gentlemen working the overnight shifts during my stay.

Most of the hotels in the area of that class were $300-400 when I was there. The Cambria was only $125 but I doubt the hotel will be able to successfully break the $200 price point. The cleanliness and HVAC issues should be easily fixed, but you can’t fix the freeway or easily fix the...

Overall this was a pleasant stay. We stayed for 2 nights on the weekend, Fri-Sun.

What we loved: -Room was clean. Decor was modern. High end hair/body products in the room. Nice Nespresso machine. Mini Fridge. -Quiet and relaxing even with the proximity to Rainey and the interstate. We had no issues with noise and no need for the earplugs provided. -Great location to Rainey and plenty of options to take a quick Lyft/Uber, scooter ride or walk to wherever you wanted to be downtown. -Pool and Fitness center were nicer than most hotels I've stayed at. Pool has a great view of Rainey St. I love that you can hear the hustle & bustle of the city. -Great restaurant and rooftop bar with nice views of the city.

Areas that could be improved: -The staff was overall pleasant but nothing notable. There are no staff on the ground level and the staff at the front desk are off to the side on the 5th floor. They were nice when you approach but mostly don't look up from their desks. -It's confusing that the lobby is on the 5th floor and the ground floor is just a big open room with large couches with no one to greet you or signage. It would be nice for us arrving by taxi/rideshare to have signage on where to go and staff to greet you. -Quite a good number opt to not valet park because of the $49/day rate. It's not optional and there is no self park. We honestly parked somewhere else cheaper and Ubered there. -We contacted the front desk about the air conditioning and being warm in the room. They told us, "It' a quiet system and you may not hear it turn on. It might take a while to get cooler but we'll send someone up to check". We never had anyone come up to check and the room never got cooler than 72. We purchased a fan to put in the room with us and that seemed to help. -The door to the bathroom is a sliding barn style door so you can see into the bathroom and hear everything going on in there. That in combination with a "quiet AC system" is not the best if you want privacy... -The toilet is a low flow so it had to be looked at while we were there because it stopped flushing. -The water pressure in the shower is very low as well. We opted for not washing our hair because it would not rinse out the shampoo... not the best when you want to look nice for a night out. -We had vouchers for free coffee and pastries but both mornings they were out of both. Only one person seemingly working a huge restaurant/bar area and he was overwhelmed. -Restaurant upstairs is only open very limited hours. Wish we were able to visit...

The 1st room, the restroom was disgusting and hair pubic hair and everything else in the restroom. I contacted front desk to notify and no one even bothered to come clean or even offered to clean it. At 4am the air stopped working and we had to switch rooms cause ot was 82 inside of our room. The following afternoon when we went to get under the cover from cooling off, there was dried stained blood on the bed sheets. Housekeeping management came up and confirmed that it in fact blood on the sheets. Apologies were given. They sent a housekeeper to turn the room per management it would be a thorough cleaning. Upon our return i turn the sheets back and of course the same sheets were still on the bed. The sorry housekeeper did absolutely nothing once we exited besides makeup the bed. Absolutely horrifying, disgusting and outright unsanitary. I contacted the front desk and she apologized and sent someone else to strip the bed completely. The manager was nowhere to be found and never even called that morning to address the previous room issue. Of course he called the morning of checkout with the worst apology ever not taking any accountability for the things that took place or his staff. He immediately said that they've compensated my valet parking which was absurd because I never valet my vehicle to begin with. That was a slap in the face, especially from management that poor apology he could've kept as there was no sincerity behind it. His call was merely to shut me up. Trash, there were no accommodations bo real empathy, he really gave no cars in the world which is horrible and shows poor judgement and management skills. The staff needs Retraining from actual hospitality professionals as they all lack the correct words and actions in the event that an issue occurs. However, when you're under poor management, the lack of basic common sense customer service will not be present as it starts at the head (management) but it's clear they've never heard of the phrase lead by example. Furthermore I would not recommend this hotel to anyone, will never book here again and if I could give 0 stars I most definitely would've. Just disgusting, it makes me wonder what the health department would have to say about these actions as this has to be breaking some sort of...