Canopy by Hilton Austin Downtown — Hotel in Austin

UPDATE: I now rate the Canopy a 5-star experience after my return this year and the majority of the credit goes to the staff! The Canopy is in a great location downtown, but it is the extraordinary and friendly service by the staff who make you feel so welcome and feel like family. They are ready to step forward and meet your every need!

Special shout outs go to Otelia and Rachel at the Front Desk. Rachel responded quickly to my texts before arrival to make sure everything was in proper order, and she was at the desk to welcome us with a cheerful greeting. Otelia, again this year, also outdid herself! I met her last year, and she was one of the main reasons I booked the Canopy again for this visit. She is just exceptional and is a credit to the Hilton chain. A better employee than Otelia, I believe, would be hard to find.

The happy hour champagne welcome starting at 3pm is also a nice touch. The rooms are specious and very clean. I chose a room on the back side this time as the music from the bars on 6th street are pretty loud (until 2am on the weekends) per my last experience. Although there is a bar on the back side, it was not as loud or disruptive. The Canopy provides ear plugs and a white noise machine, but we did not need them on this stay.

When I return to Austin, I will choose this Canopy location again. It is just perfect, which makes for an enjoyable stay. Hats off to the entire Canopy crew.

PREVIOUS: This was my first time in Austin, and I decided to use my Hilton Honors points to stay here for three nights. The place is very nice and the service staff at the front desk is outstanding!! Special shout outs to Otelia and Clayne! Otelia welcomed us and asked if we would like glasses of sparkling wine to start. She informed us that The Canopy had happy hour everyday starting at 3pm and that we could bring down our glasses for additional complimentary sparkling wine throughout our weekend. (We did just that - several times!) Clayne was the Night Front Desk Manager (I believe) and also was very accommodating and attentive to our needs. Hats off to both!

There is a great bar and restaurant on site. (I highly recommend the tiramisu as it is a big portion and is probably the best tiramisu I had anywhere.) The service in the bar, including the hostesses at the restaurant stand, were exceptional. One of them even was willing to bring our desserts up to the room! We had the oysters and a flatbread in the bar, as well as breakfast in the courtyard, and everything was perfect.

They also have four bikes available for use. They are complimentary and can be used on a first come, first served basis. However, you are unable to reserve them in advance. We got to use them on Monday morning as we rode around Lady Bird Lake. This was definitely a nice plus.

The rooms are nice and come equipped with a steamer for your clothes (at least in the double queen room we booked). The only reason I gave this review four stars rather than five is due to the noise level outside with the bars located across 6th Street. We were upgraded to a room with an "urban view", but had I known about the noise level, I would have turned down the "upgrade". Saturday night the music was so loud up until midnight or shortly thereafter, that it was difficult to sleep. Sunday night wasn't much better, but it definitely was not as loud. The Canopy provides ear plugs and a white noise machine in the room, but we did not bother to use either. If you prefer a quiet sleeping arrangement, do not get a room facing 6th St!

Overall, it was a good experience, and I would consider returning to The Canopy the next time I am in Austin. However, I will avoid rooms facing 6th street, especially on...

We were here for Brad’s 38th birthday party. We weren’t invited, but we were at the pool when he showed up with his friends. We had guacamole and a delicious burger and fries from the bar - notably, the bar only has two kinds of beer: Modelo and Miller light. Everything else is a seltzer. People showed up at the party asking if Brad had purchased seltzer for them, and when they found out he hadn’t, they were disappointed and took out their own credit cards to purchase seltzer, so I guess seltzer is a thing now…I didn’t know seltzer was a thing. But I’ve been pregnant or breastfeeding for 3 years now so I guess I missed something. Anyway, the party started out with some pretty good music – “she’s dancing like a stripper” was one song that Brad decided to turn down when he saw my son walking by, which was thoughtful. But then they brought out a speaker system that literally has a dial that “turns it all the way up to 11,” which started pumping out bass-heavy music at about 80 or 90 dB. Above 70 dB causes hearing damage, so my infant and I decided to leave after I attempted to turn down the music and a bro quickly intervened and turned it back up. We did enjoy the pool though, and my two year-old was welcome there in spite of all the other adults being childless and most of them dressed in thongs or other similar attire that people in their pre-child days seem to prefer. I think Brad‘s 38th birthday party was a success, but I am concerned that he will suffer major hearing loss by the time he is 39.

The hotel itself has beautiful decor and design details, including a long Koi fish pond with adorable little Koi fish swimming around inside of it, a spacious restaurant we unfortunately did not get to sit down in, two levels of lounging space including the pool, and very fast elevators. I felt that safety was a priority because you needed to use a key card to go up or down in the elevators to any floor. When my key card stopped working because I was only there for the day, they were very kind and quickly fixed the problem without delay. The cleaning crew were also very kind to us and got our room cleaned very quickly so that we could move in fast. We appreciated the sound machine in the room as it allowed our sons to nap better in the middle of the day (though it was quiet anyway). We were just there while we were waiting for our house to be toured by strangers during an open house. We did end up getting an offer on our home, which made the stay at the Canopy even better, though bittersweet, since we won’t have such a good excuse to come back.

You may not know this, but you can book a room for the day and use their amenities for a lower price than for staying overnight. It’s a way for the hotel to use vacant rooms. The actual room that we stayed in was very nice, had two queen beds, all the amenities you would expect, including espresso machine, relaxation tea and earplugs, shower, tub and linens, soap and shampoo and body wash, comfortable beds and pillows, plenty of towels, and 2 robes. I probably wouldn’t spend the night here because it’s in the bar district, but if you’re drunk enough, you probably won’t hear any noise anyway, because you’ll be sleeping on the bathmat next to the toilet.

So if you’re in your 20s or 30s…or even late 30s/40s like us, this is definitely a great place to party or relax. For a quick dip in the pool and a stay for the day it was very nice....

Addendum: I want to highlight how fast the management was at addressing this issue. I received a call from management within 30 minutes of this post, and was informed this issue will be looked into, and titrated as appropriate per guest needs. I commence.the team highly in their speedy response and considerations, which is reflected in the new 5 star review as per above. Hope this post is of help to others as well.

To preface-the staff were kind and overall the room is spacious and nicely laid out, so I tried calling and asking for guest relations first before writing the review, as low reviews can really hurt an establishment. However, when I called the number listed on some of the low reviews (which is their front desk number by the way), I was informed there is no guest relations person whom I can speak with, thus I will voice my thoughts below.

The hotel has a very strong scent in the room that may be pleasant for some but nauseating for others. Particularly, I also have asthma and had multiple asthma attacks in the room. Despite opening the balcony door for hours, I still smelt whiffs of the strong scent and called to ask if there was a diffuser in the room. To my surprise, I was told the “the signature Canopy scent is diffused throughout our air vents”- meaning unless I shut off the AC and cover the vent, there is NO WAY to not smell the scent. As such, I turned off the AC and kept my balcony door open to sleep- paired with other’s comment regarding the club next door with music till 2am, and the danger of having an open balcony door on the second floor…you can probably imagine how well I slept, and thus I checked out of the hotel early and rebooked my travels home (without refund of course, as I booked non-refundable). Now…this is with 70 degrees weather in Austin…imagine if it was 100 degrees, which happens ½ of the year in Texas…

I would HIGHLY ENCOURAGE the hotel to re-think diffusing scents through their air vent, as reactive airway is a very common disease, and one of the most common triggers for an airway attack is strong scent- to force someone to smell for the duration of their stay without any way to “opt out” is unacceptable in my opinion. If the hotel is very attached to their signature scent, consider sprits within the room by housekeeping- as this allows guests to say no if they do not want to be constantly bombarded by a scent they don’t want, or, in my case, is an actual health hazard. If change is made, will of course, revise my current rating (would actually, want to give a 10 star in that case as it shows the establishment is listening to constructive comments...