Sleep Inn & Suites Austin - Northeast — Hotel in Austin

The place looked clean but it definitely didn’t smell clean. The front desk area was fine, but it’s by the front door. Once checked in you go down the hallways it just smells stale. Got to the third floor and it was even more stale, almost smelled like pet urine or old cigarettes in the hallways. Not once did we smell cleaner in the air, but observed comet and some yellow spray on the cleaning ladies cart. The rooms were okay, but again ours smelled so stale, like it hadn’t been stayed in, in a while. We actually was there for a medical procedure and didn’t have time to change hotels or we would have. We improvised by bringing my car spray air freshener to the room and using that to freshen the room. It worked, thankfully. No matter how much we tried to help the hallway within minutes it was stale smelling again. We actually observed an other guests using febreeze in the hallway so we know it wasn’t just us. Also, there was on day when we came back from a medical appointment and saw someone cleaning the hallway. The vacuum cleaner was going and the smell was getting worse. Perhaps a new vacuum cleaner, some actual cleaning products that leave the place smelling clean, and some air fresheners could make things better. I can’t comment on the breakfast because the smell was so stale we couldn’t get out of there and to the medical appointments fast enough each morning, so we opted to eat elsewhere. The front desk staff were friendly though, beds comfortable, ac worked, bathrooms were good, and yea everything was clean. It just smelled stale. Again, a change in cleaning methods and products could go a long way. Had we not needed to get someone and stay put for multiple back to back medical appointments, we would have changed hotels after the first day, but it wasn’t possible, so we just dealt with it. We won’t stay at that particular hotel in Austin...

Day one of being here. I have to start off by saying that hotel staff has been very nice and it is SXSW weekend and week. We had called several times to inform them of our late arrival. They were nice over the phone. Woke up excited about the breakfast to find a mess and a lady running around like crazy trying to replenish everything they were running out of. She had no help. My thing is, as management that knew what type of week they’d have, why was there no extra help for this lady from the beginning. Housekeeping showed up and started helping her towards the end of breakfast. If you know it’s a full hotel, have plenty of staff. This is not her fault at all. It’s management. Needless to say, I did not eat breakfast. Two of the people with me ate what was available and stood around waiting for some of the other things. Glad we weren’t on a time frame. I also found fake eyelashes in our bed, indicating to me that maybe our beds weren’t done at all before our arrival. The room looked “clean” upon arrival. They have one more night for me to update this review. I hope I can say that they remediated the situation. Update: I did not go check out the breakfast the next morning. No idea whether it was the same as Saturday morning and didn’t bother. Pros: location is close to everything, calm and relaxed for the most part, the pillows were soft, and I felt safe being there. Cons: The bed was not comfortable. The shower head in 305 needs to be fixed. I asked for another iron before we left for the day and it never got there. It was there when I got back from our outing though. Lighting in restroom is poor. Suggestions: more lighting in the restroom, frequent monitoring of hallways (people smoking weed near us), better breakfast service when hotel is full. Update with a bathtub, at least for some of the rooms. It was hard giving our little...

My expectations are high for Choice hotels because they have always been exceeded with every stay.

The good:

I was allowed an early check in Pet fee was great Hotel was located in a good spot

The bad:

The bed was horrible The breakfast was lukewarm ALL THREE DAYS! The hotel staff ( minus the gentleman that worked late nights) were not very approachable. They weren't smiling and as a Choice Privileges member I've always gotten bottles of water or a little gift bag however I wasn't even recognized as a Choice Privileges member. I asked for a room close to a exit and I didn't get one. Late checkouts should exceed an hour especially on a weeknight. I can definitely understand weekends but I checked out on a Tuesday and only got an hour later for checkout. We did have the do not disturb sign on the door however every other hotel we've stayed at housekeeping has at least knocked or had the front desk to call to see if we wanted the towels replaced. The late evening coffee was clearly there from the mornings and it tasted horrible.

This was by far one of the most lackluster stays I've had in all my years of being a Choice Privileges Member.

Lastly.. I asked the young lady who checked us in to go ahead and charge my card immediately. We were doing some shopping and I didn't want to accidentally overspend. As a result I have 8 current charges to my account and she says that they will all fall off and only the correct amounts are authorized. I have yet...