Sonesta Select Austin North — Hotel in Austin

Our family came in for a college football weekend. Summary of our experience for you to determine yourself if it's a good fit.

PROS: Location. Easy access to I-35 & 183. Only 12 mins to UT-Austin campus. Even closer to excellent restaurants, Academy, Walmart. Spacious rooms. We had 3 adults and 2 kids (9 y.o. and 11 y.o.) in two queen rooms. Both had pull-out sofas and mini-fridges. Only one had a microwave. Lots of room to spread out. A local friend visited one night, and we hung out in the sitting area of one of the rooms. Clean room and friendly housekeeping staff. Our rooms did not come with "Do Not Disturb"/"Please Service Our Room" signs, so we proactively found the cleaning staff in the morning and requested new towels, vacuuming, etc. Fitness Center has a high-quality treadmill, elliptical, recumbent bike, and full set of weights. Affordable and free parking. Many hotels in the area require a minimum of 2-night stay and charge a daily parking fee, esp during football season.

CONS: Location. It's not the safest area. Bring everything from your car inside. Also park under the street lamps close to the lobby to deter break-ins. We were just fine. Free breakfast was terribly disappointing! See pic. Fri we went down at 8:15am - well before breakfast was over. All they had was the pancake griddle, overcooked sausage, egg patties, 2 kinds of dry cereal, and no milk. On Sat, we arrived at 7:30am. They had added bagels, Go-gurt, and oatmeal. The worst thing was they ran out of styrofoam cups, so I drank my morning coffee out of a bowl! They must've gotten the weekly delivery for Sun breakfast, because they finally had a pitcher of milk, apple juice, fresh biscuits, juicier sausage, muffins, white bread, whole oranges and apples. That is the level of breakfast I was expecting every morning. Pool. My niece and nephew were looking forward to swimming at the end of each day, but we found out the pool was locked with a padlock that only the manager can open. When we got in, the water was dirty with dead bugs and hair. There were also fire ants on the decking and lounge chairs. Def not a kid-friendly environment. Room safety/privacy. The main door to my room did not close behind me, so I had to pull it closed and make sure it was locked. Fortunately, I noticed when going across the hall to our other room. Very easy to walk away leaving your room open to anyone in the hotel all day.

Overall, we had a decent stay. I will probably try a different place next time I'm in town. It's up to you if the pros...

After a shocking discovery of an Unauthorized Charge ($87.75) on my credit card from Hyatt Place Austin TX. a couple days after I checked out, I am Updating my review to reflect my disappointment in their service and management of this place! Although the place was decently nice and quiet, that is Nothing compared to them (with No consent) Charging my Credit Card another $87.75 charge AFTER I've already paid everything for my hotel stay! When I noticed the Unauthorized Charge on my Credit Card I called the hotel and spoke with the clerk on duty which told me that Extra Charge was noted as a extra charge for a "Pet Cleaning fee", which i explained to him that we didn't have any pet with us and told him that we were in town for the weekend visiting my wife's brother who lived in Austin and although my wife's brother did come to the hotel to visit us there and asked if his little 3 pound shiatsu pup could come so he didn't have to leave in his truck, I said yes that should be fine, after I checked the app where I booked the hotel and it stayed they are "Pets welcomed" or "Pet friendly", I Certainly didn't think it would be a problem for him to have his little dog come with him for the hour or so that he was there, especially when he held him most of the time, there was No "Pet Cleaning" that was even needed!! So I am quite sure that they didn't use $87.75 to "Pet Clean" the room because there was Nothing to Clean!..Nothing! And after speaking with the hotel clerk and said that he couldn't do anything about it, this completely changed my mind about their conduction of business and will NEVER stay there Nor at another business affiliated with them ever again!! And, of course, needless to say, I will Definitely be disputing this charge through my financial institution and contacting the corporate boss to file a complaint and let them Completely aware of my disappointment and dissatisfaction of this experience with their branch! I travel a lot for business and stay in hotels on average 100 days per year and have Never had a problem like this out of numerous Hotel brands! This is a 1st, and I just want to make people aware of them so you don't end up with any surprise charges on your account for something so seemingly ridiculous!! Best to all travelers out there, My advice-Avoid this Hotel anytime possible! And Beware and Be careful if you do so happen to end up...

I stayed here last weekend for two nights. This is the worst experience I’ve ever had at a hotel and I would caution everyone to STAY AWAY from this place. Especially after reading other reviews, they are clearly in the practice of taking advantage of their customers.

This is our experience: After being out for a few hours, we returned to the hotel and noticed that our room smelled like smoke. Before we could even take our shoes off and settle in, the front desk lady, BARGES into our room. And let’s be clear, they DID NOT knock and notify us in any way that they were entering our room before they came through the door (after looking into hotel laws, I will note that this is also an ILLEGAL action by hotel staff in this scenario). We were immediately rudely accused of smoking in our room. We assured the management that we were not smoking in the room and that we had just gotten there. We thought the situation was resolved. Then at about 1am in the morning, we woke up to POUNDING on the door and another accusation of smoking in the room. Let’s be clear that there was no smoking of any kind at any time in the room. There was also no evidence that we were smoking in the room, and we even insisted that the owner check our suitcases, the room, our car for any evidence of smoking. WE ARE NOT SMOKERS. The owner refused to hear our side or pay attention to clear evidence that we were not smoking in the room. We continued our stay, only to check out and receive more than $500 in fees for smoking in the room.We have been back to the hotel twice after our stay to try to get this sorted out and we are consistently told that the manager is not in and we will be contacted later. On one visit, an employee even told us that they found out it was the room next to ours that was smoking. Unsurprisingly, we have not heard anything from the manager. This is completely unacceptable by this hotel’s management. Not only was our stay interrupted rudely, and illegally, twice by hotel staff, but we have been taken advantage of with absurd, baseless fees with NO evidence, and a clear admission from an employee that they know we were not smoking in the room. I will just end by saying, beware of this hotel and its management. I will edit this post if I ever hear back from the hotel and they decide to make this situation right, otherwise I would advise you to stay away...