Thompson Austin, by Hyatt — Hotel in Austin

An unfortunate waste of time and failure of the property to follow through as agreed to at time of booking. As a WOH Globalist Elite with Ambassador service and over 180 nights in Hyatt properties last night we are per the WOH T&A entitled to complimentary upgrades up to standard suites. The day before arrival I contacted the property and confirmed the availability of standard suites, and provided my reservation confirmation number. The upgrade was confirmed by the front desk agent. Upon viewing the WOH app later that evening I noticed the reservation had not been upgraded as promised and contacted the property, as the several standard suites were still available. As the agent said the website was wrong that it wouldn't allow the booking, if it lets me book it then reservations would just be merged. So I did as instructed and booked a suite. I was then instructed a manager would call me in the morning to get it all sorted, which wasn't ideal as the city was extremely busy. The following morning I didn't receive a call, so I called early afternoon and spoke to the front office manager. He claimed the agents were not qualified to handle the "special attention globalists require" and were unequipped to provide the proper information. He told me he was only made aware of my reservation after my initial call the previous day. This struck me as incredibly bizarre, as he was stating his agents were inadequate, further, if he was aware of my reservation and I required "special attention" why hadn't he contacted me himself? At the end of the day, the front office manager simply didn't want to provide a standard suite upgrade as the WOH member agreement states. He claimed suites were only available for purchase, and not for an upgrade, for which there is no distinction in the member agreement. He even tried to charge me a cancellation fee, despite failing to address this issue in a proper and timely manner, and his agents stated they would upgrade my reservation initially. He finally agreed to cancel them at no charge, but failed to provide an explanation why I was never contacted and given the "proper attention and information" despite being fully aware of the situation. The end result is a full day of my time being wasted needlessly, the hotel providing a very frustrating and negative experience to a very loyal member, who is now left scrambling to find a room elsewhere at the very last minute. The experience was so bad I would rather pay a higher premium to stay elsewhere than continue having my time wasted and provided with negligent and rude service which clearly violated the World of Hyatt Terms and Conditions. It's a shame as I typically like Thompson Hotels. Based on this experience, however, it's unlikely I will go out of my way to attempt...

My stay here went well. I booked with a Prive rate, which gave me a 1 category room upgrade at booking, and I was further upgraded at check in to a 1 King Corner room with my Globalist status.

The front desk was quite welcoming, proactively adding 4pm late checkout along with explaining both my Prive and Globalist benefits.

The room was spacious with lots of natural light due to all the large windows. The Thompson bedding I’ve come to love is exactly as comfortable as I expect it to be here.

Soundproofing of the room was not great, both the windows and the main door into the hallways let in a significant amount of noise. Fortunately the music from the bar across the street stopped before bedtime and since the room’s at the end of the hallway, there’s very little foot traffic.

The shower pressure was good, although the stream of water was a little narrower than I prefer. There’s also no shower door, which is a pet peeve of mine with some modern hotel designs.

The location is a bit away from the main hustle and bustle of Congress Ave, but it’s still a close walk away.

The breakfast was a little confusing with some conflicting information, Prive is a $60/day credit but for Globalists an email said $25/person, the letter just said no brunch (which I don’t think the restaurant even serves anymore), while the front desk said it’s completely covered. I definitely prefer a full comp within reason, since it makes it easy for me, and it seems like in practice that’s what happened.

One thing to note though is that all the restaurants at the property can be pretty busy, so be sure to budget extra time for waiting. I do wish there was some way to get priority seating or reservations as a guest of the hotel.

For the Prive welcome amenity, I received a plate of macaroons and they were fantastic. Comped charges were taken off my folio every once in a while, however I did still have to go check out in person to get the last morning’s...

Overall, our stay at the Thompson Austin was a mixed bag. Some aspects were excellent, while others left a lot to be desired. My wife ordered room service, and no silverware was brought with the meal. It took her several calls and a few hours back down to guest services to get them to bring up silverware so she could eat her meal. We were offered turndown service when we checked in, but housekeepers only performed this service two out of the three nights we stayed there. This hotel does not allow guests to access ice machines. Instead, they require that you call guest services and ask for an ice bucket to be brought to the room. This is fine, I would expect this from a hotel at this price point; however, it should not take multiple calls and more than an hour to get a bucket of ice brought to the room. If the hotel does not have the ability to provide this service in a timely manner, they should allow guests to access ice machines directly. The light switches in the room were confusing and difficult to operate. When we checked in, we were incorrectly informed that the free breakfast credit applied to both the Diner Bar and the Grey Market, when in fact it was only for the Grey Market. This resulted in us mistakenly spending our own money on breakfast one day. Unfortunately, it appeared that the Grey Market was not fully staffed, and our waitress and the rest of the staff appeared quite stressed out. On the positive side, the individuals working at the front desk were wonderful and very helpful throughout our entire time there. We were upgraded when we arrived to a room with a wonderful view. Both restaurants in the lobby were delicious. The decor was tasteful and truly felt luxurious. Overall, it appears that this relatively new hotel has high aspirations for guest services and experience, but falls short in some areas and has a few kinks to work out in order to meet...