Lakeway Resort & Spa — Hotel in Lakeway

I am not really sure this should be called a resort, at least not during the week days. It's a good size hotel with a pool with an adults-only area and an area for kids. Unfortunately, since we stayed the week(days) after Labor Day, most of the staff was off, the swim-up pool bar is closed during the week. So, resort fee and prices with none of the resort benefits. I get it's the beginning of the off season but people coming to the “resort” on the weekdays should have the same options as those on the weekends and holidays, be a resort 7 days a week, 365 days a year. There was a bartender, trying to stay busy and a food server on her phone up at the TR restaurant that could have very easily walked to the pool area to take orders from the 10 people that were there while we were. I walked up there to the bathroom. Lost money right there folks! I came there to be waited on, which did not happen. At least they had music playing at the pool.

When we first walked into the lobby we were assaulted with a heavy perfume type air scent, makes one wonder what odor they are covering up, until one walks down the hall to their room. There is musty, damp smell that thankfully does not follow into the room. Our room was less than we had expected. Reviews that say this place is outdated are quite correct. There are stains on the ceiling and carpet, found a cleaning rag on the floor behind a table. The room is grossly lacking in outlets. Lighting is ok at best. The tags on our sheets were at the head of the bed, not at the foot like they should be. This caused me to think “Were people’s feet on this part of the sheets at some point?” No one wants to think about that! The TV was too small for the room, not that we were there to watch TV, but a bigger one would be nice when we did have it on and the remote, half the buttons did nothing, some of the buttons did not do what they we labeled to do. I will say the bed was for the most part comfortable, once I got past the people’s feet question. I know they’ve been washed…in a hotel laundry, so. We had a balcony with a view of the lake and that was nice. We didn’t order room service, but opted to run to HEB and have muffins and coffee on the balcony for breakfast. We only ate one meal at the hotel; at the TR it was terrible. (But this not TR’s review.) There is one shared microwave for the floor, very inconvenient. The refrigerator in our room did not really work so we had to keep chilled items in a cooler that we had to fill repeatedly with ice.

The staff was extremely polite and helpful. Denise at the front desk was friendly and funny, she made sure we knew where everything was, gave us lists of local restaurants and wineries. Denise picked up on that fact that I am a big coffee drinker and made sure I had plenty. Little things like that are nice! There was another lady there; I didn’t get her name that was very nice as well. The corner pantry came in very handy for drinks and a few snacks. We did get one drink each at the Back Porch Lobby Bar, it was ok, but...

Overall, Lakeway was enjoyable. When we got there, the front desk staff were friendly and started a text thread if we needed to follow up with them for anything. I didn’t use it though. They also accommodated my pregnant wife with extra pillows and a room near the elevator. Plus, it’s pet friendly.

The room (King Lakeview with Balcony) was a nice size and ours had a private patio (nice view of the lake). No issues with cleanliness or anything to that affect. However, a few things I disliked about the room. The TV was small, probably somewhere between 32-40 inches. Also, I couldn’t set my Roku up because of how they modified the TVs, which sucked because there’s only like 40 channels. There’s no microwaves in the rooms, but there is a common area microwave where the ice machine is and a mini fridge in the room. I also noted limited outlets compared to other hotel/resorts I’ve stayed at. The bed was pretty comfortable and the pillows were typical hotel pillows. I slept pretty good overall.

The bathroom (primary room complaint) was small and not well ventilated. My wife and I could not fit in the bathroom at the same time and if the door was open, you couldn’t access the shower. However, the shower has good water pressure, but the shower head doesn’t allow for much maneuverability when lathering up. In our room, the tub was slightly clogged, water constantly ran out the shower to the floor, and whenever we flushed the toilet, it sounded like it would explode. Plus, the bathroom door was hard to open when closed (very heavy). These seem like things housekeeping would note during cleaning and relay to maintenance.

*I forgot to do a room video.

The gym was decent. Machines, smith-press, free weights (up to 50lbs.), cardio, etc. You can definitely get a good workout there, but don’t expect to get your normal routine done in there.

The pool area is probably the highlight of the resort. There are separate adult and family areas, which is nice. There’s a swim up bar in the adult area, but it wasn’t open while we were there. That said, plenty of chairs, umbrellas, towels, etc. No, the pool is not heated, so be ready for that, but the view of the lake from the pool area is great. There are great views from a lot of different spots around the resort, so be ready to take pictures.

The TR Restaurant is cool. Decent menu but it’s under construction currently, so one side wasn’t open. It wasn’t crowded when we went and we ate there several times, but I think this might be their offseason (May?). Again, friendly staff, good quality of food, but a tad pricey likely because it’s a resort restaurant.

In short, I would likely stay here again, but definitely a different style of room and during a time when more guests are present. The rating would ideally be a 3.5, but I did 4 for Google. Oh, and one random thing, walking around the resort, I could never find...

We just got home from our stay here and I have very mixed feelings about it all. The property itself is very nice and the views of the lake are lovely. We stayed in a lake view room and enjoyed the balcony and watching the boats go by.

The gym was a highlight, so I’m going to start there. It’s open 24 hours, was very clean and had a large variety of equipment, including Peloton bikes, treadmills, a rack and total body machines.

The room itself was very outdated. We could tell that there were leak issues at some point in our room and there were stains on the carpet. The tv is on the smaller side and doesn’t have any “smart options” to sign into your own streaming services. The bed was comfortable, so that helped.

After a long day of travel and unpacking I went to shower and found someone else’s razor still in there, so not sure how well our room was cleaned, the shampoo was also almost empty. The knob for the shower was also very loose, so adjusting the water temp was interesting. The toilet paper holder had a similar issue with being loose and the roll would fall off. There was also a chunk of the lower corner bathroom door that was also missing/damaged but never repaired.

There was also a door in our room that lead to another room (for adjoining room needs) that seemed thin. The noise that came through from the other room was loud our first 2 nights there)

I admit, we should have contacted the front desk but we were too tired, and decided to just deal with it. However, for the money spent on the room and resort fees charged, it’s something that should have never happened.

My husband paid extra for the RISE package, which gives you a breakfast credit each day, but we regretted it. The food at the on-site restaurant was not good at all. We had dinner there our first night, and it was overpriced and subpar. I had the short ribs with gnocchi and he had the butternut squash ravioli. Both lacked diversity of flavor. My dish came swimming in a greasy, sauce and the “roasted root vegetables” were almost non existent. We had breakfast there two mornings since we had the RISE package, but continued to be disappointed, so we went off site after that and took a loss on the package.

The pools looked beautiful but we did not get to experience them since the weather did not cooperate during our visit.

Also, this is a pet friendly hotel, which we did not realize, so if you have allergies, this might not be a good fit for you.

Overall, we left feeling underwhelmed by the experience here.

(Should have taken more photos, but I only wanted to remember...