Rant I had over a thousand dollars in FHR credit that I'd accumulated from my Amex Platinum. Came to Austin to burn through it. Originally I was going to stay in the suburbs, but there's no THC out there, so I switched to downtown. I picked this one because it gives breakfast. Full name: The Driskill - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt Google rating 4.6, looks pretty solid, right? After checking in... I realized how little I've experienced... I can honestly say I've never stayed at a Hyatt that felt like this... We arrived late at night, all exhausted. No slippers. We searched for a while and couldn't find any. Later they came to look too, still nothing, and eventually they brought us two pairs. When we were ready for bed, no toothbrushes... Called and they said they'd send some, agreed but nobody came. We were too tired and went to sleep. Woke up the next morning, chased them again for toothbrushes, still nobody came. We were in a hurry to go out. Came back at night, asked again for them to be delivered, still nobody came. Dragged on until late, we wanted to sleep and couldn't wait anymore. I called and blew up, and finally they brought them. The toothbrush quality was terrible... the handle was super flimsy... the bristles were rock hard... Now about the environment: The whole hotel has this American TV mystery drama vibe. I looked it up and apparently this hotel is the one that's haunted or whatever (don't get me wrong, staying positive here!) We stayed on the 5th floor. I also checked out the 4th floor. Aside from the 1st and 2nd floors, the other floors are basically all the same, like a maze, really winding, I kept feeling lost. The layout is simple yet complicated, like a maze (easy version). The surrounding decor is way too similar, gives you that feeling of, you know, hitting walls. The first couple of days I kept getting turned around. The first night... at 2:17 AM there was a drilling sound for a few minutes. Can't figure out why a hotel would have that sound in the middle of the night. Plus during the day I'd seen people saying this place is haunted or whatever, so I couldn't sleep even more, scrolled on my phone. An hour later, past 3 AM, more drilling sounds... I didn't sleep at all until morning, went straight to breakfast. The breakfast tasted decent, except the second day after eating I had diarrhea so bad I was rolling around in pain, took some medicine and it got better. Some of the servers were very friendly. The first day I said our room includes free breakfast, my kid wanted a donut, I didn't see it on the menu, so I asked if they had donuts. He said yes and brought one over. To avoid any hassle later, I swallowed my pride and directly asked him, is this part of our free breakfast? He kept hemming and hawing, vague and evasive. So I just said, go confirm whether this costs money or is free. If it costs money we don't want it (my kid wanted chocolate, he brought cinnamon sugar). If it's free we'll keep it. He said okay, went to ask, came back and said it won't be charged, it's free. Then that same day I saw a charge of over $293... (deposit and prepaid were both charged before the previous day). My partner and I went to the front desk separately to ask what this charge was. The front desk said it was strange too. We brought up whether the breakfast was this charge. The front desk said the donut indeed costs money, it's not free... but it wouldn't be that much. The whole hotel has a very historic feel (extremely old). Not sure if it was because of the rain, but it felt a bit musty... Daily housekeeping is just standard American level... Since we had $100 to spend on food, the first day we arrived late, 8:30 PM, we were all hungry. The menu said it closes at 9. After ordering, nobody brought it for ages. Chased twice, it finally came close to 10 PM. Prices were okay, $25 for a burger and fries type stuff. Later, because of some inexplicable charges, I learned that the tip is automatically deducted without you knowing or approving it... $100 credit, $50 of food, tax definitely under $5, tip automatically deducted over $20, now $25 left... Only after asking did they mention the tip was deducted... but didn't say how much. These past two days it rained heavily. First time here, no experience. Going out, I saw the doormen at the entrance all had umbrellas. There's a huge storage warehouse right by the main entrance, behind them. We asked to borrow an umbrella. They gave us a broken one. I asked if we could swap for a good one. He said that would require going to the front desk to register with a room card or something... I thought forget it, we're in a hurry to meet someone today, no time to mess around with them. The next day, nothing much going on, went to the front desk, waited in line, registered, got an umbrella. The most bizarre thing: this hotel has two small elevators for guests. The second day, it seemed like someone was having a party and used one of them. They put up a sign saying guests can't use it, only party attendees. So we walked to the other elevator. The third day, both elevators had signs up, both off-limits, saying after-party people could use them. So we went to the front desk and asked, how are we supposed to get upstairs? The front desk clerk said there are stairs. We're two adults and two kids, one kid is one year old and in a stroller. Coming back from outside, we also had a diaper bag, food, and backpacks. Already exhausted, and they tell us to fold the stroller and carry the kids upstairs. The manager came out and said he could help us carry things. We'd been out all day and were dead tired. We were truly speechless. Luckily the kid was asleep at the time. Only then did he say we could go up through their internal elevator. After that we had to go through the kitchen, which was very narrow, and someone was blocking the entire narrow entrance. We waited a while before getting through. Finally got there, four elevators, we got up to the 5th floor, and guess what, there were a few steps we had to carry the stroller over... At that point the few of us really felt like Journey to the West, lugging and hauling everything, going through 81 trials, finally made it back to the room. There are also other common American hotel flaws like noisy ventilation fans, dirty carpets, spiders in the room, etc. I won't list them all. First time staying at a THC... This Hyatt is worlds apart from other Hyatts I've stayed at... Good thing we're moving to a suburban hotel tomorrow!
