The only thing this hotel has going for it is location.
The first room we were in smelled funny. When we inquired about it we were told that someone had smoked in the room and they sprayed a deoderizer. There were no rooms available to switch so we woke up to the smell of cigarette smoke the next day.
The toilet ran forever and the sink drained slowly.
I have to give them credit for updating the hotel - new carpet, flooring and paint, however it made the hotel stink, so it didn't matter which room you chose, it was going to smell - of smoke, carpet glue or paint. If I had known this when booking I would have chose somewhere else.
The breakfast doesn't really last until 10 a.m. So get there early.
Had I paid half the price this room cost I would have expected the quality we got.

We decided to stay at this La Quinta because it was a good rate for downtown Austin at only $115 per night on Hotelclub.net. We didn't expect luxury, but at least expected a clean area. When we returned home from our night out, there was a humongous cockroach on the floor of our bathroom. We killed it and then flushed it down the toilet. The toilet got clogged so we called hotel management. They informed us that they didn't have a plunger. We told them they would either have to move us to a new room or fix the toilet because we needed to use it. The desk person said that he would call us back. Five minutes later, he called back and said they would have to go get the plunger from another guest's room and bring it to us. The security officer came to our hotel room and when we opened the door he handed us the plunger expecting that we would take care of it. When we told him that wasn't acceptable, he told us that it wasn't his job to plunge our toilet and the front desk guy couldn't leave the front desk so we would have to do it. Finally, after much pleading and telling him we didn't know how to plunge the toilet, he came in and did it. He made me watch him though so if it got clogged again, I could handle it.

I stayed at this hotel for three nights during sxsw 2006. Our room was fine, the service was okay, and the hotel was surprisingly quiet for being so close to 6th street. This hotel is in a wonderful location for SXSW. You can walk to everything or the bus stops right in front of the hotel!
I wish it had been a bit cheaper and the breakfast hours had been longer. Breakfast was only till 10am on weekends and nine on weekdays.
Also.....the wifi is only in the lobby or the deck. You have to have use DSL if you want to access the computer in your room.
The valet was quick and efficient. The front desk was always busy but they tried very hard to work with everyone.

I have stayed in this hotel twice. The first time was uneventful. It has a good location if you're going to the Austin City Limilts Music Festival, as it is within walking distance of the shuttle buses to the festival. However, my second stay will be my last. The problem is that all rooms, except for one wing, open to the outside. This means that you can hear people walking by your room all night. We also had people, probably inebriated, knocking on our door all night, apparently looking for some other room. In addition, the "courtyard' arrangement means that when people in the middle of the complex stand around yelling drunkenly (and they did!), the noise echoes and reverberates annoyingly. My real complaint is that, after we complained of a sleepless night, the management acted as if it were all our fault for failing to report it. I replied that any security staff that was doing its job would notice people screaming in the courtyard all night without being told. I asked to be moved to the one wing of the hotel with rooms that open to an enclosed hallway to avoid the outside noise, but they refused, claiming to be booked. Believe me. there are much better-and quieter-hotels in Austin!