We just sent a team of five to Austin and we stayed at the Austin Marriott South. Very efficient, very friendly staff. Little secret...every night they put out a large glass container with ice and water just before the elevators. Big deal? Yeah, it kind of is, it's the attention to details. Every night that water sits waiting for you at the end of the day AND every day the water gets a new swimming companion: lime, orange, lemon, one day it was melon and berry. OMG it was good. Every member of the staff opens their part of the conversation with, "how can I help you?". Get that everywhere? No. Tip of the hat to everyone at the Austin South, but especially Freddie. There isn't anything that Freddie can't do or won't try to do to help you. Billion places to stay in Austin. Stay here and slip into the bar for Happy Hour. Oh yeah, the rooms are pretty nice too!

Stayed at the hotel for a conference for two days. The check-in staff were quick and friendly. The hotel seemed to be fully equipped with amenities and resources for conference needs. My family and I ate at the restaurant on-site, and we found the food to be enjoyable and the staff to be friendly and helpful.

The room was clean and well-kept. We had comfortable beds, and the room was as advertised. We could not hear any noise from the hallway or from the adjoining rooms. However, the traffic noise was considerable. I have stayed at many "off the highway, close to the airport" locations in major cities, and most have more effective sound proofing than this hotel does. While the room was comfortable, I didn't get good nights of sleep with the din of the traffic.

For our family, while the hotel itself was pleasant and seemingly well-managed, we probably wouldn't stay here again because of the noise,

I just wrapped up a two-night stay at this property for a few meetings nearby. I was generally unimpressed and consider this one of the most mediocre of the hundreds of full-service properties in which I have stayed over the last few years.

It's worth noting that this property is part of a Marriott-palooza of a full-service Marriott, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield and, I think also a Residence Inn. All seem to have charging privileges at the full service.

Check-in was brutally slow. Although there was no one else checking in at the same time, the process took an impossibly long twenty minutes. It was almost out of an SNL skit – with the front desk agent typing literally thousands of keystrokes for reasons that I cannot get my arms around. While I was welcomed as a Platinum member and offered the requisite welcome amenity, I was told that rooms were not available on the concierge level. While not a big deal to me, I was annoyed to see that rooms were still being sold on the floor for both nights of my stay. In other words, he lied.

The internet also requires an extensive code rather than the normal "enter in your name and room number" which gets wiped off your bill for Plats and Golds. While there seemed to be an option to just enter in name and room, it kept telling me that it didn't recognize me as a guest. Not a big deal but a pain for multiple devices.

The room is standard, unmemorable Marriott standard issue. Bed and desk totally functional and fine. Bathroom is small and lightly renovated from the circa 1988 version. Corner, angled small sink. Narrow shower with poor caulking. Toilet that is avoided by the bathroom door through an engineering marvel.

The first night I was awaken several times by what sounded like someone moving furniture above me. At 2am. I don't blame the property for that. However, every movement in the hallway – even the guy slipping the bills under the door – seemed to echo. I'm not a light sleeper but it seemed very loud.

The small on-site restaurant was surprisingly good for basic sandwiches. Bar was decent – no complaints but nothing memorable. Good parking situation – free and close to the door.

Concierge lounge had a better-than-normal breakfast spread with a poorly serviced beverage refrigerator. I visited the lounge on five occasions over three days. Diet Pepsi was in the fridge one time. Water three times. This included visits during "normal operating hours."

I was very disappointed in the general upkeep of the public areas and – most specifically – the gym. I was surprised that the TV on each of the three treadmills were not working. I went down to the front desk (admittedly very early in the morning) and he called for the maintenance guy. I walked up to the gym with him where he scientifically pronounced them broken. Great. Later that morning, I brought it up with a guy who seemed to be the manager on duty. He seemed genuinely interested and appreciative of the feedback and promised to get it take care of. 24 hours later, one of the three were working.

Along the same lines, the gym was simply not serviced on an appropriate schedule. The container holding wipes to sanitize equipment was empty. I grabbed the last workout towel. The trash can was overflowing with cups and trash each of the two mornings I was there. As granular as this sounds, I find it to be a pretty good proxy of hotel upkeep in general.

Anyway, it wasn't a disaster but I see absolutely no reason to return.

We stayed for two days. The service was excellent. The room on the 5th floor was fairly quiet although we could hear some traffic from the interstate at night. The room was boring and needs an update. I think the entire hotel is dated and could use a facelift. The price of the room was rather high compared to other Marriott brands and everything seemed to be an extra charge. There is no free breakfast here. The gym room, indoor pool, hot tub and parking garage was a nice feature. The room had a really small coffee maker, refrigerator, safe and flat screen TV that was probably original to the construction of the hotel. The bottle of water in the room was "provided for my convenience, but if consumed it was $3.50" Nice! There was no complimentary coffee in the lobby. I brought in coffee from a nearby restaurant in the morning because I wasn't sure if they were going to charge me if I used the coffee in the room. The one thing that was not good was a q-tip on the floor that was sticking out from under the closet door. It was still there when we returned to the room this afternoon - and the room was cleaned while we were out. Nasty, but not worth complaining to management about. it's still there at checkout time. Again, a good rating for service but flaws that can be typical of any hotel.dropped the score. I wouldn't stay here again because there are other Marriott brands that are a better value.