From the minute we arrived, we were greeted with cheerful and helpful people. The valet parking staff gave us a very warm and friendly first impression. As usual, with Hotwire, the reservations were not correct, but the customer service staff quickly corrected the error. The rooms are exceptionally clean and comfortable, with updated fixtures. The only negative was a stubborn showerhead. Overall, it was a very enjoyable stay.

My rating might give the wrong impression about our fondness for this hotel. It's roomy, has a certain charm, great restaurant staff and super for dog owners. The only reason I don't rate it higher is, it's old and a little bit rundown. If you want a fresh, very new feeling hotel, you won't like it. This hotel seems to have a certain faded charm.

However, everything in our rooms has always worked and been clean, and we like that we are welcomed when we travel with our pet.

The restaurant is good, though cold in the summer, and breakfasts are substantial.

The rooms are arranged around a central square patio in keeping with the Spanish style of the lobby. It makes for a long walk from the garage if you're on the other side of the square. Each room has a back set of French doors leading out to an outdoor walkway that looks down into the patio and pool.

The location makes it reasonably quick to get downtown, although if you have a route that avoids I-35 you're advised to use it. It's a little hard to access the hotel off the I-35 exit ramp, requiring you to cross about 3 lanes of traffic pretty quickly.

The rate, much lower than the downtown hotels, makes it worth it, however.

I've heard that the hotel was recently renovated. If so they definately have not gotten to all the rooms. The courtyard and lobby were gorgeous, and all the photos posted online lead me to book here. However, my room on the sixth floor had numerous problems:

wallpaper - torn in places with numerous stains.
furniture - dated and worn
carpet - stained and worn and coming up in places
shower - horrible water pressure, and would constantly change from hot to cold without my making any adjustments.
curtains - there was no rod to pull them open and shut, I just had to pull the curtains themselves to open them.
the wood trim around the room was dusty and dirty
the smoke alarm did not have a cover on it and the bare parts were exposed

everything else was about average.

On top of that, an insulting $8 a day fee for parking and $10 a day for internet.

I have had a much better experience in economy hotels with clean and well maintained room. I was really willing to pay extra for the luxury experience and did not get it. very disappointed.

We had a very nice time staying 5 nights at the Doubletree Hotel Austin. Our room was a non-smoking king, not overly large, but quite comfortable. The bathroom facilities all worked well, though I could not stopper the sink... this didn't bother me enough to complain about. When we first arrived at our door our keys didn't work. The hotel gave us a new set of cards and sent up an engineer to confirm that they worked!
The restaurant had some pretty good food. We had a very good breakfast buffet, and our room-service breakfast was also quite good. The lounge is very comfortable and has a nice wine selection. Our only disappointment with the food was the subpar key lime pie.
The pool and hot tub area looked very nice, but 50-degree temperatures discouraged us from taking a dip. We liked the Spanish-flavored decor and architecture. The business center was handy for internet access and our friends with laptops made good use of Wi-Fi.
We would definitely stay there again.