39 Best Hotels in Austin, Texas

This 89-room boutique hotel, strategically tucked away on Music Lane, feels a world away from the immediately adjacent South Congress Avenue, thanks to its brilliant architectural and landscape design that highlights intuitive privacy and proximity to nature. Four buildings, interconnected by elevated walkways and courtyards surrounding a lovely outdoor pool and lounge, compose this treehouse-esque complex that boasts views (from certain rooms), plush beds and amenities, and access to the excellent on-site Summer House restaurant.

Your introduction to this bustling, business-oriented hotel is a soaring, granite-and-glass atrium lobby. From atrium-view rooms you can spy on diners and scurrying businesspeople below. Exterior rooms have balconies and city vistas (on upper floors). The decor, simple but modern, neither inspires nor offends. The rooftop pool offers beautiful downtown views but fills up fast on weekends. The central downtown location can mean loud Sixth Street overflow for lower-level rooms. At breakfast, the eggs are cage-free and the bagels are shipped in from New York. Service is professional, if on the cool side.

The first Autograph Collection property in Austin, the Otis features clean, chic, and modern rooms and on-site dining options that are unmatched for the west campus area. The Acre 41 restaurant is a contemporary steakhouse, with additional menus for breakfast, brunch, and lunch, while the rooftop Otopia bar offers raw-bar selections, and a walk-up window at the Burger Bar rounds out your on-the-go needs. All guest rooms have vinyl record players, and most have views of downtown or UT campus.

Set back from the roar of I–35, this handsome five-floor hotel (formerly a Hyatt Hotel) is a step up from your usual off-ramp inn. The lobby has a convenient 24/7 café menu and grab-and-go market, serving Starbucks drinks, sandwiches, and beer and wine most of the day. Hot breakfasts are complimentary, with updated items like garden vegetable and egg-white skillet sandwiches. Spacious rooms have contemporary accents like screens separating the lounge area from the bedroom; all have pull-out sofas. The 42-inch flat-screen TVs have ports for laptops and swivel to allow for viewing in different rooms. Decent restaurants are nearby, but most of the city’s best spots are a drive away.

This boutique hotel boasts posh accommodations, a rooftop pool, three on-site restaurants, a coffee shop, a lobby bar, and street-level retail shops that add to the charms of its South Congress address. It's a beloved gathering space for locals just as much as for out-of-towners, with a wide range of special events, weddings, pop-up markets, and other themed parties hosted in their various communal spaces on most weekends.

Locally known as the “Stephen F.,” this 1924 hotel relies on its landmark location on Congress Avenue, next door to the equally historic Paramount Theatre, to maintain its downtown appeal. But the "four star" standards of its glory days have reportedly been left in the past. Rooms are bland and in strong need of updating. It's still convenient for downtown theatergoers, and the hotel bar's popular terrace overlooks Congress Avenue and the Capitol.

For no-frills, reasonably priced lodging close to downtown, you could do worse than this basic two-story brick motel located just east of the northbound I–35 access road. There's an outdoor pool and decent views of downtown from the second floor. Rooms come with clean, hardwood floors, but the furniture is outdated and the beds fairly shabby, but for these prices it's hard to complain. An employee cautions to beware of "party people," so ask for a quieter room, away from highway noise, especially during UT home games and citywide festivals like SXSW. Breakfast is free but nothing special, with the exception of Texas-shape waffles. Franklin Barbecue is a short walk away.

Located next to Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater, Austin’s W Hotel is one of the city's busiest places to see-and-be-seen. The Second Street property, encompassing a full city block, is the first mixed-use occupancy building of its type in the world to be LEED-certified. Rooms are contemporary yet inviting. The lobby features a variety of hip hangout spots, from the Records Room to the in-house W restaurant featuring a seasonal all-day menu. The Wet Deck outdoor pool lounge swells with beautiful people on weekends, and the AWAY Spa provides a relaxing oasis the otherwise crowded property.

This Westin location in the Domain shopping district offers the dependability of an established brand with a slightly more sophisticated sheen. The lobby and main floor lounges are light-filled and modern and usually bustling with business travelers and happy-hour crowds of Domain shoppers, who frequent the gourmet on-site restaurant, Urban, which is extremely satisfying, albeit pricey. Rooms and suites are spacious, with comfy beds complete with pillowtop mattresses and down pillows.