ETA Points

View Original

The 5 Best Hyatt Hotels in Austin for Tourists, Points, & More

Austin is one of the fastest-growing locations across the entire USA. With iconic cultural sights, more unique music venues than anywhere outside New Orleans, and rapidly increasing job opportunities, the Austin area offers a wide variety of reasons to visit.

However, whether you’re looking to stop by for a football game, explore the famous UT Austin campus, or travel to 6th St for a fun night out, one of the most important parts of your travel journey is your choice of hotel. As many have unfortunately experienced directly, selecting the wrong hotel can make a disaster out of even the best-planned trip.

Conveniently, Austin has a great range of property options within the Hyatt hotel portfolio. Hyatt is one of our favorite Hotel chains for using hotel/credit card points (specifically, World of Hyatt points) to book stays, and offers a wide variety of properties across the globe. Due to Hyatt’s static reward chart, it is easy to get 2+ cents per point on most of your point redemptions! Chase Bank also enables you to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points directly to Hyatt, further increasing the total point pool for bookings.

To help you figure out which Austin Hyatt hotel makes the best sense for your next visit, we’ve put together a selection of recommendations based on both our personal experience with these Hyatt properties and popular online sentiments. While everyone has different preferences, and many of the Hyatt hotels not on this list are still excellent, these are our five favorite options based on important factors such as price, location within Austin, range of amenities, overall service, and room quality.

We hope this guide helps you plan your next hotel stay in Austin! Let’s dive into our top 3 recommendations:

The 3 Best Hyatt Properties in Austin

Best for Using Points - Hyatt Regency Austin

The Hyatt Regency Austin exterior, with Lady Bird Lake behind

If you want to use points for your next stay at a Hyatt property in Austin, your best bet is likely going to be the Hyatt Regency Austin. This Hyatt Regency has almost 450 rooms, ensuring that there is ample availability for any reward/point bookings.

However, we recommend the Regency for points bookings due to the consistent value that the property provides. While the exact cents-per-point (CPP) value fluctuates throughout the year, we’ve found that it is relatively easy to get 2+ CPP. For instance, in the below example, we were able to book a $292/night room for just 12k World of Hyatt points/per night, resulting in an excellent value of ~2.4 cents per point.

. While this does not rival what you find at some of the distinct global Hyatt properties—such as Carmel Valley Ranch or Alila Kothaifaur Maldives—it is some of the best value across any of the properties in Austin, which tend to provide between 1-1.5 cents per point. Therefore, if you want to make the most of your Chase points or World of Hyatt points in Austin, then the Hyatt Regency is likely going to be your best option.

Best for Luxury - Thompson Austin

The entrance to the Hyatt Thompson Austin, located just off 5th St. in Austin

If you are hoping to have the best possible experience at a Hyatt property in Austin, then look no further than the Hyatt Thompson Austin. Located right off 5th St, within easy walking distance of both the river and the statehouse, the Thompson is easily the most luxurious Hyatt property in the city.

This hotel has a stunning entrance hall, great interior facilities, and a massive gym to help you get exercise while traveling which rivals many of the gyms in the area; the gym is also great for avoiding the Austin sun in the summer. However, the crowning jewel of the Thompson Austin is the rooftop pool, which provides an incredible view of the city and the river.

The rooftop pool and bar on top of the Thompson Austin

Plus, the rooms in the Thompson are stunning, with large beds and all the amenities you would expect from a hotel in the Thompson range. If you have Hyatt status (e.g., Globalist), the Thompson Austin is the hotel where you will be most likely to get an upgrade in the city.

Overall, the Thompson Austin is an incredible option, and is our recommendation for where you should stay on your next trip to the city, if budget is no concern. However, if you are hoping to travel on a budget, consider the next option on this list.

Best for Budget - Tommie Austin

The entrance to the Tommie Austin, located adjacent to the Thompson property

If you’re trying to stay in downtown Austin on a budget, we highly recommend looking at the Tommie Austin. The Tommie is actually the exact same hotel as the aforementioned Thompson, but with smaller rooms and fewer benefits. However, the world class facilities are shared between the two properties—to be clear the Tommie & Thompson are located within the same building, with the only differences between the room quality and the price. If you’re willing to take a much smaller room, you can save upwards of $200 per night on your booking while still using the incredible gym and stunning rooftop pool.

The Tommie offers the best value on this list, and if you are hoping to limit your hotel spending while still staying in the Hyatt world and not sacrificing amenities, the Tommie Austin is the best option.

Best for Location - The Driskill

The exterior of the Hyatt Driskill property on 6th St. in Austin

If you are hoping to stay in the best possible location for your trip to Austin, there is no better option than the Driskill. This luxury Hyatt property is located right on the historic 6th Street, making it the ideal spot for exploring Austin's lively home of entertainment and fun. Plus, 6th Street is covered by city-defining food and nightlife, while still providing easy access to many of the city’s most popular attractions such as Lady Bird Lake and the Capital building.

Plus, the Driskill is a stunning property (even just from the lobby alone) that feels far more historic than any of the other options on this list. If you’re hoping to get married or have any sort of event at a Hyatt property in Austin, we;d highly recommend looking at the Driskill.

Best for Onwards Travel - Hyatt Place Austin Airport

The entrance to the Hyatt Place Austin Airport

If Austin is merely a stop on your journey, or if you have an early morning flight and don’t want to spend extra time commuting to the airport, then the Hyatt Place Austin Airport is by far your best option. Located directly at the airport, this Hyatt Place is a cheap, low-frills location that will help you save time on your travel.

While this Hyatt Place is not particularly fancy or notable beyond its location, we have found that it is easy to get excellent value from booking this hotel with points during busy times (e.g., Formula 1 race, college football game, solar eclipse, etc.) and recommend looking here if you know the city is going to be extra busy!

Summary

Austin is one of the most culturally unique cities in the country, with a broad range of activities for all types of interests. Luckily, with Hyatt’s great coverage of the city, you can find a property that will suit your needs regardless of why you’re visiting. While these are our five recommendations for where to stay in Austin, we encourage you to explore the full property portfolio to make sure you stay at the right hotel for you.

If this article was helpful, we recommend taking at look at our recommendations for the best Hyatt hotels in Chicago, Paris, NYC, London, Boston, and Tokyo. As well, if you’re located in Texas, make sure to check out our recommendations for the best airlines to fly from Austin and from Dallas.