If you build it…will they still come?

I have been to all the other Holiday Inn properties in Austin Texas. I decided to try out the Austin Holiday Inn NW Arboretum location because I kept hoping I’d find a location that worked for me. I think I’ll probably start working through the competitor’s hotels next.

Hotel legend has it that the hotel was there long before the overhead freeway system was built. Finding the hotel required a GPS, a divining rod, and a lot of luck. The friendly desk staff gave me a map and a big ball of string to find my way back the second day.

You have to really want to stay at this hotel.

The hotel hasn’t participated in the chain’s re-branding process, but it was clean and remarkably quiet since it practically sits in the middle of a major expressway. The hotel bar doubles as the restaurant. This can be a good thing, especially when you miss the only exit to the hotel and have to drive an extra 45 minutes in rush hour traffic before you can turn around. Twice.

The hotel only had wired internet access in the room, and offered wireless access only in public areas. If you’ve read my earlier posts, you’ll know I really don’t like this arrangement. When I checked out I mentioned to the front desk person that while my stay was comfortable, I probably wouldn’t stay at the hotel again because I want wireless access in my room. She offered me the following explanation: The hotel had recently gone through major renovations (really?) and was looking at the costs of re-branding. Providing wireless throughout the hotel was too expensive so they just offered it in the public areas. But she said next time I could ask for a room off the lobby since sometimes people in those rooms could pick up the wireless. What??

Maybe it’s an Austin thing. Maybe the convergence of the Church of Unconscious Harmony’s proximity to the Magnetic Tattoo Parlor created a vortex or something. Or, maybe they are just determined to Keep Austin Weird.