Austin Hotel Experience

We had such a great time in Austin this weekend and I cannot wait to share all the details with you guys.  However, the hotel is an entire blog post in itself, so I will start with that tonight.  

First lets start with the drive down.  It was nice up until about an hour before we arrived.  At that point, my mom called to ask once again if the hotel was pet friendly.  She and my sister-in-law had asked the same question the week before the trip and I was getting annoyed with the repeat questions.  I assured them that it was and that I swore I checked the website, I would not have brought my dogs if I wasn't 100% sure they could stay in the hotel.  My mom then said "well I'm looking at the website and it says no pets allowed.  Are you sure you checked the right place."  Well, Crap!  Here we were 45 minutes from Austin with two dogs (three including my mom's dog who was already living it up inside our two bedroom suite).  Everyone was totally panicked.  What the heck were we going to do?  I was very angry with myself and thought well maybe I made a mistake, but was sure that I did check.  My mom and I both started brainstorming.  While I was calling around for kennels in Austin, my mom called.  She had booked a room for the dogs at LaQuinta.  Yes, our dogs got their very own hotel room for the weekend (although my dad did stay the night there.  Thanks dad!).   Feeling bad that my parents bought an extra hotel room, I decided to call the manager of the hotel and see if I could get a better understanding of how I could have messed up so badly. The manager told me that the hotel stopped accepting pets in October 2011 when it renovated.  I informed him that I was pretty sure I booked my room before that date and was never informed of the policy change.  He then checked my reservation and stated "Oh yes, it looks like we stopped accepting pets on the exact day you booked your reservation."  Even  through the phone I could see his lying little smirk and I was pissed.  I just knew he was lying to me.  The exact day, seriously?  Once he told me there was absolutely nothing he could do, I thanked him for his time and called Embassy Suites customer service to file a complaint.  Writing this now, I feel like a crazy hormonal chick, but we were so stressed and mad over this ordeal that I could not just let it go.  

Anyway, long story short the hotel compensated us for one night, which was the equivalent of the LaQuinta expense.  My friend Ashley's room was also booked under my name since I made the reservations, so he gave her a free night as well even though she insisted that she never intended to bring a dog.  Score for Ashley!  In the end it all worked out fine and I think Baxter, Bailey, Abby and my dad had fun living it up at LaQuinta.  

But that is not all folks.  There is more excitement.  

Apparently, Embassy Suites was a happening place in the Austin crime scene on Saturday night.  My family wouldn't know, however, because we apparently sleep through attempted murders.  That's right, there allegedly was an attempted murder at the hotel while we were there. FUN!  The story goes a little something like this.  My brother was in the elevator on Sunday and a lady asked him if he knew any details about the drama that happened over night.  At a lost, my brother began to ask questions and found out that on the ninth floor of the hotel, which was the top floor where the ritzy folks with the "special" key stay, two guys apparently got in a fight and one attempted to kill the other. Apparently this lady found all of this out by watching the local news because the hotel blew it off and acted like nothing happened. Although, can you really blame them?  Not too many ways you can casually say, no worries, just an attempted murder, hope you enjoyed your stay, please come back soon.  

My brother logically concluded that what probably happened was ritzy runners were getting drunk before the big race, one got mad at the other, retrieved a butter knife from the hotel, and attempted to inflict serious damage.  Probably 100% accurate, especially the butter knife part.  The funny part was earlier that morning Bill and I rode in the elevator with a guy who had a "special key" to the ninth floor.  After learning of the attempted murder, I told Bill that I was kicking myself for not knowing about this before because I so would have pried for information from that guy.  I mean, after all, how many people can actually afford, or are willing to pay for, the rooms located on the "special key" floor.  The guy probably had the murder weapon/butter knife in his pocket while he was riding with us.  Such a close call, we are lucky to be alive! Just to think, I thought I was going to die from the race. 

In sum, if you are looking for a non pet-friendly, yet advertises to be pet-friendly, hotel that provides excitement in the form of attempted murders, Embassy Suites in Austin is your place.  I'm totally kidding.  While I do wish the whole pet thing would have been handled differently from the start, I thought the hotel was great.  The renovations were awesome, the rooms are very nice, the beds were comfortable, and the free breakfast (which included made-to-order omelets) was delicious.  The breakfast even include an enormous pot of hot oatmeal.  For that reason alone, I probably would stay there again when visiting Austin, although I would stay up all night for the good parts.