Tom Jeffs

Review of Fairmont Austin

Rooms are good, staff are friendly and everything ...

Rooms are good, staff are friendly and everything appears nice. But this is a poorly managed hotel. To begin with, I couldn't access the complementary internet access because I didn't leave a credit card on my room - that meant I had to call reception and wait a good 10 minutes to use something that was already paid for, with the room. I used the minibar to keep my personal drinks cool (I was working in the area), the minibar sensed that I'd removed the hotel's drinks and locked my own drinks in there. So to access my drinks, I added a credit card to my room and explained to the staff that I hadn't consumed any of their drinks. That didn't stop the hotel reserving a huge charge of over $170 dollars on my card, and my card happens to be one that stores multiple currencies for travel, so I was then completely unable to access any of the dollars I'd purchased for the trip. I had to resort to my personal credit card, incurring multiple currency exchange charges and, of course, a crappy exchange rate. As of writing, the money still has not been returned. That's $170 dollars for a few bottles of orange, water, etc, that were never consumed. So beware - the minibar prices are obscenely expensive. I'm talking $8 for a bottle of water. The hotel's breakfast arrangements are utterly bizarre. Several times me and my colleagues were forced to wait up to 10 minutes to have our breakfast, despite many places being unoccupied and available. The staff told us that those tables were "closed". And there were no staff cleaning the tables that had been recently used, instead, they seem to wonder around playing with iPads. It's the only hotel I've ever visited that forces you to wait for breakfast - it's infuriating. Breakfast should be first come, first served. No reservations. I should be able to sit where I please and not be asked about my dining arrangements, I just want to sit and eat. And that's before we get onto the buffet, which was lukewarm. It isn't difficult to keep eggs and meat at a good temperature, all you need is a good plate warmer and an adequate heater beneath each container. But this hotel offers freezing cold plates and warm eggs, warm bacon, warm sausages. I don't want warm food, I want hot food. In short, this hotel will take every opportunity it can to fleece your wallet, apologising and smiling for doing so. The management is a disgrace.