Hotel Review: Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock, Texas

Austin is a great city to visit, but hotel stays there aren’t particularly cheap. Especially if you’ll be visiting when the Formula 1 US Grand Prix is in town.

The Grand Prix was the reason we were visiting Austin at that point in our 50 state road trip and we wanted to spend a further week there after the race.

Even Airbnbs were fairly expensive, so I started looking for options using our hotel points. Despite having ~2.5 million hotel points spread out across many loyalty schemes, we’re trying to stretch our points in order to get as many free stays as possible.

I was therefore excited when I came across the new Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock. It’s a category 1 World of Hyatt property which means it only costs 5,000 points per night. That’s great value, especially given how much a paid stay would’ve cost.

I made a reservation for an 11 night stay about five months before our visit as I was worried they wouldn’t have any award availability if I left it any longer. It turned out to be a good choice as it’s a great hotel to stay at.

Here’s a review of our stay at the Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock, Texas.

Check-In

We arrived at the hotel at about 4:15pm and were checked in promptly. The guy checking us in advised us that we’d been upgraded to a corner room on the sixth floor (the top floor) thanks to my Explorist status.

Seeing as we’re traveling with our dog Truffles, we had to complete a pet form. Once that was signed, he handed over our keys to room 601.

Bedroom

When entering the bedroom, the main living area was on the left side. There was a small cabinet, a desk and office chair, as well as a sofa bed and ottoman. Somewhat unusually for a Hyatt Place, the sofa wasn’t a corner sofa. I’m not sure if that’s because (somewhat ironically) we were in a corner room, or if this is the style of sofa beds in all the rooms at this particular hotel.

The cabinet behind the desk contained a mini fridge. This had an adjustable temperature knob which I appreciated. Seeing as we live in hotels & Airbnbs, we store food in the fridge and so need to keep it at a colder temperature than a drinks fridge necessarily needs to be.

To the left of that was a closet with a door. The closet contained an iron, ironing board, luggage rack and spare pillow for the sofa bed.

Along the far wall was a dresser that held a blanket, with a wall-mounted TV above it.

The hotel offers DirecTV with a good selection of channels. I was a little disappointed that NBCSN wasn’t one of them though as it meant I missed the Liverpool game in the Premier League.

Opposite the dresser was our king bed. I love Hyatt beds and pillows as I always sleep soundly on them. As this is a newer hotel, the windows have blackout blinds rather than curtains which worked very well.

The bedside lamps each had a couple of power outlets which made charging our phones overnight much more convenient.

The view from our room was OK – we’ve certainly had worse.

Bathroom

The bathroom was back to the right of the room’s entrance. Just outside of the bathroom itself was the sink and vanity. The water flow from the faucet was quite slow, but nowhere near as slow as the Hampton Inn Altus.

As usual with Hyatt Place properties, the toiletries were their Barney Kenet MD brand.

The bathroom itself had a sliding door that was incredibly reluctant to open and close, so required a lot of pushing and pulling.

There was a spacious walk-in shower, with doors that closed all the way (you’d be surprised by how many hotels don’t have this). The water pressure was good and only took a couple of seconds to get warm.

All in all, I really liked our bedroom. I was a little disappointed initially that we didn’t have one of their larger corner sofas, but in the end it didn’t bother me. The bedroom stayed dark thanks to the blackout blinds, the bed was comfortable and the shower was wonderful.

Breakfast

So long as you book your stay directly with Hyatt (i.e. not via Expedia, Hotels.com, etc.), breakfast is included for free when staying at Hyatt Place properties.

There are different hot options every day. The day I took the photos there was scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes, but other days there were sausages, waffles, breakfast potatoes, biscuits with sausage and gravy and more.

The other breakfast options were pretty much the same every day:

I particularly enjoyed the freshly cut fruit. In addition to the standard honeydew, cantaloupe, grapes and pineapple you get at every Hyatt Place, they added plenty of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

The breakfast staff kept everything well-stocked, although things were a little less smooth both Sunday mornings we were there. The hotel seemed to be much busier and so their staff were much more rushed trying to keep everything stocked. That meant they were sometimes short on silverware, a couple of food items were empty, the area where used plates were stacked started overflowing, etc. Overall though, we had a good breakfast experience throughout our 11 night stay at the Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock.

In addition to the juices and milk, there was a coffee and tea station. Many Hyatt Places only offer this at breakfast, but it was available 24/7 at the one in Austin/Round Rock.

They also kept it well stocked with English breakfast tea which I appreciated seeing as I drink 2-3 cups of tea a day.

Amenities

In addition to the 24/7 coffee and tea station, the Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock offers fruit-infused water by the elevator. There were different flavors every day and I think I tried all of them during our stay.

(n.b. In case you’re wondering about the sign to the right of it in the photo below, the heavy rain Austin experienced leading up to our stay meant their water supply was contaminated. That meant for about two or more weeks, residents couldn’t drink water directly from their taps. Round Rock was far enough north of Austin to have a different water supplier, so our stay wasn’t affected).

I’ve been trying to get in better shape recently, so I used their fitness room on most days of our stay. The only slightly negative aspect of the fitness room is that the temperature can’t be adjusted by guests. The room wasn’t too hot, but I prefer to run on the treadmill in even cooler temperatures than that.

The hotel has an outdoor swimming pool. However, even though it was uncovered, the swimming pool area was locked – presumably for the season (we visited at the end of October).

If you get peckish during your stay and can’t be bothered to go out to one of the great places to eat in Austin, there’s a pantry area selling snacks and drinks (and toiletries) to the left of the front desk.

Next to that is a bar area where you can order alcoholic beverages and some hot food options.

If you need to be a little more productive, the lobby has a long work bench. There’s all kinds of additional seating if you just want to hang out and relax too.

The Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock lobby has a couple of nice alcoves, both of which have a TV.

The hotel also has a business center consisting of two computers and a printer.

If you need to do any laundry during your stay, there’s a guest laundry room with a washer and dryer on the 3rd floor. Even better, both of them are free to use.

If you need laundry detergent or dryer sheets, those are available for purchase.

Pet-Friendliness

The Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock is a pet-friendly hotel. They charge a $75 pet fee for stays of 1-6 nights, with an additional $100 cleaning fee charged for stays of 7+ nights.

The person checking us in said he’d waive the additional $100 cleaning fee seeing as I had Explorist status. When checking out, our folio showed that we’d been charged the $100 cleaning fee, but not the main $75 pet fee. Even though the wrong fee had been waived, I wasn’t worried about disputing it seeing as I’d booked our stay expecting to pay a $175 fee in the first place. A waived pet fee isn’t one of the stated benefits of having Explorist status, so he’d already offered more than we were entitled to.

The hotel itself is extremely pet-friendly. The staff gave Truffles plenty of attention which she loved. In fact, she got so used to their attention that every time I went to take her outside, she’d try running behind the front desk so that they’d pet her some more.

The hotel has a dedicated pet area out back, although there are several other grassy areas around the hotel too.

There are sidewalks all around the hotel, so it’s easy to take your dog for a walk. If you exit the hotel and walk to the right down Sundance Parkway, there’s a nice pond to walk around which is where I took Truffles several times.

The hotel is also only ten minutes from the Round Rock Dog Depot. This is a great dog park with separate areas for large and small dogs. The small dog area is a decent enough size, while the large dog area is much bigger with plenty of space for them to run around.

There’s no fee to use Round Rock Dog Depot, there’s a fair bit of shade and there’s water available for your pups in case they get thirsty.

Service

Service at the Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock was fantastic. All of their staff members were friendly, they’d say goodbye as we were leaving and greet us when we returned, they loved on Truffles and everyone seemed to work hard.

I’d just like to give a shout out – and a massive apology – to Christophe though. Christophe is part of the housekeeping staff and he surprised Truffles one day (through no fault of his own) when he walked around the corner and she wasn’t expecting it. She decided to go nuts at him, barking away like no one’s business.

Unfortunately for him, and us, and any nearby guests, she proceeded to act like that whenever she saw him for the rest of our stay. He was very kind and good-natured about it though, so if you ever happen to read this Christophe – I’m sorry once again that Truffles was such a jerk!

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi at the hotel was free, quick and always had a good connection.

Location

The Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock is about 20 minutes from downtown Austin and, in theory, 30 minutes from Circuit of the Americas. If you’re in town for the Formula 1 US Grand Prix like we were, be aware that it takes much longer than 30 minutes to get there. There are fairly long delays on the Saturday for qualifying, while we had significantly longer delays on race day the following day.

We didn’t spend any time in downtown Round Rock, but when driving through it looked like it’d have been a cute place to explore. If you stay at this hotel, be sure to visit Round Rock Donuts. They’re the best donuts I’ve ever had and they even have a Texas sized donut that’s also delicious.

Parking

Parking at the hotel is free and there’s plenty of it. You might need to park around the side or back at the weekend though when it’s busier.

Cost

Like I mentioned at the beginning of the review, we booked our stay at the Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock using points. It’s a category 1 property in the World of Hyatt program, so it costs 5,000 points per night. As we stayed 11 nights, that means we had to redeem 55,000 points. Hyatt is a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, so I transferred points over to my World of Hyatt account to pay for our stay.

We also earned quite a few points and miles during our stay, despite being booked using points. I earned 500 points due to paying the $100 pet fee (5 points per dollar), along with 150 bonus points on that amount for having Globalist status by the end of our stay (our 11 nights pushed my over the 60 night threshold for this year).

I also earned 10,000 bonus points for completing the third tier of Hyatt’s current promotion. On top of that, I earned 1,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles thanks to a separate promotion for stays at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties.

The cash price when booking our stay was $130.01 per night including tax. That means we got 2.6cpp (cents per point) of value by booking the stay using points which is good value for World of Hyatt points. We’re doing our 5 year, 50 state road trip on a budget of $100 per day. That $100 includes accommodation costs, so using points saved us almost half our monthly budget for October.

Final Thoughts

Shae and I had a great stay at the Hyatt Place Austin/Round Rock. Our room was very comfortable, breakfast was great, there were some good amenities (including free guest laundry which saved us a few bucks) and service was excellent.

If you’re visiting Austin and are OK with not staying downtown, this hotel is a great option.

Truffles Approval Rating

Truffles gives our stay four paws out of four – pawfect! She loved being in a corner room on the top floor as it meant our room was nice and quiet. The staff gave her lots of loving and she liked having so many places to walk around.

She also appreciated the lower pet fee as it means more treats for her. Or, if Shae has her way, more outfits 😉

Our Rating

Room = 4.6 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.3 / 5
Food = 4.6 / 5
Location = 4.4 / 5
Service = 4.8 / 5
Overall Value = 4.6 / 5

Total = 4.55 / 5

Address

Hyatt Place, 420 Sundance Pkwy, Round Rock, TX 78681