Tommie Austin Hotel Tour + Review

The Tommie Austin is a fresh, new property located in the middle of downtown Austin, Texas. As a native Austinite, I’ve been amazed at the transformation of downtown, especially when it comes to how many new hotels there are in the Live Music Capital of the World!

Location

The Tommie Austin is located at 5th and Brazos, right off of the famous 6th Street bar district. The tower the Tommie Austin is located in is shared with its big sister property, the Thompson Austin, as well as some luxury apartments. My room at the Tommie overlooked the pool, which is on the opposite side of 6th Street, so I didn’t notice any noise at all, which was great.

Booking

I’m a World of Hyatt Globalist, which I value a ton when it comes to outsized value and perks when I travel. The Tommie Austin was an awesome use of World of Hyatt points for a number of reasons. First, it was an expensive September weekend in Austin, with cash rates at the hotel over $300 per night. A free night on points was only 9,000 points per night, giving me redemption of 3.3 cents per point, well above what I try to redeem for (2 cents per point). In addition, since this was a points stay as a Globalist, I got free parking, which saved me $55 for the night I used the valet parking. The Tommie shares all of its public spaces, like the pool, gym, and restaurants, with the Thompson, which was more expensive at 25,000 points a night or over $500

Check In

We arrived at the valet and were escorted to the front desk of the Thompson. I had read reports that the Tommie check in is actually at the coffee shop’s bar, but that wasn’t the case for me. We had an awesome check-in agent who explained that we had received an upgrade to a Pool View Corner King room, their largest non-ADA room at the Tommie, at a whopping 260 square feet! I had read reports of a free drink or coffee at check in for Globalists, but we didn’t receive anything like that.

The Room

As you can see from my short walkthrough on my YouTube channel, the Tommie Austin’s rooms are very small by comparison to other hotels. That is by design, leftover from before the Hyatt acquisition of Two Roads Hospitality. They wanted to create a lifestyle brand on a budget, but still a focus on all the awesome amenities that the Thompson is known for. Tommie ultimately didn’t become its own brand within the World of Hyatt, and now is under the JdV (Joie de Vivre) brand. There’s another Tommie that’s opened in Hollywood, California, but no others have been announced.

That all being said, I knew what to expect when I booked, and I just needed a place to crash downtown while I was in town for a wedding. There were two of us sharing the room, and while it’s not as spacious as other rooms, when we’re saving so many points per night, while still having full access to the Thompson’s amenities, I’ll take the minor inconveniences.

The room featured a small bathroom, with the toilet actually in the same space as the shower. This was odd, but I got used to it. The sink was outside the shower in the bedroom, and the counter doubled as a small desk. A mirror above the sink could swivel to position it where we wanted.

A massive TV was on an arm so you could position it where you wanted as well. The king bed was very comfortable and normal sized. Finally, the views from the room were great of downtown Austin and the Tommie’s pool below.

Restaurants

We got to try out a number of the restaurants on property. The Tommie features “The Coffee Bar at Tommie,” which is more than just a morning spot. It doubles as a cocktail bar, and we tried a delicious espresso martini before our wedding we were attending.

The Diner Bar is led by a James Beard-nominated chef Mashama Bailey, but we didn't get to try it out on our trip. It’s a cool-looking Southern restaurant, which you have to walk through from the lobby to get to the Grey Market, also by Chef Bailey. This is where the Globalist breakfast was held, which could be taken in the room or in the restaurant. We couldn’t get a hold of them on the first morning, so we went down to dine in. The service was very slow but the food was great. The next day, we got the food to-go to save time, and it was delicious as well. Upstairs by the pool is Wax Myrtle’s, where we had dinner one evening. The food here was fantastic- I recommend the Ahi Tuna. You can view all of the restaurants and what we dined in the embedded video at the top of this post.

Overall

We loved our time at the Tommie Austin- it’s definitely great value for one of the best locations in Austin. I’d recommend it to anyone who is traveling solo, or for a couple that can sacrifice space for a great deal.