Hotel Granduca Austin

My boyfriend and I decided to come to the Granduca for a Staycation to celebrate our anniversary, something we have done every year at different hotels throughout Austin. We choose this hotel because looking at the website it looks beautiful! The "Hotel Granduca offers a luxurious, sophisticated, and secluded environment reminiscent of an Italian Villa" Sign me up!!! But we immediately regretted the decision. This hotel is booked us a luxury resort but it really isn't. No amenities or spa. We upgraded our room thinking we would have more privacy and better service because when we got there we had to wait 40 minutes in line just to check-in. But Nope. Went to the pool which was packed with over probably 150 guests with 1 poor bartender having to serve food and drinks to everyone there. And honestly, he did the best he could and he looked like he was about to die. But waiting 30 minutes to get a drink sucks. Especially an overpriced drink. When we checked in we asked about dinner and breakfast and we were told we HAD to make reservations because everything so was booked! So we made 8pm dinner reservations and were told they were too busy to even server us for breakfast. Came down for dinner to find maybe a total of 20 guests. Halfway through our dinner, we watch as our waitress quits right in front of us. We hadn't even ordered yet! The bartender now had to serve drinks for the entire restaurant, serve her bar guests and be our waitress. To order anything or get service of any kind we had to go up to the bar. What a nice romantic dinner! We found out we couldn't make a breakfast reservation because they had scheduled a Mother's Day brunch for people who were not even guests of the hotel. So we got to have $60 omelet in the room. Went down to the pool to spend time before we left to find the bar not open. You know why? Because they underestimated how many people would show up to the Mother's Day Brunch so they took their entire hotel staff to work the brunch. They inconvenienced their guest to accommodate people who were NOT STAYING THERE!!!! We know this because we were told this by two different employees. Want to check-in early? Too bad! Want to check-out late? No way! You know why? Because they are literally so understaffed there is no way they can keep up. So they inconvenience guests to keep up with demand. It really isn't the staff's fault which is the worst part. It is a management issue. We were also told by a manager that they were working a 60% capacity. Lastly, I was overcharged and we left something in the room. I have called now over 7 times to ask about the item and the charges and have yet to be called back. How this place gets return business I will never know. Worst hotel experience of my life.

This is a very nice property. In a very nice area. However, they have to be much more "buttoned up" to earn a five star property rating. Let me say in the positive that our room was lovely. Not a terrific view, but not awful either. What was lacking was a "superior service" attitude on staff. We walked through the hotel and saw used paper coffee cups and other trash here and there on tables. It was not regularly cleaned up. Then in our room, we had many instances where glasses and coffee cups weren't cleaned - the dirty ones were there when we returned from a day out and after the cleaning crew had "finished" with the room cleaning. We frequently had to call to get turn down, clean coffee cups and spoons, coffee replenished (again, not done when housekeeping had finished in the morning) and additional towels/washcloths. After we returned one evening, we had NO washcloths in our room after both daily housekeeping and turn down service had been into our room. When we called down, someone in a suit showed up and handed my husband a wad of washcloths. Just odd treatment for a "five star" property. In all fairness, we did not eat in the restaurant so that could be wonderful. The setting is in a beautiful area. We did have drinks in the bar where the servers and bartenders were attentive and pleasant. The outdoor space near the bar and the bar itself had nice service and okay wine selections. Just nothing special - for a five star priced hotel. We'd probably stay in another property should we ever return to Austin.