The Highlander Hotel

Stayed at this hotel for 2 nights during a Powerlifting Meet. Found them through
for a reasonable price and the reviews were decent. I must add that from check in to check out my stay was very pleasant. All employees were extremely friendly and helpful. The room was very inviting, clean, comfortable and had everything needed for my stay. Breakfast in the morning was delicious and the spread was very impressive for a FREE continental breakfast at such a small hotel. Would highly recommend this place to any traveler.

Great budget hotel, friendly front desk, good location, fraction of the price of downtown! I dig the sheep, comfy beds, and restaurant across the street! Decent bathroom. Run down mall nearby kind of random but whatever, it’s Atx!!! Happier than at the Omni downtown last trip when friends talked me out of this location. If you have a car, it’s no biggie. Free parking!

Jun 19, 2016: Completely grossed out! Little worms on the header of the bed and ROACHES (dead and alive). This place could be your typical 3-​star hotel if it wasn’t for the poor maintenance and cleaning. Utterly disappointed. Don’t come here.

Came to Austin for the weekend and found this hotel online. Got a great deal…$ 130 (after taxes plus a dog) for a night. It was a great location, just 10 min to Rainey street, it was clean, bed was comfy, and they allow dogs for just $ 10 a night! For what we needed it was perfect, I like where they are going with this hotel style. Cute boutique feel, without the added cost. Plus you get a free breakfast! Yes, the property is a little old and some things need some TLC, but I mean for the price and location, couldn’t ask for more. Would come back again next time I’m in Austin.

I stayed here while in town for Florence + the Machine last week and was pretty happy with my stay!
While The Highlander is not the swankiest of hotels, some paint and some cleaning do go a long way to an old Travelodge. I found my room to be perfectly acceptable with a comfortable bed to boot. My only qualm was the outlets are not in convenient places, but I survived. I didn’t need a room with a lot of frills, so overall, the room met my needs.
The staff were very nice, and every interaction I had with them was perfect. Shout out to the front desk gent who let me into the locked gym room after hours where they keep the ice machine, something I missed by a mere thirty minutes.
The proximity of The Highlander to the North Loop is also a bonus! You’re just a scant few minutes away from some great sushi, great coffee, and various stores including record stores, antiques, Monkeywrench Books (get thee to the library and ask for Edward Abbey’s books if you don’t know what monkeywrench is referring to) and more. Who needs South Congress? Pfft. (Jk!)
My only fear is that more folks will catch onto this hotel and drive up the prices. Admittedly, I was drawn to the $ 115 a night, a steal if you’re trying to get a halfway decent hotel in Austin. Next time I’m in Austin, I hope to make a return here, for sure.

$ 120 a night with AMAZING breakfasts! It’s the best place you can stay this close to downtown! The details are lacking, if you care about that. Only major issues I had was the staff at the desk was not very pleasant. We were greeted with a frustrated manager who had an employee show up late. We also didn’t have an iron in our room. Other than a couple details– this place is a great value and a fun stop!

Yep. It’s a remodeled Travelodge, but the rooms were clean and the staff was really helpful. The breakfast was pretty good. The area is isolated and there is nothing walkable. Good deal for the price.

Its an old travellodge that has been converted. It’s been redecorated, and the cleaniness is ok. It’s the details that lack.
Opening the door to my room emitted a huge loud grinding noise. The door is rubbing against the doorframe. The renovation is mostly paint, carpet, and a spray on treatment for the tile in the bathroom. This is all ok, but the fixtures (toilet paper holder, kleenex holder) weren’t swapped out. They’re bent and nasty looking.
TV is just fine. The biggest gripe, and what keeps this from being a 3 star…
There are no outlets with easy access to plugin your phone, laptop, chargers… Its the same configuration as 1970 when the place was built. In my room, their was one lamp next to the bed with a 2 prong outlet. The power cut out it to every time I moved. Ended up having to move the bed, plugin something and repeat procedure every time I swapped devices. Thats a fail.
Get some lamps or a power strip!
Decent effort — still a lot of kinks to work out.
PS — the toilet paper feels like corn husk.

For $ 138/​night in early April, this place is the best option for those who don’t want to pay more to stay downtown but don’t wish to stay at the crappier aging motels nearby. Yes, it’s a renovated Travelodge, but they did a good job classing the place up.
Pros:
Hipster décor
Huge rooms with balconies
Free continental breakfast with local doughnuts, coffee, and breakfast burritos from nearby Kick Butt Coffee, and Kind bars, Chobani yogurt, etc.
Best value for the price range (why are hotels in this city so expensive??)
Nice TV
Pink sheep everywhere that mysteriously move around the hotel overnight (two were placed, shall we say, on top of each other in the hallway when we woke up)
Car 2 Go spots in the parking lot
Cons:
Room stank of dank weed when we checked in, but was okay by second night
Not close to anything except a Greyhound terminal and other hotels, the other reviewer was right about it feeling deserted outside
No fridge or bottles of water in room :(
Soaps are terrible and leave a film on you
Shampoo and conditioner in one is tiny and leave hair feeling dried out

Stayed at this place during SXSW since most of the hotels in Downtown were either sold out or ridiculously priced. The photos made it look like it was a super cute hipster hotel, so we decided to stay at this hotel over the holiday inn.
The lobby was cute when we checked in, but as soon as we got to our room, I was very unimpressed. Our room felt like I was staying at a motel that just had updated posters on the wall. Our doors would not close unless we put a lot of effort to close it/​open it.
Our key card was always deactivated as well, so almost every night we had to go to the reception desk to deactivate our card — that was annoying.
The location was also very weird. Apparently there was a mall across the street which closed down and essentially left this neighborhood feeling deserted.
After doing research, we found out that this was an old travelodge, which now makes sense.