In December 2024, the W Austin in Texas unveiled a $60 million facelift that added an event space, the largest hotel suite the city has to offer and several food and beverage concepts. The 251-key W Austin—part of Marriott International’s luxury portfolio—also now boasts the most two-bedroom suites in Austin, with each corner of the property boasting “rich textures and bold colors that capture Austin’s live music scene,” Blake Triplett, W Austin’s director of sales and marketing, told Vendelux.
The endeavor took a little over a year as the hotel remained operational while Ryman Hospitality Properties subsidiary Opry Entertainment Group (of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry venue) spearheaded the renovation. It comes as Austin’s tourism sector experiences significant growth and investments. For starters, the city’s largest venue, the 881,400-square-foot Austin Convention Center, will soon be demolished. In its current form, the convention center contributed roughly $468 million to the local economy each year—though that figure is expected to boom to a staggering $750 million come the new convention center’s opening in spring 2029, according to ATX Today.
It’s also worth mentioning that Austin is home to major annual events like SXSW each March, the Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, both in October, along with food and wine festivals and a marathon. Perhaps it’s why Austin’s airport is full-steam ahead on an $865 million expansion that will add a new terminal with as many as 30 new gates, though it won’t welcome the public until 2030.
In a sign of the times, the W Austin added an event space called the PNC Hall to its 12,000 square feet of dedicated meeting and event space as part of its renovation. The hotel shares the 2,000-square-foot venue with its neighboring property, ACL Live, which plans to add a “Premium Pass” ticket option to select shows on its lineup. The pass, which will run for an additional $105 per ticket, grants access to PNC Hall, where concertgoers will receive complimentary drinks and light bites courtesy of W Austin’s catering team. PNC Hall is also available as a standalone event space bookable through the W Austin or ACL Live.
Back inside the hotel, W Austin’s largest suite on offer—and the largest in the city—is Penthouse I. It can serve as a standalone event venue, per Triplett. After all, it’s an expansive space (1,798 square feet to be exact) with panoramic views of Lady Bird Lake, a marble-clad bathroom, wet bar and separate service entrance. Penthouse I—along with its smaller, 1,307-square-foot Penthouse II counterpart—boasts a design that’s rich in purples in blues, “pulling inspiration from Austin’s unmatched sunsets which gave the city the moniker, ‘Violet Crown,’” Triplett explained.
“It wasn’t the intention” for the hotel to build the largest suite in Austin when the renovation started back in October 2023, Triplett admitted. “When the hotel opened in 2010, it was actually the only luxury lifestyle hotel in Austin, so wasn’t necessarily in a mindset of having the ‘largest’ anything,” he said. “With the renovation, W Austin has been upgraded to stay on par with the growing city.”
On offering the most two-bedroom suites of any Austin hotel, Triplett said that those two-bedroom layouts “were part of the original architecture of the hotel,” as the “goal of our property has always been to create spaces that bring people together.”
“Austin’s emergence as a major event hub has, however, opened the door to sell these suites as event spaces and not solely as guest rooms, since we’re seeing a higher demand for private spaces for smaller events,” Triplett said.
A diversity of venue offerings is more important than ever given the convention center’s long-term closure, per Triplett, who noted that the hotel is in close proximity to “some of the larger venues like ACL Live Moody Theater and the Palmer Events Center.” And in a further incentive to keep events in Austin booming during the convention center’s construction: “For event planners, we offer 15% off at our full service spa, the perfect way to relax after a successful event,” Triplett said.
Though business travelers are likely more inclined to utilize the W Austin’s refreshed gym—”one of the largest gyms in the city,” Truplett noted—corporate travelers and locals alike are sure to enjoy new F&B concepts on site: the Serenade American Brasserie restaurant, coffee shop 2nd & Roast and the Blue Room cocktail bar (which has already played host to SXSW takeover from apparel brand Cherry Los Angeles).
Coming up, to get more visitors to experience the W Austin’s new look, the hotel “has its own music curator who picks out the music in the Living Room on Friday and Saturday nights,” Triplett touted. Speaking of, the Living Room—what all W Hotel properties call the lobby—was also revamped with more music-themed inspiration. At the centerpiece: a gold bar inspired by the fluid lines of a trumpet.
Similar musical experiences will take place at the W Austin’s pool—also known as the WET Deck—on Saturdays and Sundays through the summer.
