HotelChatter

Tags: SXSW Hotels / Austin Hotels / → All Tags

Hotel Options Dwindling for SXSW Festival

Where: Austin, TX, United States

It’s almost time for Austin’s annual blowout music event, SXSW, and you know what that means: Come March 12, a heaving mass of skinny-jeans and bearded bloggers will descend on the hot streets of Austin for 10 days of music festival madness. Also, with this starting in less than three weeks, hotel rooms are getting scarce.

If you want to stay in one of the official SXSW hotels, your options are paltry — particularly if you want to stay through the whole festival. At this writing, the SXSW website lists four not-particularly-central hotels with availabilities: Candlewood Suites-South (doubles $123), Marriott-Austin South (doubles $149), Crowne Plaza (doubles $156), and Barton Creek Resort & Spa (doubles $199). Though all the downtown hotels seem to be booked, SXSW runs pay-to-ride shuttles ($30 unlimited pass) during daytime and nighttime shows to and from the other official hotels.

The Country Inn & Suites-North (doubles $114) and Embassy Suites (doubles $172) are available all but the first night, if you can stomach the late start. Or, scour Expedia for deals that started around $67 when we searched. Just remember that cabs can be near impossible to catch in the height of SXSW, so that cheap hotel in the hinterlands might not be the sweet deal it appears to be.

[Photo: bre pettis]