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Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Austin Hotels / Kevin Connolly / → All Tags

Kevin Connolly Flies in Playmates To Spice Up His Stay at The Driskill

Where: 604 Brazos Street [map], Austin, TX, United States, 78701

If you play a guy on TV that's always used to having an "entourage" of hot girls around you, giggling and agreeing with everything you say, we guess it must be hard to go anywhere without these fembots. How else to explain Kevin Connolly's (aka "E" from Entourage) BYO-Playboy Playmates incident at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas?

Page Six reports:

Kevin Connolly knows poker and Playmates go together. For a poker tournament the "Entourage" star and a group of buddies organized at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas, a couple of dozen Playboy Playmates were flown in just to keep things lively.

Hmm...we've heard of people bringing their own pillows and toiletries with them to their hotels but never their own Playmates. Maybe Playboy should start offering this service to hotels then?

Rooms at The Driskill start at $309 for a room with two queen beds. The suites, which include the Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson Presidential Suite, start at $414 a night.

Tags: Summer Cocktails / Hotel Cocktails / Hotel Bars / Four Seasons Hotels / Austin Hotels / → All Tags

The Ginger-Chile Mojito From the Four Seasons Austin

Where: 98 San Jacinto Boulevard [map], Austin, TX, United States, 78701

We've kicked off our Summer Cocktails series where we profile fun new summer drinks that hotels are making. Got one we should know about? Send us the recipe with a photo of the drink. Otherwise, enjoy and @reply us when you're wasted!

Guests hitting up the Four Seasons Austin should try out some of the hotel's "Summer Sips" being served in the hotel's lobby lounge from now through the end of September. These cocktails are fun, fruity and most importantly, packed with alcohol!

The hotel's mixologists have introduced five new summer drinks, available for $12.50 each: The Ginger-Chile Mojito, The Sparkling Sangria, The Terlingua 75 (served with Patron tequila), a Cucumber Martini and a Pineapple Mojito. We were able to get our hands on the Ginger-Chile Mojito recipe which we've listed here so you can try it out on your own.

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Tags: Hotel WiFi / Austin Hotels / Omni Hotels / SXSW Hotels / → All Tags

SXSW Attendees Minus Hotel WiFi Equals Disaster at the Omni

Where: 700 San Jacinto at 8th Street [map], Austin, TX, United States, 78701

By now, most of us are well aware of the major AT&T snafu that happened down in Austin at this year's South by Southwest. Basically, the cell service provider was not equipped to handle the massive amount of iPhones that convention-goers were packing — not to mention the heavy twittering, texting, and emailing they were probably doing. Yikes. Not good.

And almost as bad as a big ol' AT&T fail is a SXSW hotel in Austin with crappy WiFi. Sadly, this was the case at the the Omni Austin, where one blogger and SXSW attendee reports the WiFi was mostly down. Oh noes.

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Tags: SXSW Hotels / Austin Hotels / Music Festival Hotels / → All Tags

Hilton Austin Still Has a Few Rooms Left For SXSW

Where: 500 E 4th St [map], Austin, TX, United States, 78701

If you're planning to go to South by Southwest in Austin this year, we have some news for you: hotels are gettin' pretty full already. You need to get your game up and start booking.

We started checking individual hotels' websites for stays that ran March 12-23 (the festival runs March 13-22), but the Hilton Austin came back with absolutely no availability on any of those dates — which was curious, but not impossible since the hotel is adjacent to the Austin Convention Center, where many of the SXSW activities go down — so we investigated further.

According to Expedia, if you're really set on the Hilton Austin (it's nice and it's convenient; easy, easy), it can be done if you're only staying for the first weekend of SXSW (Thursday through Monday). But you'd better book it now and be prepared for a $349 rate.

If you're down for staying a few miles out of downtown, The Doubletree Austin does have rooms available for the entirety of SXSW for $118 a night — but, again, you'd better get to booking now. Rooms in the more upscale (read: not Super 8) hotels are lookin' scarce around the city.

Tags: Austin Hotel Reviews / Hotel WiFi / → All Tags

Cowhide Couch at Austin's Driskill Hotel Might Smell

Where: 604 Brazos St [map], Austin, TX, United States, 78701

The South by Southwest Festival is a-happening again in Austin this week and The Scrappy Girl, a blogger at Domino Magazine, took a visit to the Driskill Hotel where she came across this cowhide couch.

Okay, I grew up with cowhide rugs from Argentina. You might say I was raised by them. So you'd think I could handle this cowhide sofa in the Driskill Hotel in Austin. But I couldn't. I think it smelled. Is anyone into it?

On the bright side, Gridskipper says the hotel bar has free WiFi. So you make the call---smelly cowhide couch or free WiFi?

Related Stories:
· The Scrappy Girl [Domino Mag]
· WiFi Madness: Special SXSW Austin Edition [G'Skip]
· Driskill Hotel reviews [TripAdvisor]

Tags: Hotels / → All Tags

Austin Hotels: New Austin Hilton

Where: 500 East 4th Street [map], Austin, TX, United States, 78701

Stayed at the new Hilton in Austin during SXSW 2004 and found the property worthy, but not awe-inspiring.  The Austin Hilton is brand new, directly across from the convention center, and doesn't fail to deliver a good night sleep.  If you are a conventioneer looking for a convenient stay in Austin, you'll want to look into the Austin Hilton (You still might try this approach to get a deal at this property).  However, if you are looking for a unique hotel experience you may want to check elsewhere.

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Tags: Tips / → All Tags

SXSW Hotels: Hilton Currently On Hotwire

Decided to use Hotwire to book my room for SXSW and scored the new Downtown Hilton for $78.00 a night!

Once you submit your dates, look for 4 star hotels with prices from $77 - $79 that include a "Best Value Deal" in blue above them, and chances are good that those are rooms at the Hilton. (no promises, but that is what I got)

SXSW Hotel Page is offering this hotel for ~$180, so that is a cool $100 savings per night if you are lucky enough to grab one of these rooms. Plus, Hotwire appears to have some other good deals for SXSW time still available.

SXSW is only ~20 days away, and I know these deals will go fast.

Good Luck.

Use this link to try and score yourself a sweet SXSW Hotel Deal via Hotwire

Didn't get the Hilton deal? Try these Austin hotels instead.