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Your A-List, Best Hotel

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 01:59 PM

When you are afforded the luxury of 122 years to build a following, you win popularity contests. The Driskill Hotel, completed in 1886 and home away from home for presidents and ordinary tourists alike, won the A-List poll with 32 percent of the vote. The ornate pile built by cattleman Col. Jesse Driskill — in a style sometimes described as Old West goes Winter Palace — operates two restaurants and a bar, along with banquet rooms and lobbies that service weddings, galas and assorted other events.

Compared to the Driskill, the Hotel San Jose is a boutique outfit, a former motor court on South Congress Avenue. Meticulously transformed into the epitome of Austin cool with a paradisical courtyard garden by Liz Lambert and pals, it took 24 percent. The lakeside Four Seasons Hotel, the supremely tasteful representative of the global chain that boasts immaculate service, earned 17 percent.

The InterContinental Stephen F. Austin, downtown’s other historic hotel and a genteel retreat, took in 6 percent. The still relatively new Hyatt Lost Pines Resort, located in spectacular setting out near Bastrop, got 5 percent. Hilton Austin, which commandeers the majority of convention business, reeled in 4 percent. Taking less than 4 percent were Omni Austin Downtown, Lakeway Resort & Spa, South Austin Motel and Renaissance Austin.

When the Stephen F. opened a few years back, we claimed the right to spend a night each at all three downtown luxury hotels for a special XL report. We liked all three equally, for different reasons. Still, that year’s expense account never recovered.

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