At Stay In The New, we track every hotel that has opened or reopened in Austin within the last two years — verified dates, and the openings landing right now in the tallest tower in Texas.
THE NEWEST HOTELS. THE BEST STAYS.
A Stay In The New curated city guide
Everything below opened, reopened or completed a full renovation within the last two years — verified dates, no older properties dressed up as new.
Opening Aug 2026
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The most consequential hotel opening Austin has had, and it arrives this month. 1 Hotel Austin anchors the Waterline, the brand-new 74-story tower where Waller Creek meets Lady Bird Lake — at roughly 1,025 feet it is the tallest building in Texas and in the entire southern United States. The 252 rooms and 60 suites carry the brand's nature-forward signature, with interiors by Studio MAI, architecture by Kohn Pedersen Fox and landscaping by TBG Partners built around native Waller Creek plantings. On the 16th floor, watr is an open-air rooftop restaurant and lounge with a Japanese-leaning menu and full skyline and lake views; at street level, Neighbors runs as a café by day and a wine bar by night with its own entrance. Developed by Lincoln Property Company and Kairoi Residential. Reservations opened April 29 with opening rates from around $377.
Why Overpay? See the Lowest Rate →
Opened Feb 2026
The newest true new-build in the Austin metro. Element North Austin Tech Ridge opened February 2026 about twelve miles northeast of downtown just off I-35, in the middle of the Tech Ridge employment corridor. Element is Marriott's sustainability and wellness brand, built for stays measured in weeks rather than nights — rooms and suites come with fully equipped in-room kitchens, and the property is pet-friendly throughout. It is the practical answer for anyone working the north Austin tech corridor who would rather not commute in from downtown every morning. Marriott Bonvoy points eligible.
Why Overpay? See the Lowest Rate →
Opened Dec 2025
Austin's most distinctive recent opening, and the rare new hotel built around what was already there. The Inn at Green Pastures opened December 12, 2025 on a seven-acre historic estate in Bouldin Creek, blocks off South Congress. Clayton Korte designed the three-story inn around the existing live oaks, with nine named suites — Peacock, Magnolia, Live Oak, Cardinal — running marble bathrooms, Sferra linens and balconies over the grounds. Henry's handles all-day service from breakfast cocktails through dinner, alongside the long-established Mattie's on the same property. Managed by La Corsha Hospitality Group, with rates from around $395.
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Refreshed Nov 2025
One of the most significant hotel renovations downtown Austin has seen in years. Hyatt Regency Austin completed a full property transformation in November 2025 touching all 448 rooms and suites, the corridors, meeting spaces, lobby and pool deck. The redesign by Ealain Studios runs warm neutrals, dark patina metals and Texas-inspired art throughout. Three entirely new dining concepts launched alongside it: Ripple & Roots, a Tex-Mex restaurant with an indoor-outdoor bar and a Lady Bird Lake patio; Cypress Grove for breakfast and private dining; and Juniper Breeze Market for grab-and-go. It sits on the south shore with the best skyline-across-the-water view in the city. World of Hyatt points eligible.
Why Overpay? See the Lowest Rate →
Opened Apr 2025
The full-service answer to a gap the airport corridor had for years. Four Points by Sheraton Austin Airport opened April 2025 minutes from Austin-Bergstrom, bringing a modern branded option to a stretch that had been thin on anything above limited-service. There is an on-site restaurant and bar, an outdoor patio with a fire pit, and 1,026 square feet of meeting space for small groups. It earns its place on race weekends in particular, when Circuit of the Americas fills the city and airport-side rooms become the sane choice. Marriott Bonvoy points eligible.
Why Overpay? See the Lowest Rate →We prioritise true openings, but when a landmark completes a comprehensive renovation with redesigned rooms and new dining concepts, we include it as newly refreshed. Several well-known Austin hotels — the Fairfield Inn Downtown, EVEN Hotel at the Domain and the Hampton and Home2 dual-brand on the East Side — opened in 2024 and now fall outside our two-year window; they are covered in the neighborhood guide below.
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Newly opened mid-scale and extended-stay hotels across the metro — fresh rooms and major loyalty points without the downtown premium. Rates typically land in this range outside festival and race weeks.
Austin Airport East, TX
Affiliate Disclosure: Stay In The New may earn a commission when you book through our links, at no extra cost to you. All hotels listed opened within the last two years.
The strongest pipeline Austin has ever had — a Pritzker-winning architect's first Texas building, a landmark restoration, a global brand's first Texas outpost, and two boutique conversions.
Austin's most prestigious address is being restored rather than reinvented. The 1886 Driskill is working through a full restoration preserving its Texas grandeur while refreshing social spaces, reimagining guest rooms, adding a new ballroom and updating its food and drink venues. Estimated completion is summer 2026, which would put it back in play as one of the most distinctive stays downtown.
Get alerts when this opens →An eclectic twenty-room boutique converting a former East Austin apartment building into a creative retreat. At that size it is deliberately the opposite of everything else in this pipeline — rooftop social spaces, lounge areas, and East Austin's gallery and restaurant density immediately outside. The sharpest counterpoint to the convention-scale openings landing downtown this cycle.
Get alerts when this opens →A thirteen-story, 258-room boutique from White Lodging joining Marriott's Autograph Collection, the brand built around independent character rather than a template. Plans include a guest-only rooftop pool, a high-end seafood restaurant and a private social club, on a corner that puts the Sixth Street District immediately outside. One of the more substantive downtown additions in years.
Get alerts when this opens →Architecturally the most significant hotel Austin has built. The Blanco is a 57-key luxury boutique inside the Sixth & Blanco mixed-use development in Clarksville, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron in their first Texas project. Every room gets a private terrace set among mass timber and mature tree canopy, alongside a private members spa and bathhouse, MML Hospitality dining and ground-floor retail.
Get alerts when this opens →The Standard brand arrives in Texas for the first time, as a reimagining of the beloved South Congress Hotel rather than a new build. Worth planning around: the South Congress Hotel closes for renovation in summer 2026, taking one of SoCo's best-known stays off the board until The Standard, Austin welcomes its first guests in spring 2027.
Get alerts when this opens →A 194-room Graduate property planned for 1800 Guadalupe Street, blocks from the University of Texas campus, as part of a mixed-use building with residential and retail. Expect the brand's signature campus-nostalgia design alongside a ground-floor café, rooftop deck and meeting space. Graduate Hotels is now part of the Hilton portfolio, so Hilton Honors earning should apply. Visit Austin currently lists the opening as 2028.
Get alerts when this opens →Know of a new Austin hotel we should track? Let us know →
Opening timelines shift as projects move through development and construction. We update this page as dates are confirmed.
Austin runs on events. SXSW in March, ACL across two October weekends, Formula 1 at Circuit of the Americas, UT home games — on any of those the whole city reprices and the neighborhood you picked decides your week. The rest of the year it is calmer and more navigable than its reputation suggests. Either way, downtown is not automatically the answer.
Downtown packs the Capitol, the Convention Center, the Sixth Street bars and the Lady Bird Lake trail into a walkable core, with Rainey Street — a row of converted bungalows turned bar district — tucked at its southeast edge against the water. It is the obvious base for a first visit or any convention, and it is where Austin's luxury pipeline is landing hardest. 1 Hotel Austin anchors the Waterline in the Rainey district, the 74-story tower that is now the tallest building in Texas, with the watr rooftop on the 16th floor. Across the water on the south shore, Hyatt Regency Austin finished a full renovation of all 448 rooms and has the best skyline-across-the-lake view in the city. Coming next, Hotel Trinity brings 258 rooms and a private social club to the Sixth Street District, and The Driskill completes its restoration. Downtown pricing is entirely event-driven, so compare downtown Austin hotel rates against the SXSW, ACL and F1 calendar before anything else.
Across the river, South Congress is the Austin of the postcards — boot shops and vintage stores, food trailers, the "i love you so much" mural, and the straight-shot view back to the Capitol. Neighboring Bouldin Creek is the leafy, bungalow-lined residential side of it, and the whole area is genuinely walkable in a city that mostly is not. The Inn at Green Pastures is the standout, a 63-room inn on a seven-acre estate built around existing live oaks, with Henry's running all day and Mattie's on the same grounds. One thing to plan around: the South Congress Hotel closes in summer 2026 for the renovation that reopens it as The Standard, Austin in spring 2027, so a well-known option disappears from this stretch for a while. Compare South Congress hotel rates in Austin early for any festival weekend; SoCo tracks downtown's event pricing closely.
East of I-35, East Austin went from overlooked to essential in about a decade — the densest concentration of new restaurants, coffee, galleries and music venues in the city, with an independent streak the rest of Austin has partly traded away. It is a short ride or a walk over the interstate from downtown. The practical option here is the Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites Austin East Side, a 276-room dual-brand two miles from downtown and UT with full-kitchen suites, a pool and cabanas. It opened in August 2024, which now puts it just outside our two-year window, so it sits here rather than in our cards above. Arriving next is the twenty-room Bohème Hotel, converting a former apartment building into an intimate creative retreat. Compare East Austin hotel rates against a downtown room and you are often paying less to be somewhere more interesting.
Twelve miles north, The Domain has become what locals half-jokingly call Austin's second downtown — an open-air district of shopping, restaurants and offices at the centre of the tech corridor that Apple, Google and Meta anchor. For business tied to north Austin it is the obvious base, and the MetroRail runs in. Element North Austin Tech Ridge opened February 2026 slightly further out at Tech Ridge, built for the multi-week stay with in-room kitchens throughout and a pet-friendly policy. Nearby, the EVEN Hotel Austin Uptown near The Domain runs IHG's wellness concept with in-room fitness zones across 126 rooms; it opened in February 2024 and now falls outside our window, but remains a strong fit for the same traveler. Compare Domain hotel rates in Austin against downtown for a tech-corridor trip; the drive in is easy and the saving is usually real.
South and east toward Austin-Bergstrom, this corridor is all function — early flights, race traffic to Circuit of the Americas, and the value inventory that downtown pricing pushes people toward. It is not where you come for Austin, but for a red-eye or a race weekend it is the smart call, and the new builds out here are genuinely new. Four Points by Sheraton Austin Airport is the full-service option with a restaurant and fire-pit patio, while Homewood Suites by Hilton Austin Airport covers extended stays with full kitchens. Holiday Inn Express and Suites Austin Airport East is the one with a free airport shuttle, which matters more than anything else for a dawn departure. Further into South Austin, Home2 Suites by Hilton Austin South handles longer stays at some of the lowest new-build rates in the metro. For F1 weekend especially, compare airport and South Austin hotel rates against downtown — the gap on race dates is enormous.
West and north of downtown sit Austin's most residential central neighborhoods. Clarksville is a historic freedmen's community turned leafy, low-rise pocket of galleries and small restaurants; the University of Texas campus and the West Campus blocks around Guadalupe run on a completely different rhythm, busy in term time and around home games. Nothing qualifying has opened in either yet, but both have arrivals worth knowing about. The Blanco at Sixth and Blanco brings a 57-key luxury boutique to Clarksville from Pritzker winners Herzog & de Meuron in their first Texas project, with a private terrace on every room. Near campus, Graduate Austin is planned for 1800 Guadalupe with 194 rooms and a rooftop deck. Until they land, compare Clarksville and West Austin hotel rates against downtown; you are usually paying a little less to be somewhere considerably quieter.
One rule holds across every Austin neighborhood: check the event calendar before the map. A downtown room on an ordinary Tuesday and the same room during SXSW or a Formula 1 weekend are effectively different products at different prices, and the gap is larger here than in almost any American city.
What is actually new in Austin right now, what is arriving next, and how the event calendar changes what any of it costs.
1 Hotel Austin is the headline arrival, opening August 2026 inside the Waterline tower at 98 Red River Street with 252 rooms and 60 suites. Reservations opened in April. Before it, Element North Austin Tech Ridge opened February 2026 in the north tech corridor, and The Inn at Green Pastures opened December 12, 2025 on a seven-acre estate in Bouldin Creek.
The Waterline in Austin's Rainey Street district, a 74-story tower of roughly 1,025 feet at the point where Waller Creek meets Lady Bird Lake — the tallest building in Texas and in the entire southern United States. 1 Hotel Austin occupies it, with 252 rooms and 60 suites, the watr rooftop restaurant and lounge on the 16th floor, and the Neighbors café and wine bar at street level. Developed by Lincoln Property Company and Kairoi Residential, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.
The Inn at Green Pastures, which opened December 2025 in Bouldin Creek a few blocks off South Congress. Clayton Korte designed the three-story, 63-room inn around the existing live oaks on a seven-acre historic estate, with nine named suites running marble bathrooms, Sferra linens and balconies over the grounds. Henry's serves from breakfast cocktails through dinner, alongside the long-established Mattie's on the same property. Rates start around $395.
Holiday Inn Express and Suites Austin Airport East if the shuttle matters — it sits under two miles from Austin-Bergstrom and runs a free airport shuttle plus hot breakfast, a pool and EV charging. For full service, Four Points by Sheraton Austin Airport opened April 2025 with a restaurant, a fire-pit patio and meeting space. For longer stays, Homewood Suites by Hilton Austin Airport opened October 2025 with full in-suite kitchens.
The Driskill completes its full restoration in summer 2026, and the twenty-room Bohème Hotel arrives in East Austin in the third quarter. Hotel Trinity brings 258 rooms and a private social club to the Sixth Street District in the fourth quarter, and The Blanco lands 57 keys in Clarksville from Herzog & de Meuron. Further out, The Standard, Austin reopens the South Congress Hotel in spring 2027, and Graduate Austin is planned near UT for 2028.
Any week without an event, which is most of them. Austin is one of the most event-driven hotel markets in the country: SXSW in March, ACL across two October weekends, Formula 1 at Circuit of the Americas, and UT home games each push citywide rates to multiples of an ordinary week. Midsummer and midwinter outside those dates are the cheapest stretches. Check the calendar before the map — the date matters more than the neighborhood here.
Austin has spent a decade absorbing more people, more money and more attention than almost any American city, and the hotel market took a while to catch up. For years the choice was a handful of downtown convention boxes, a few beloved independents, and a long tail of chain properties strung along the highways. The current cycle is the correction, and it is the most substantial run of openings the city has ever had.
The centrepiece is 1 Hotel Austin, which anchors the Waterline in the Rainey Street district — a 74-story tower where Waller Creek meets Lady Bird Lake, now the tallest building in Texas and in the entire southern United States. The hotel carries the brand's nature-forward signature across 252 rooms and 60 suites, with a rooftop restaurant and lounge high above the lake and a café and wine bar opening onto the street. Nothing in Austin has arrived at that scale or that address before.
The rest of the cycle is more varied than a single tower suggests. The Inn at Green Pastures took a seven-acre historic estate in Bouldin Creek and built a 63-room inn around the live oaks already standing there, with two restaurants on the grounds. Hyatt Regency Austin completed a full transformation of all 448 rooms on the south shore, adding three new dining concepts and reclaiming the best skyline-across-the-water view in the city. And Element North Austin Tech Ridge answered the north corridor's real need — kitchens and long stays for people working the tech campuses rather than visiting the bars.
Value has improved just as much, and almost all of it sits near the airport. Homewood Suites by Hilton Austin Airport, Four Points by Sheraton Austin Airport and Holiday Inn Express and Suites Austin Airport East have all opened recently, with Home2 Suites by Hilton Austin South and Hilton Garden Inn Austin Central covering the middle of the market. On a Formula 1 weekend, when Circuit of the Americas fills every room in the city, that corridor is the difference between a reasonable rate and an absurd one.
What comes next may be better still. The Driskill completes a full restoration of Austin's most historic address. Hotel Trinity brings 258 rooms and a private social club to the Sixth Street District. The Blanco is a 57-key boutique in Clarksville from Pritzker Prize-winning Herzog & de Meuron, their first building in Texas. And The Standard arrives on South Congress in its first Texas outpost. We track all of them here and update as dates are confirmed.
Practical questions about staying in Austin, from festival weekends to airport runs.
Downtown for SXSW, since the festival takes over the Convention Center and the Sixth Street venues and you will be walking between them all day. For ACL, anything near downtown or South Congress works because Zilker Park sits between them, and the shuttle system runs from downtown. Book both far ahead: these are the two weeks Austin rates climb hardest, and the good rooms are gone months out. If you are priced out, the airport corridor and South Austin stay far more reasonable.
The airport and southeast corridor, without much question. Circuit of the Americas sits southeast of the city near Austin-Bergstrom, so the airport hotels are genuinely closer to the track than downtown is, and they price far below downtown on race weekend. Four Points by Sheraton Austin Airport, Homewood Suites by Hilton Austin Airport and Holiday Inn Express and Suites Austin Airport East are all recent openings in that corridor. Downtown is the better call only if the evening events matter more than the track access.
Holiday Inn Express and Suites Austin Airport East runs a free airport shuttle and sits under two miles from Austin-Bergstrom, which makes it the most practical of the recent openings for an early departure. The other new airport-area properties are close enough for a short rideshare but do not all advertise shuttles, so confirm directly with the hotel if a dawn flight is the whole reason you are booking out there.
Element North Austin Tech Ridge is pet-friendly throughout, which fits its extended-stay format, and Home2 Suites by Hilton Austin South accepts pets as well. Austin is broadly one of the more dog-friendly cities in the country, with patios and parks that welcome them almost everywhere. Fees, weight limits and room availability vary by property and change over time, so confirm directly with the hotel rather than relying on a listing page.
Yes, temporarily. The South Congress Hotel closes for renovations in summer 2026 and reopens as The Standard, Austin in spring 2027 — the brand's first Texas outpost. If you had that property in mind for a trip in between, plan an alternative: The Inn at Green Pastures is the nearest recent opening, a few blocks away in Bouldin Creek.
Downtown, South Congress and East Austin are walkable enough that most visitors manage on foot and rideshare, and downtown parking is expensive enough to make that the cheaper choice. Anywhere north toward The Domain and Tech Ridge, or out toward the airport and Circuit of the Americas, a car is close to essential — the distances are real and transit is limited. If your trip mixes both, weigh a few days of parking fees against the rideshare cost.
Because they no longer are. We list only hotels that opened or reopened within the last two years, and several Austin properties still marketed as new — the Fairfield Inn and Suites Austin Downtown, the EVEN Hotel near The Domain, and the Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites dual-brand on the East Side — opened in 2024 and now fall outside that window. They were genuinely new at the time and remain solid places to stay; you will find them in the neighborhood guide above rather than among our current openings.
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