Any Austin Hotels with Charging

[cab]

Hey All,

We will be headed to Buda, TX (from DFW area) for a wedding next month and have two options with regard to charging:

1. Hotel in South Austin with overnight (240v) charging or...
2. Drive to souhth San Marcos Supercharger after wedding before heading back home

Option 1 is doable (but adds the charging time plus drive to/from San Marcos) and is where I suspect we'll end up, but if someone can recommend a reasonably priced hotel we might go for that (note: other guests are staying right in Buda).

Thanks!

 

[TexasEV]

The best way to find hotels with charging is to filter for "hotel" on plugshare.com.
There are two ways to have the option for "hotel" as a filter-- either access plugshare from the in car browser or use the Tesla browser emulation by going to Tesla.plugshare.com. Otherwise plugshare doesn't let you filter for hotels when you access the site through computers or mobile devices.
Besides looking in Austin there are several hotels/B&Bs in Wimberley with Tesla destination charging.

 

[TXjak]

Another option might be CHAdeMO.

There is a CHAdeMO station at the Walmart at 12900 N IH-35, Austin, TX. It is on the North side of Austin and about 30 miles from Buda or 93 miles from the Waco Supercharger. It's about 120 miles from the Waco Supercharger to Buda. There are other CHAdeMO stations in Austin as well.

John

 

[BerTX]

We did a similar thing (coming from the other direction) and could not find anything that we considered reasonably priced as far as hotels with chargers. Ended up staying near San Marcos, walked around the Outlet Malls the next day while charging, then went home.

There is a new La Quinta within sight of the Supercharger, but I don't think it is very close to opening.

 

[BerTX]

Another option might be CHAdeMO.

There is a CHAdeMO station at the Walmart at 12900 N IH-35, Austin, TX. It is on the North side of Austin and about 30 miles from Buda or 93 miles from the Waco Supercharger. It's about 120 miles from the Waco Supercharger to Buda. There are other CHAdeMO stations in Austin as well.

John

EVgo, so $10 per 30 min of charging. Still, better than $250/night for a hotel.

 

[Missile Toad]

Assuming you are in S85 and you can (painfully) drive the speed limits. This itinerary could work:
Outbound leg
Supercharger in Waco = 250 mi
Waco Supercharger | Waco, TX | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare
Rudy's BBQ (just around the corner at the car wash) = 15 mi
Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Q | Round Rock, TX | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare


Inbound leg
Return trip @ Virginia College = 15 mi
Virginia College | Austin, TX | Electric Car Charging Station | PlugShare
IHOP and Whataburger are eating options

Total miles: 280 by charging, while you eat, perhaps?
Actual round-trip miles Waco-Buda = 236

 

[kavyboy]

We stayed north of Austin at Round Rock and used the destination charger at Rudy's BBQ. There are hotels within walking distance.

 

[TexasEV]

We stayed north of Austin at Round Rock and used the destination charger at Rudy's BBQ. There are hotels within walking distance.

I doubt that's what Rudy's had in mind when they installed the HPWC.

 

[Missile Toad]

I doubt that's what Rudy's had in mind when they installed the HPWC.

I doubt we will resolve precisely what Rudy's had in mind -- but we can maybe gauge the costs to Rudy's. Assume that each plug-in causes less than 1/1000th of the value of the charger in terms of wear-tear. Assume that only 60 rated miles needed to get to 100% topped off. Assume prevailing texas per kWH costs of $0.12.

60mi/ (3 RM/kWH)*.12 = $2.40
$0.50 for wear on the connector
$2.90
Not trivial, but I don't think people are lining up to do this every night.

So, maybe figure $0.50 - $0.90 as overhead for customers (e.g., napkins, free plastic cups, toilet paper, and don't forget the buckets of BBQ sauce). That leaves about $2.00 spent on 'goodwill' and these last few postings of free advertising

best damned BBQ in Texas!

so, it all works out in the end.

 

[brkaus]

I feel like your best option is to use the supercharger in San Marcos. It's 21 miles each way out of the way. Perhaps you could call the Buda and south Austin hotels and find one that would let you use an outside power outlet to help out. There really isn't much in Buda.

Buda is roughly 1/2 way betwen San Marcos and Austin. Depending on events in the area at the time, San Marcos might be less expensive.

Sure, the Rudys on the north side would work if your staying over but is quite a ways from Buda.

 

[kavyboy]

I doubt that's what Rudy's had in mind when they installed the HPWC.

I'm not sure about that. I would have otherwise never eaten there, but my wife and I made a point to have a full meal there, out of gratitude. They made a profit, I am sure, as they should have. Win-win.
But now that I have looked up Buda, the San Marcos supercharger is the clear winner. I just yesterday was wearing a shirt I bought at the outlet mall from the last time I charged there.

 

[TexasEV]

I'm not sure about that. I would have otherwise never eaten there, but my wife and I made a point to have a full meal there, out of gratitude. They made a profit, I am sure, as they should have. Win-win.

If you ate there, then that fulfills the purpose of them putting in the destination charger, to attract customers. Your post didn't make that clear, only that you charged there and walked to a nearby hotel. My apologies.

 

[kavyboy]

If you ate there, then that fulfills the purpose of them putting in the destination charger, to attract customers. Your post didn't make that clear, only that you charged there and walked to a nearby hotel. My apologies.

No problem; no apologies needed. I just assume that everyone plays fair and they don't take advantage, so of course we would eat there.
Because this was a dining destination charger, I left a windshield wiper note with my number to call (24Hr) if the charger were needed since an overnight charge at a restaurant location doesn't seem the intended use.

 

[StoXto3toY]

The Parmer Tech Ridge Homewood Suites is an awesome hotel and has two HPWC.

 

[cab]

And the decision is...we are staying in a hotel in San Marcos. It "helped" that the SXSW music festival will be going on a hotels were filling up AND my sister-in-law is coming in from San Antonio so SM was closer for them to home that diving in to San Antonio...our hotel is about a mile from the supercharger so while thi is not as convenient as having overnight charging at a hotel, it is cheaper and not too inconvenient.

I appreciate all the suggestions and the tip about plugshare and hotel filtering (crazy that is not in the main app)!

Will let you guys know how it goes!

 

[ourbabybluex]

Has anyone had any experience with the Austin Renaissance Hotel and their chargers(4 HWPC)? The hotel seems to be in the outskirts.

 

[Shaggy]

Not to mention, Austin is nasty with ChargePoint L2 chargers, many free destination chargers, and 2 (iirc) fast DC/CHAdeMo locations.

As you said likely all Austin hotels with them are long full due to the festival.

 

[cab]

So we did our trip this past weekend. Ended up staying at a hotel across from the San Marcus Outlet mall where the SC's are located. A few thoughts:

1. Trip demographics - we put 684 miles on round trip including trips back and forth from San Marcus to Austin and/or Buda. We ended up charging at the San Marcus Superchargers TWICE.

2. Hotel Charging while you sleep is really the way to go - Yeah, I know "what a shock" right? If we had stayed at a hotel with overnight level 2 charging that would have likely eliminated both of our San Marcus Supercharger visits. The first visit was OK as we knocked out some shopping, but the second we were just ready to hit the road and it just meant delaying that. It is no surprise that on both days we saw owners at the San Marcus stop just sitting in their cars waiting for them to charge.

3. I-35 absolutely stinks - Even taking the loop around Austin, it was just bad for virtually the whole trip. Weirdly, you end up with this mix of low speed stop and go intermixed with relatively high speed travel. We were often above 70 mph and at 80 around the loop in Austin (which, of course, has an 80 mph limit - Texas, FTW!).

4. Collin Street Bakery Charger - Man, I wish the food was better here. Nothing like charging for 35 minutes only to then leave and drive 2 miles down the road to eat at a different restaurant (a Whataburger no less)...would have been nice to kill two birds with one stone. Oh, and man, when I pulled in last night the SCs were empty, but while I was there 4 others showed up.

5. I-35 stinks - Even with a Tesla, it's enough to make me want to just fly instead.

This was, admittedly, an unusual trip as we would normally go "to Austin" or "to San Antonio" as opposed to this hybrid destination we ended up at. Still, no other EV could have realistically done it...not even close.

 

[brkaus]

Thanks for the update!

 

[Zaphod]

So we did our trip this past weekend. Ended up staying at a hotel across from the San Marcus Outlet mall where the SC's are located. A few thoughts:

1. Trip demographics - we put 684 miles on round trip including trips back and forth from San Marcus to Austin and/or Buda. We ended up charging at the San Marcus Superchargers TWICE.

2. Hotel Charging while you sleep is really the way to go - Yeah, I know "what a shock" right? If we had stayed at a hotel with overnight level 2 charging that would have likely eliminated both of our San Marcus Supercharger visits. The first visit was OK as we knocked out some shopping, but the second we were just ready to hit the road and it just meant delaying that. It is no surprise that on both days we saw owners at the San Marcus stop just sitting in their cars waiting for them to charge.

3. I-35 absolutely stinks - Even taking the loop around Austin, it was just bad for virtually the whole trip. Weirdly, you end up with this mix of low speed stop and go intermixed with relatively high speed travel. We were often above 70 mph and at 80 around the loop in Austin (which, of course, has an 80 mph limit - Texas, FTW!).

4. Collin Street Bakery Charger - Man, I wish the food was better here. Nothing like charging for 35 minutes only to then leave and drive 2 miles down the road to eat at a different restaurant (a Whataburger no less)...would have been nice to kill two birds with one stone. Oh, and man, when I pulled in last night the SCs were empty, but while I was there 4 others showed up.

5. I-35 stinks - Even with a Tesla, it's enough to make me want to just fly instead.

This was, admittedly, an unusual trip as we would normally go "to Austin" or "to San Antonio" as opposed to this hybrid destination we ended up at. Still, no other EV could have realistically done it...not even close.

Agree, I-35 is awful. But right now is even more so with SXSW, rodeo, and who knows what else going on that I don't know about.