We didn't care about staying close to downtown, so we opted for the Aloft since it was a contemporary and new hotel with a nice pool and amenities.
The hotel itself is above average - it's newly constructed, has a contemporary design, is staffed with extremely helpful and accommodating folks (Kimberly at the front desk was exceedingly helpful), has a nice (albeit shallow) pool with nice furniture, has a staffed bar and lounge area and offers made to order hot breakfast as well as a stocked snack bar with drinks, candy, snacks, cold breakfast items (we had yogurt and Odwalla, etc) and coffee/tea.
The rooms are clean and roomy, with Bliss bath products, a spacious bathroom counter area (though only one sink in a double queen room), space saving closets, flat screen TV and two desk areas with a dividing bench.
We found the room(s) to be comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. Not too modern, not too hotel-ish.
The hotel is situated in The Domain, which is a large upscale outdoor shopping area about 30 minutes north of downtown Austin. There are some decent restaurants in The Domain (Gloria's was good for margaritas and SalvaTex - Salvadorian Texan - cuisine) and good shops and a few spas and salons.
The bummers about the place were the noise, temperature control and noise. We moved rooms twice until the front desk was satisfied that we'd been placed in the best location possible to avoid the noise from the first floor club/bar (XYZ) on Friday and Saturday nights. Unfortunately, because this is a new complex with developing attractions, there was still noise from construction all night (dump trucks delivering materials for the next day's construction) which could be heard from even the topmost floors.
There was also the ongoing issue of the temperature control. Because the A/C unit faces one of the beds, it was impossible to get the room to a temperature that was comfortable for both people since one bed was being blasted with A/C to get the room cool enough for the second bed while turning the first bed into the Siberian tundra. Turning up the temperature control even a few degrees shut the A/C unit off and the room would get sweltering pretty quickly. I imagine this had something to do with the rooms being on the top floor (and heat rising and such), but since it wasn't *that* hot while we were there (mid-80s max), I'd be wary of the ability to temper the heat in the summer without freezing your bits off.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Aloft, but will stay there again only after construction on the surrounding area is finished and only on the top floors away from the club/bar action.
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