Honesty is the best policy.
I stayed with 3 REALLY nice friends of mine at the Crown Plaza in Austin, and ALL of us were very disappointed. My sister works in this hotel chain and booked us the hotel so that we could get the friends and family rate. She faxed the paper work the morning we were to arrive. When we showed up the front desk argued with me for a solid 5 minutes about how they had not received the fax. I called my sister (Friday night while she was out with friends) and had to have her discuss the situation with the clerk. They eventually found the fax (that we KNEW they had received) right under their nose at the front desk! It was absurd. They assumed we were trying to get an employee rate, which is strange because I was honest about the fact that I did not work for the hotel chain. They were rude and asking questions about my sisters employment (as if they didn't believe I knew an employee). The rest of our stay that weekend was greeted with the same unnecessary animosity.
They turned off our keys Saturday afternoon so that we would HAVE to come back to the front desk so they could bother us about our billing situation (which I was certain we had already worked out when we showed up). Then at the end of check out, after we had paid and were loading our bags into the car to go home, the front desk manager called me back to say "Just so you know, we aren't going to report this little issue!" and I was stunned because we had done NOTHING wrong. The entire time they thought we were working the system but we were nothing but polite and honest.
OTHER ISSUES:
If you stay here at full price you may get better service (all that means is these people care about your money and aren't genuine)... HOWEVER, there were other problems.
On Sunday morning at 9:00am we woke up to a LOUD praise and worship band playing a drum set with a giant group of people singing at the top of their lungs. The room right across the hall from us was a church service (that they neglected to tell us about when we check in!). If I had known I was going to be forced to wake up to that I would have requested a different room, far far away... however they did not feel the need to tell us about the regularly scheduled service. I called to complain and they did NOTHING about the noise. All of the rooms on my hall way and everyone in the 2nd floor hall way directly above us was effected. 
We also had the front desk call us a cab, they told us to come to the lobby to wait... we came to the lobby 5 minutes later and sat on the couches to wait. About 15 minutes later I had to call a cab again because the first cab had come and gone. The front desk saw us sitting in the lobby, knew the cab driver had come and gone, however never said anything to us. These were the same people that checked us in so I have a feeling that they just didn't care about our needs. 
I lived in Austin for a time - I know the people in the city are better than this - but I brought out of town friends and wanted to show them the city... this hotel really made the experience an uphill battle. I will never stay at this hotel again, discount or no discount. Poor service and poor people.
Also, the maid never cleaned our room. Never. And the bathroom door opens about 3 inches away from the toilet. Really small bathroom and not a good place to stay if you are going as a couple or group.