high expectations for a special occasion, left disappointed
My husband and I were finally able to get away for a vacation and to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. We decided to stay at the Driskill because it is an unique destination and it has been awarded high marks for service. Clearly it is experiencing management problems at this time. Both my husband and I have traveled extensively for work and pleasure and have stayed at the likes of the Pfister, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, etc and we had similar expectations for service. 
When we first arrived at the hotel and at each subsequent arrival from an outing, no one greeted us, opened our car doors, nor opened the hotel door. In fact, the staff acted as if our presence was an imposition upon them. The valets (mind you, we are paying $28/day and tips, didn't open the car doors, provide directions, and at one point told us our car was a block away and we could just go get it - "the keys were in it"). To top it all off, the bell man and valets watched me struggle with lifting a package out of our car, and never assisted me and I am 5 months pregnant. 
While the lobby and bar were beautiful, they had a strong sewer odor every time we walked through them. In addition, maids were seens spraying the carpets with some type of deodorizer. Our water in the shower also smelled of sewer.
All night long of each night we would hear loud noises of heater or air conditioning vents, which prevented us from sleeping well. Then at 7:30 a.m. the maids started slamming doors while cleaning adjacent doors. 
On the second day of our our trip, we were awakened by the engineering department testing fire alarms. Mind you, this was supposed to be a relaxing trip for us! This testing of the fire alarms was accompanied by flashing lights and loud alarms...so we had to change our plans and leave the hotel. I have epilepsy, and flashing lights can cause me to have seizures (not good when pregnant!!) so we had to leave the hotel for the day. These fire alarms continued until well after 4 pm that day! And started again the next day. We had to stay out of our room for the entire day until the concierge called to give us the "all clear".
On the day of our anniversary, we had returned to our room for an afternoon nap, we were awakened by the front desk telling us that we had to check out because they had our reservation ending that day. We had originally tried to make the reservation for two additional nights, but they had no rooms, but we definitely had made it to go through our anniversary and had made it through their site.
At this point I spoke to a manager.
The hotel sent a cake to our room as an apology, but overall, I feel that this hotel needs a complete overhaul. They need to work on service from the valets, bellhops, maids, additional staff in the lobby, and overall attitude. I had better service at the Fairfield Inn on the way to Austin and the way back to Austin, and that is a shame!
I would NOT recommend this hotel to anyone!