This guest blog post is by Chris Lloyd.
It can be really hard to find a good Austin happy hour. In the age of Google, it’s hard to believe that some information isn’t just a few keystrokes away.
Granted, there are lots of happy hour lists. But none of them have all the information you need. For example, very few are searchable beyond the ability to filter for what day you’re looking to have a drink. And every one of them is either missing local happy hours or has outdated information.
After years of looking and waiting, I finally decided to just build the happy hour site I wanted: Austin Happy Hour Search.
What Sets Austin Happy Hour Search Apart?
Truluck’s on Research Blvd. has free Wi-Fi and multiple happy hour specials
What’s different about Austin Happy Hour Search? First, it’s the most complete collection of Austin happy hours on the web. I’m sure of this because I collected information from all of the major happy hour sites.
Second, you can search for happy hours with several different criteria. Of course, you can search for certain days and times, but you can also filter happy hours based on whether the place is pet-friendly or has free Wi-Fi. Before developing Austin Happy Hour Search, I couldn’t find anything else on the Internet that had all this information in one place.
And when you search, the happy hours display on a map, so you know exactly where they are (and if there is a better deal nearby). The site also creates a list in case you prefer to browse that way.
Staying Up to Date
South Congress Cafe has happy hour every day from 2-7 PM
But none of those features fix the biggest problem with current happy hour sites — they are all horribly out of date. They are missing places, list places that are out of business, or have bad information about places that are open.
I set Austin Happy Hour Search up so that it was easy for people to report inaccurate information and add missing happy hours. If there is bad information on the site, one click will report it and remove it. If a happy hour is missing, filling out one simple form will add it. You don’t even have to register or give any personal information.
So please, check out my happy hour site. The more people that use it, the better it will get. And that can make all of Austin happy.
Chris Lloyd has been living in Austin for almost ten years. He helps people find apartments and get around town at his site, Everything Austin Apartments.
Photos via Flickr CC, courtesy of Matteo Paciotti, Lotus Carroll and Christina.
Traveling within Texas? Check out Happy Hours Across Greater Houston and Happy Hours in San Antonio!
Good start Chris! any reason there are almost no listings east of I-35?
Hmm. I suspect that is because of dumb luck. Keep in mind when you first go to the page it only shows 50 randomly selected spots (so it doesn’t take forever to load).
Now, If you do an actual search you will see everything we know about that meets the criteria you selected. East side and west….I certainly didn’t intend to exclude anything anywhere.
But as you said, it is just a start. If you see anything missing, please add it or let me know and I will add it. Thanks.
Thanks for the feedback, @crl826:disqus. I also noticed that not all of the selections load at first, so it’s important for the searcher to put in their criteria to get the best results for them.
Great tool! One more filter we could use is “kids friendly”
Great idea. Eventually I would like to add ‘Food’, ‘Live Music’, and ‘Outdoor seating’ as filters too.