Worth the splurge? Live! by Loews in Arlington, Texas

Last weekend, I attended the Ed Sheeran concert with my son. Ed put on a fantastic show! As a splurge, I booked a night at the nearby Live! by Loews hotel when the rate dropped down to a “reasonable” level. Was it worth the splurge?

Live! by Loews Location and Pricing History

Live! by Loews Arlington opened in 2019. It’s undoubtedly the nicest hotel in the Arlington sports/entertainment district area. It’s adjacent to Globe Life Field (home of the Texas Rangers baseball team) and walkable to AT&T stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys).

The hotel has 300 rooms and 14 floors.

Adjacent to the hotel is Texas Live!, which contains a slew of restaurants and bars.

The paved path behind the hotel leads to AT&T Stadium where the concert was:

This is the same concert venue where the Taylor Swift concert was. Originally when I looked into booking this hotel for one night, there was a 2-night minimum and sky-high prices per night for the Taylor Swift Concert that brought the total price to $2500. Nope! The same policy was in effect for the Ed Sheeran date but I believe the price was a more “reasonable” $1800 for two nights. Still, nope!

My daughter and I ended up staying at a nearby Hyatt Place hotel on points for Taylor Swift. But for the Ed Sheeran concert, I kept checking the Live! by Loews website. I watched the price of rooms gradually go down, and the 2-night minimum was lifted. When the price of a room went into the low $400 range a few days before the concert, I decided to jump on it.

Is $400 a “reasonable” rate for this hotel? It’s all relative. But, this concert was my son’s Christmas present, and he had waited patiently for over 4 months since he opened it. If ever there was an occasion to splurge, this was it. (And admittedly, part of the splurge was for me!)

Checking in/Lobby

The morning of our stay, I received an email from Loews inviting me to check in online. When we arrived at the hotel, I simply had to go to the online check-in area and present my driver’s license. Our room was ready and waiting for us when we arrived at 2 pm.

The first thing my son and I noticed when we entered the hotel was the scent. Yes, it’s one of those hotels that has a scent, similar to the Beach Club hotel at Disney World. Yum.

I enjoyed a cold cup of fruit-infused water before checking out the lobby area.

The lobby fed right into a bar and restaurant area with floor-to-ceiling windows that faced the stadium.

A well-stocked store with grab-and-go food items was also available just off the lobby. The food was reasonably priced, but cans of soda cost $5 each.

Our Room at Live! by Loews

Since I booked just a few days prior, the only room type available was a King bed room. Upon entering our room on the 11th floor, the small hallway contained a closet, bench and coffee/refrigerator on the right side.

The bathroom was immediately to the left. It had a nice walk-in shower (no tub).

Our room had a king bed, chaise lounger, desk and floor-to-ceiling window.
There were plenty of charging outlets on both nightstands and on the desk.

My son ended up sleeping on the chaise lounger with an extra set of sheets and blanket found in the closet.

The best part about our room? The view!

We both slept soundly with the blackout curtain and lack of outside noise.

Warning: There is a minibar in the room with sky high prices. My son was under strict instructions to not touch anything!

The Pool

Live! by Loews has an outdoor infinity pool with a swim-up bar. The pool is not heated, but we didn’t need any more heat on this 95-degree day.

Since I was in the splurging mood, we ordered non-alcoholic frozen strawberry daiquiris from the swim-up bar ($14 each).

Sipping on our drinks in the pool, we almost felt like we were on vacation.

Dinner before Concert

It was great having so many dinner options at the hotel and the adjacent Texas Live! before the concert rather than eating stadium food. We ended up at Rangers Republic, which was surprisingly not overpriced.

Final Thoughts

My son and I enjoyed our staycation at Live! by Loews. It really is the nicest and closest hotel to the stadiums. Unfortunately, the hotel can’t be booked using traditional hotel points/credit card rewards. It is part of Amex’s “The Hotel Collection” which gives room upgrades and restaurant credit for two-night stays booked through select Amex cards. And of course, you can always use Capital One miles to erase the hotel expense.

Is it worth $400 a night? For most occasions, probably not. But, spending the day and night at this hotel made our mother/son getaway a bit more special.

For event nights, I recommend checking back periodically, as rates do seem to drop when the hotel doesn’t sell out at the original sky high prices.

How does my family travel so much? We use miles and points from credit card bonuses. See my Travel Hacking 101 post as well as current credit card offers here.