Dallas Marathon 2026 Hotels: The Walk to the City Hall Start
By Matt Spaulding · October 27, 2026
Photo: Loadmaster, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The BMW Dallas Marathon is run every year on the second Sunday of December. This year's weekend is Friday 11 to Sunday 13 December 2026, and every event starts and finishes at Dallas City Hall Plaza, at the corner of Marilla St and S Akard St. On 27 October all fourteen hotels we track within a 20-minute walk of that corner had Saturday 12 December open. Twelve are in our Downtown Dallas area and two are in Uptown and Victory Park. If you're running Sunday and arrive Saturday, get to Hall A at the convention center before 6:00 p.m., because there's no packet pickup on race morning.
On 27 October we read each hotel's own booking screen for two adults in one room on Saturday 12 December, the night before the Sunday races, searched as a one-night stay. So when we say a hotel sold Saturday, it would sell that night without a Friday. We didn't look at Friday night, and availability can change daily.
Walk times are street routes on foot to the Marilla and Akard corner, on a normal day. They know nothing about race barricades. Nothing we read says where the corrals are, so add your own walk from the corner.
The three within ten minutes list only valet
Magnolia Hotel Downtown Dallas is the closest of the fourteen, 7 minutes from the corner (0.34 miles), in a 1922 tower under the Pegasus sign. It sold Saturday, with a room list for 12 to 13 December. On the hotel's screen for 11 November, an $18.48 destination fee sat on its own line on top of the rate, plus $3.18 for the Dallas Tourism PID and $3.67 for state cost recovery. Overnight valet is $45, and the hotel lists no self-parking. Check-out is 11 a.m., and the hotel stores luggage free after check-out. Its FAQ lists food and beverage service as temporarily unavailable. A state filing for the building's redevelopment, which cuts the hotel to 160 rooms and adds apartments, estimates construction from July 2026 to March 2028, so ask the hotel whether work is under way before you book.
The Adolphus, Autograph Collection and The Joule are both 8 minutes away (0.37 and 0.39 miles), and valet at each is $68. The Adolphus doesn't offer self-parking, and the Joule lists none. The Joule's valet is at its 1530 Main Street entrance. The Adolphus sold Saturday, and its screen read "Includes 25 USD Destination Fee." The Joule's calendar priced Saturday 12 December, but we didn't open the Saturday offers. The 11 November offers we did open all read "INCLUDING ALL FEES" and itemized nothing, so the fee was not confirmed on the booking screen.
The headquarters Omni and five more within 14 minutes
The Westin Dallas Downtown is inside the One Main Place tower, a 10-minute walk (0.48 miles). Marriott's Saturday screen carried no destination fee. Self-parking is $38 a day and valet $60, by Marriott's info page.
The organizer's headquarters hotel, Omni Dallas Hotel, is 11 minutes out (0.53 miles). Omni adds a per-night destination charge line to the price wherever it charges one, and none of Saturday's five room options had it. Self-parking is $30 overnight with in and out privileges, and valet is $40 overnight.
Hilton's Saturday screens found 11 rooms at The Statler Dallas, Curio Collection by Hilton and 14 at Lorenzo Hotel Dallas, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, with no mandatory or resort charge at either. The Statler is 11 minutes away (0.53 miles) and the Lorenzo 13 (0.60 miles). At the Statler, Hilton's info page lists valet at $60 and no self-parking. The Lorenzo's lot is $20 a day to self-park, with in and out, and Hilton lists no valet there.
At Crowne Plaza Dallas Downtown, 13 minutes on foot (0.62 miles), you park in a covered garage attached to the hotel, $24 a night with in and out. The height limit is 6 ft 4 in. The search list priced the hotel for 12 to 13 December, but we didn't open the rate details. Under taxes and additional charges, its screen for 11 November lists only "State Tax 18.25% on rate, per night."
Every room at Renaissance Saint Elm Dallas Downtown Hotel has a working record player and vinyl. Saturday's rates came with no destination fee on the screen. No on-site self-parking is listed. Valet is $55 a day, off-site in the Elm Street Garage about 0.1 mile away. The walk is 14 minutes (0.65 miles).
Sixteen to twenty minutes
Fairmont Dallas is 0.74 miles from the corner, a 16-minute walk. Its Saturday list read "17 rooms are available for your search," and each price was a total with taxes and fees folded in. The fee was not confirmed on the booking screen. The guest-services page puts valet at $60 plus tax a night with unlimited in and out, and the main hotel page says $56.
Beside Reunion Tower, Hyatt Regency Dallas is the only other hotel on the organizer's list that we track, 17 minutes out (0.80 miles). Saturday showed six rooms and five suites with no destination fee on the screen, and the hotel's FAQ says it charges no resort or destination fee. Self-parking is $30 overnight in the outdoor Radish Lot, with in and out for overnight guests only. Valet runs $50 to $75 overnight depending on dates.
SpringHill Suites Dallas Downtown/West End, 18 minutes on foot (0.86 miles), parks cars by off-site valet for $44 a day. There was no destination fee on its Saturday screen.
Sheraton Dallas Hotel and Dallas Marriott Downtown both put a destination fee inside Saturday's rate. The Sheraton's screen read "Includes 25 USD Destination Fee." It's an 18-minute walk (0.87 miles), with self-parking on site at $30 a day and valet at $55. The Marriott, at 20 minutes (0.94 miles), is the farthest on this list, and its screen read "Includes 30 USD Destination Fee." There's no self-parking listed, and valet is $57 a day.
The half, full, ultra and relays take runners from 16, but the person checking in has to be 21 at the Magnolia, Westin, Omni, Crowne Plaza, Renaissance and Sheraton. The Dallas Marriott's minimum is 18. We found no age for the other seven.
The nine other Uptown hotels we track are 27 to 50 minutes away on foot, so we left them out.
Sunday morning at City Hall Plaza
Sunday's corrals open at 7:00 a.m. Your corral is set by your estimated finish time and printed on your bib. You can move back to a later one, never up. Corral A closes at 7:55 and starts at 8:00, B closes at 8:00 for 8:10, C at 8:05 for 8:20, and D, shared with the walker corral, closes at 8:15 for 8:30. Gear check opens at 6:30 and takes only the clear plastic bag you get at packet pickup.
The organizer names Akard Station, at 1400 Pacific Ave. between Akard and Field, as the closest train station to the start and finish. It's on the Red, Blue, Green and Orange lines. We found no DART notice of added or early service for marathon weekend, so check Sunday's first trains against your corral time.
"Downtown Dallas has paid parking options only," the organizer says, and it recommends reserving a space ahead through SpotHero, its parking partner. It gives no price. For rideshare, the address it prints is Dallas City Hall Plaza (Start & Finish), 1500 Marilla St. Its list of drop-off points adds the Convention Center at 650 S. Griffin St. and the Omni Dallas at 555 S. Lamar St.
Packet pickup at the expo
Packets come from the expo, and admission is free. It runs Friday 11 December from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday 12 December from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., in Hall A of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, 650 S. Griffin St. (one third-party guide says Hall B, but the organizer and the Convention Center both say Hall A). The Saturday 10K starts at 8:00 a.m. and the 5K at 8:10, before the expo opens, so running either one means picking up on Friday.
The Convention Center's own DART station has been closed since January 2026, and trains pass through without stopping. DART says it reopens once the convention center construction is complete and gives no date. The Omni Dallas has a third-floor skybridge into the Convention Center, and the street walk is 5 minutes.
What we could not confirm
The organizer has not published 2026 road closures on any page we read, and we found no 2026 City of Dallas advisory. The City's special events page returned a 2023 snapshot. So we can't say whether you can drive to or from a downtown hotel while the race is running.
The newest closure detail from the City that we found is a 2017 bulletin. It listed setup closures on Young Street and other streets around City Hall for days before race day, and race-day closures from 6 a.m. Sunday. A third-party site summarizing the City's 2025 advisories said downtown was closed from Saturday morning through most of Sunday. Neither is a 2026 fact. Ask your hotel what it knows.
We couldn't find where gear check is or what ID the expo asks for. The answers on the organizer's FAQ page wouldn't load for us, even on a second try. The Sunday course map linked for 2026 is titled "2025 DM", so it may be last year's. We couldn't read the turn-by-turn PDF at all.
The organizer's own hotel list
The organizer says "Special room rates will be reserved at several nearby hotels" and names the Omni Dallas as headquarters. Its list adds four more: Aloft Dallas Downtown at 1033 Young Street, Hyatt Regency Dallas at 300 Reunion Boulevard, TownePlace Suites Dallas Downtown at 555 Evergreen Street, and Fairfield Inn & Suites Dallas Downtown, which the page lists at the same address as the TownePlace. The Omni and the Hyatt are covered above. We don't track the other three.
The booking link is set up as a reservetravel.com search centered on "Start and Finish Line- City Hall Plaza," for four nights from 10 December, with five preset properties. We didn't open it, and the page states no group code. A Saturday-only stay is a different search from the one it sets up.
