Experience getting passport renewed in person on expedited service?

Hello, I recently had to book a non-life-or-death related international flight (beginning of October). It’s been a while since I traveled abroad and today I just realized that my passport is expired. I called the hotline listed on travel.state.gov to make an in person appointment at the nearest passport agency to me, which apparently is in Houston (I’m in Austin) for expedited passport renewal service.

The rep I spoke to said they’re unable to book an appointment for me right now. They’re only able to see appointment times two weeks from my departure date. I’d have to call in on Monday the earliest to book an appointment. From what they told me, my appointment can only be scheduled within three days of my trip, which is cutting it a bit close… The rep also told me that there was no guarantee that I’d get an appointment, and no guarantees that the agency would be able to renew my passport in a day.

I’m a bit worried and stressed out. Has anyone gone to the passport agency in person to renew their passport before? If so, how smooth/difficult was it? Was booking an appointment easy? Were they able to get it done in a day? I’ll have to drive to Houston from Austin, so getting a pulse on how long they take will give me an idea on whether I need to book a hotel room for the night, as well as get a better sense of whether or not my passport has a good chance of being renewed before my trip.