HotelChatter

In classic Gold Coast style, the rooms are actually one, two and three-bedroom apartments. (Aussies get a minimum of four weeks of vacation time a year, so they're prone to setting up camp at the beach and settling in for a stretch.)

The design looks in line with what we've come to expect from Aussie hotels, too: simple, clean lines; nothing too flashy or frilly. The luxury comes in the form of amenities: Peppers Broadbeach has Zen gardens, tai chi lawns, private cinemas, guest lounges, teppanyaki barbeques, steam rooms, saunas and pools--all kinds of pools! (Of the lap, plunge and resort varieties.)

Showing that Australia is not immune to hotel trends taking the rest of the world by storm, the property will offer curbside check-in via iPad, minibars stocked with local and organic products, and a pre-order gourmet pantry delivery service.

Best of all, there's an introductory package available until March 1st--in other words, throughout the Aussie summer. (Just watch out for 'schoolies', hordes of 12th-graders who descend on the Gold Coast to mark the end of high school and the start of their adult lives by falling over drunk outside nightclubs they probably aren't old enough to enter in the first place.)

Schoolies aside, the intro package does sounds like a pretty good deal: one-bedroom apartments start at AU$265 a night (almost the same in US dollars) and the rate includes a gourmet hamper, unlimited new-release in-room movies, in-room Internet, and free parking.

[Photos: Courtesy Mantra Group ]