Tag: Melbourne Hotels View All Tags
Tags: Hotel Deals / Sydney Hotels / Brisbane Hotels / Melbourne Hotels / → All Tags
Get $99 Rooms Down Under as Summer Approaches
Where: Australia
While northern hemisphere hotels are busy promoting their winter sales, Down Under hotels are advertising summer specials, and there's a particularly good one on offer from the Urban group of hotels, represented in the three major east coast cities.
The three places - Urban St Leonard's in Sydney, Urban St Kilda in Melbourne and the Urban Brisbane - have got together to organize a half-price summer sale. The deal is that if you make your booking this week (before Saturday, October 31), you can get your room for A$99 ($91) a night instead of the usual average of A$199 ($180). The sad thing is that the Aussie dollar is pretty strong right now, so if you're booking in another currency the deal isn't anywhere near as good as it might have been a few months ago.
The summer deal is good for stays between December 18 and January 18, 2010 in Sydney and Melbourne, while in Brisbane, apparently summer lasts a lot longer – the deal is valid for stays between December 18 and February 14 next year. Just look for the "Hotel Urban turns up the heat" prices when you book online – we saw plenty of $99 rooms left.
Tags: Anti-View / Melbourne Hotels / Westin Hotels / → All Tags
A Building's Exterior and Random Statues Do Not Make For a Pretty View
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
Wow. Talk about disappointing. A HotelChatter Flickr member dropped in this shot of the view from their room at the Westin Melbourne saying:
Crappy view of wall. The statues were something to look at at least.
Hmmm...we're having a hard time focusing on the statues because there's just so much wall in this shot.
We actually passed up staying at this hotel a while back because the hotel charged for WiFi in the guestrooms. Guess we'll have to stay away because of the view as well. But they do have a pretty website if that counts for anything!
[Photo: Vissi87/HotelChatter Flickr Pool]
Tags: Killer View / Melbourne Hotels / Grand Hyatt Hotels / → All Tags
Sip Your Coffee Up Above Melbourne at the Grand Hyatt
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
There is something about sitting up really high with a drink in our hands — whether it be a cocktail or a coffee — that sort of makes you feel like a king or queen, no? Just us? Okay.
Whether or not you get a royal vibe from chillin' in front of a window with a killer view, you can probably agree that this particular seat (snapped by vissi87 and dropped into the HotelChatter Flickr Pool) from the Grand Club Lounge at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne makes you feel good inside. Unless you're scared of heights. Or scared of Melbourne.
Rates here start at A$232 (around $165 USD) and booking a Club room will grant you access to this lounge (the lowest rate we found for a Club King was A$312, or $222 USD) — which you may think is worth it to be able to sit here and sip your coffee. Also, this hotel was just renovated (to the tune of $30 million USD), so the place has a stylish new lobby, a new restaurant and bar, and totally updated amenities.
[Photo: vissi87]
Tags: Hotel Packages / Langham Hotels / Melbourne Hotels / → All Tags
Langham Hotel Does Paparazzi Impression in Melbourne
The Langham Hotel Melbourne knows that not everybody's out of credit during the current financial crisis--and so far Australia's not quite as hard hit--so they're ready to make guests feel particularly special with their Paparazzi Glamour Package.
Feeling famous comes at a price. To stay at the Langham in Melbourne for two nights and be thoroughly spoiled will cost you A$4,200 (at least the favorable US exchange rate brings that down to $2,900). Not cheap, but there are lots of luxuries included.
Tags: Hotel Renovations / Melbourne Hotels / Intercontinental Hotels / → All Tags
Intercontinental Works Some Melbourne Magic With Rialto
What was once the Rialto Hotel on Collins in Melbourne is now the Intercontinental Melbourne the Rialto and judging from some early guest reviews and a very warm Age review, the change has really done the place good.
Being on Collins Street in central Melbourne gives this Intercontinental the advantage of a good location to start with, and since Melbourne's a place where a lot of stuff happens right there in the city center, location is an especially important factor.
Tags: Melbourne Hotels / Hyatt Hotels / Hotel Renovations / New Years Eve 2009 Hotels / → All Tags
Grand Hyatt Melbourne's New Look Almost Ready For The New Year
Need a tip for a last-minute New Year's Eve booking in Australia's new favorite city of Melbourne? Looks like the Grand Hyatt Melbourne has got some rooms left starting at A$410 (US$290).
Last time we were in the area, the entrance to the Grand Hyatt Melbourne was practically boarded up while they got through some renovations but these are now almost completely finished. It all cost A$45 million (over $30 million) so we aren't surprised the results are pretty impressive, with a stylish new lobby and as well as a new restaurant and bar. Of course, the room still have that predictable Hyatt look.
This place is in a great location in Melbourne with all the restaurants and shopping wherever you look, and it's even got great views. Melbourne nightlife will provide plenty of places to hang out on New Year's Eve and it'll be a short walk back to the Hyatt from wherever you are. On a heavy-going New Year's Eve, that's important.
Tags: Gordon Ramsay / Hotel Restaurants / Hotel Hype / Melbourne Hotels / → All Tags
Australian Hotel Gets a New Gordon Ramsay Restaurant
Although Aussies are pretty relaxed about a few dirty words flying about, they’re going to get more soon when Gordon Ramsay starts a Maze restaurant in the newest part of the Crown hotel complex.
Scheduled to open in 2010, the third hotel within the Crown complex will be the largest in Australia, so there should be plenty of guests for Ramsay’s eatery. Although it’s the first step for Ramsay’s eating kingdom Down Under, there are already hints that he’ll be looking to expand across the country.
Australians should be flattered to hear that Ramsay reckons there are enough good chefs in the country to find the right one to run his new restaurant: apparently he said “I’d be stupid not to employ a local Aussie”. Actually, we’re guessing that’s the censored version, but we get the drift.
[Photo: Lee Stranahan]
Tags: Hotel Deals / Melbourne Hotels / Hotel Contests / → All Tags
The Windsor Hotel in Melbourne Offering 50-Cent Hotel Rooms For the Lucky Few
It's the season for ultra-cheap hotel deals. We've seen the $19.28 fiasco and the $19.27 deal at the Royal Hawaiian, but down in Melbourne they're taking things a whole big step further.
The Windsor Hotel first opened up in 1883 but to celebrate its 125th birthday it's offering something better than $18.83 rates. Their neato marketing plan is to offer rooms for the equivalent of the prices they went for in 1883, which works out at 50 Australian cents (US$0.34). A single room is half that and breakfast is included, too!
As you'd expect, of course, the Windsor is not giving out thousands of rooms at that price. It's going for the first 25 people only who book online on the hotel's birthday, December 18, starting from 9.00am Melbourne time. Yeah, you'd have to be very lucky to get one, but it's worth a try.
Now we're sure you're not going to complain about a 50 cent room, but just for the record the Windsor has some big renovation plans in the works. However, since it's a heritage-listed building the local heritage council knocked back some of its plans--they're appealing against that and hope to start a multi-million dollar refurbishment in 2009.
[Photo: miroj]
Tags: Melbourne Hotels / Bath Menus / Hotel Packages / → All Tags
Rubber Ducky, You're the One at Como Melbourne
And the prize for the silliest hotel package this week goes to ... the Como Hotel in Melbourne for naming an otherwise perfectly normal hotel deal "Duckaway". Because you get a rubber duck.
At first glance it might not be at all clear why the Como would offer a "Duckaway", but there is in fact a reasonable kind of excuse behind it. The Como is especially proud of their "Bath Time Menu"--guests can choose all kinds of treats to enjoy at bath time with different kinds of bubble bath, some served with herbal tea or a glass of whisky!
So if you're craving a very good bath and a cute rubber duck, then the "Duckaway" deal goes for A$299 (US$210) and includes a night in a studio suite, gourmet breakfast for two, valet parking and, of course, a smiling Como rubber duck. Dare we say, duck in soon for this deal? Nah, it's too corny.
Tags: Melbourne Hotels / Accor Hotels / Sofitel Hotels / MGallery Hotels / → All Tags
New Label for Old Hotel :: Grand Hotel Melbourne Becomes an MGallery Hotel
We got curious when fashionable Aussie blogger Karen Cheng said that the Accor Hotels people were sending her to stay at the "brand new" Grand Hotel by Sofitel on Spencer Street in Melbourne--we didn't think it was new. But a quick investigation soon found that in some ways, it is a bit new: it's just joined the exclusive MGallery hotel collection.
As far as we can figure out, the whole MGallery thing is meant to be a fancy version of the Mercure brand, hence the "M". To kick off the collection Accor have chosen eight hotels from their Sofitel and Grand Hotel Mercure chains to become MGallery hotels, and the Grand in Melbourne is one of them. Get it? So it's new, but not new.
Tags: Marriott Hotels / Melbourne Hotels / Hotel Technology / Hotel Amenities / Green Hotels / → All Tags
Green Hotels: Marriott Melbourne Works on Hand Towels
Hot on the heels of biodegradable hotel key cards comes another innovation at the Marriott Melbourne where they're trialing an environmentally friendly version of the paper towel.
You may well ask (as we did), why does the Marriott in Melbourne even use paper towels at all--but apparently they have them in public areas and staff areas, but thankfully not in guest rooms. Anyways, they don't have paper towels anywhere anymore, because now they've got the (drumroll ...) Envirocane hand towel.
Tags: Melbourne Hotels / Melbourne Hotel Guide / HotelChatter Questions / → All Tags
Melbourne Hotel Scene :: We Help a Reader With The Rendezvous Hotel
AmandaK has left her perch in Perth, Australia and spent some time in Melbourne. This week she'll be giving us the lowdown on the hotels there. If you have a question or suggestion, send it our way and we'll get right on it.
We just heard from HotelChatter reader Jamie that he's heading to Melbourne in November and has already booked into the Rendezvous Hotel there but was wondering if he made the right decision?
Saw your posting on the hotel scene in Melbourne. I'm heading there in November and staying at the Rendezvous Hotel Melbourne. Any thoughts? Tips? Reviews? Thanks so much!
Thanks for asking, Jamie. Of course we have some thoughts! We answer his concerns after the jump.
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