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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Marriott’s plans to open almost 100 new Asia Pacific properties in 2021, and now we already have one of the properties featured in that article welcoming guests – the W Hotel Melbourne is officially open.
Location
The new W Melbourne is located at 408 Flinders Lane in the heart of what Marriott is calling “an eclectic dining and edgy fashion district”.
The property is under 20 minutes away (on foot) from the Docklands Stadium (currently branded the Marvel Stadium), approximately 10 minutes away from the Town Hall, less than a minute away from the Yarra River, and within walking distance to a wide variety of eateries, bars, and coffee shops that Melbourne is well-known for.
The W Melbourne
The W Melbourne has 294 guestrooms and 29 suites, which Marriott says have been designed to reflect Melbourne’s history and culture.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’m going to allow Marriott to introduce the rooms because, for a change, the descriptions aren’t too pretentious and they do a pretty good job.
The hotel’s Wonderful, Fabulous and Mega category rooms are inspired by the neighboring street-level newspaper kiosks that back to the 1960s. Each room features floor-to-ceiling windows with stunning skyline views.
The Marvelous rooms feature a vibrant wall graphic of a fairy wren, a bird native to Australia, pulling back a layer of fabric to reveal a colorful Melbourne scene. The graphic pays homage to the city’s roots as a fashion hub, with Flinders Lane at the center of its textile trade.
The 175-square-meter Extreme Wow Suite (W Hotels’ modern interpretation of the traditional presidential suite), is on the hotel’s highest floor at Level 15, and features a large balcony with expansive views of the Yarra River and an interactive music station – a fresh take on an old-school jukebox.
The property is home to two restaurants, a cafe-bar, a cocktail bar, and a poolside bar.
- WARABI is the W’s signature Japanese restaurant which only seats a maximum of 30 diners but also offers a private dining room for 10 (this eatery is not expected to open before May 2021).
- Lollo is the W’s all-day dining restaurant which offers a menu that’s designed to be shared.
- Culprit is the hotel’s take on Melbourne’s café culture blended with a bar that will be open from morning through the afternoon. Amongst other things, guests can expect to be offered a “sophisticated floor-to-ceiling charcuterie display” and a Vermouth tasting tray
- Curious is the property’s cocktail bar which “welcomes guests into a cocoon-inspired space formed by its overhead timber beams in a parametric sequence with low lighting and muted color palettes”. As well as cocktails, Curious offers a menu of small bites and sharing plates deep into the night.
- WET is the name that we’re used to seeing given to a W property’s pool area and poolside bar and there’s no change at the W Melbourne. This bar located on the 14th floor of the W and is open to in-house guests only.
The final two facilities worth mentioning are FIT and WET.
FIT, as you’ve probably guessed, is the W Melbourne’s gym and WET is the property’s pool and pool area (when it’s not the name for the poolside bar). Both are on the 14th floor of the property but, at this point, there are very few details available on either of these facilities. We’ve been told that both offer “spectacular views” and that WET is indoors and has a gold-roof and a DJ booth, but that’s about it. No doubt more details will be made available in the next few weeks.
Marriott Bonvoy
The W Melbourne has joined Marriott Bonvoy as a Category 6 property which means that it will cost 40,000/50,000/60,000 points in Off-Peak, Standard, and Peak seasons and this puts it well within range of the free night certificate issued by the card_name.
The new hotel is now Bonvoy’s highest-ranked property in Melbourne with the other five properties in the city (and its vicinity) ranging from Category 3 (e.g. Element Melbourne Richmond & Four Points Melbourne Docklands) to Category 5 (e.g. The Westin Melbourne & the Melbourne Marriott Hotel).
Bottom line
Marriott has thrown open the doors of the W Melbourne and although a couple of the hotel’s dining facilities will not be available for a few months, guests are now welcome. The property has entered the Bonvoy program at Category 6 and will cost up to 60,000 points per night.
