The most exciting hotels in Melbourne

In the four years to 2023, more hotels opened in Melbourne than any other Australian city, with about 5,000 new rooms coming online during that time. It hasn’t stopped, with even more properties launching in 2024. Most visitors will likely find themselves staying in the city centre – you’ll hear locals refer to it as the CBD (central business district) – where there are enough bars, restaurants, cultural institutions and retail opportunities to entertain even the most apathetic of guests. You’ll find all the big hotel brands here, but there are also plenty with a local vibe.

Where to stay in Melbourne

Many of Melbourne’s inner-city neighbourhoods, easily accessible on the tram network, have their own personalities. South Yarra has a chi-chi village atmosphere, with tree-lined streets and fashionable residents. On the northside, Fitzroy and Collingwood are two of the coolest suburbs in the city, with vintage shopping, independent art galleries, charming cafes, restaurants of all flavours and late-night bars on three or four interconnected, walkable streets. Now, for the first time, there are fabulous, quirky hotels in these LGBTQI+ friendly neighbourhoods, so you can locate yourself there and enjoy it all.

Read on to discover the best hotels in Melbourne for your next stay in the city.

Melbourne City

QT Melbourne

Best for: Fashionable frolicking
Location: 133 Russell Street, Melbourne
Price: From 369 AUD / 250 USD

There’s just something about this hotel that makes you feel like you’ve arrived. Maybe it’s the grand staircase from the foyer up to Pascale Bar & Grille (be sure to check out the wallpaper in the bar). Perhaps it’s the stylishly dressed Directors of Chaos (QT’s fancy name for its concierges) who greet you at the revolving door. This 188-key hotel has an industrial vibe, and its jewel-tone rooms feature make-your-own cocktail kits. An upgrade to the Corner King Room is worth it, simply because you can soak in the bath overlooking the city. Rooftop at QT is one of the city’s most popular bars, but if it’s too crowded, ask if the secret garden is open.

Lancemore Crossley St. Melbourne

Best for: Theatre lovers and lovies
Location: 51 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Price: From 359 AUD / 245 USD

Melbourne’s theatre district takes in several blocks in the city’s east – blocks that also include Chinatown, laneway bars and designer shopping. At the heart of this quarter is this urbane bolthole. While a chandelier ‘crashing’ into a table in the lobby brings the drama, the 113 rooms exude modern minimalism – all white linen, black aluminium-framed windows and marble bathrooms. Spoil yourself with a one- or two-bedroom suite with a balcony, although with the spectacular rooftop terrace reserved for the exclusive use of guests, do you really need one? If you’re looking for a place to eat nearby, head to Punch Lane, a cosy wine bar and restaurant where ingredients from local farmers and foragers forms the basis for the menu.

Quincy Hotel

Best for: Bright sparks
Location: 509 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Price: From 220 AUD / 150 USD

If you prefer a hotel design that turns up the colour dial, book a room at Quincy. The bedheads are upholstered in either red or blue, the beds are topped with bright cushions, and city views are captured by floor-to-ceiling windows. Elsewhere, you’ll find an indoor lap pool, Q Rooftop on level 28 for killer cocktails and, up the gold spiral staircase from the lobby, the hotel restaurant, Salty Egg. It’s popular at dinner for its Thai cuisine with a twist, but head down for breakfast and indulge in pandan waffles with poached ginger pears and whipped coconut butter.

The Hotel Windsor

Best for: Grand style
Location: 111 Spring Street, Melbourne
Price: From 275 AUD / 185 USD

This Victorian pile, situated at the eastern end of the city, first opened in 1884 – preceding New York’s Waldorf Astoria and London’s Savoy. For the history lovers out there, it’s the only purpose-built hotel from that era still operating in the city. The rooms are luxurious with just a touch of chintz in a nod to its heritage. Stroll the halls looking for portraits of famous guests before heading downstairs for a beer at the Cricketers Bar, which is always buzzing when there’s a game of football or cricket happening at the MCG, just a walk across the park. Oh, and the afternoon teas at One Eleven? Legendary.

Hotel Indigo Melbourne

Best for: A fashion history lesson
Location: 575 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Price: From 295 AUD / 200 USD

Every vestige of the former Holiday Inn is gone, erased during a 20m AUD transformation. Hotel Indigo Melbourne, which opened in August 2023, is its fashion-forward replacement. There are glorious fashion photographs everywhere you turn: framed in the lobby, turned into wall-sized portraits in the rooms and covering the shower doors in each bathroom. They’re an ode to Helmut Newton, who escaped war-torn Europe and arrived in Melbourne in the 1940s. His first studio was in this very lane, and he scraped together a living shooting clothing catalogues before slowly making inroads into the fashion industry. There’s a little bit of drama in red furniture pieces, a photo booth in the lobby and in-house restaurant, Bistrot Bisou.

Laneways by Ovolo

Best for: Being at the city’s heart
Location: 19 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Price: From 180 AUD / 120 USD

If you want the best of Melbourne on your doorstep, you could do a lot worse than booking yourself a room at this boutique spot that infuses fun at every opportunity. Laneways by Ovolo has 43 rooms in seven different configurations, all with a colourful, retro style. If you’re staying a while, consider the Memphis penthouse with two bedrooms, a spacious lounge, expansive terrace, private jacuzzi and pinball machine. Walk out the front door and you’re immediately among excellent restaurants and bars. Before you turn in for the night, go round the corner to Siglo, a rooftop bar with white-topped tables, classic wicker cafe chairs, potted citrus trees and amazing views of glittering Parliament House across the street. It’s almost like you’re on a rooftop in Spain.

Next Hotel Melbourne

Best for: Designer digs
Location: 103 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Price: From 238 AUD / 160 USD

Part of a ritzy retail and dining precinct called 80 Collins, Next Hotel has a rather understated entrance. The drama is saved for arrival at the elevated reception, where it’s all glam marble and gold tones. There’s more sophistication in the rooms, with their neutral tones and generous textures – the bathrooms are all class with Dyson hair-styling tools and full-size Hunter Lab amenities. Be sure to enjoy La Madonna bar, adjoining the restaurant of the same name, where there’s more than shaking going on. The specialty here is barrel-aged cocktails: a negroni, of course, but also drinks like the Jungle Bird, which sees Jamaican rum, Campari, pineapple and lime matured in a negroni barrel.

The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne

Best for: Views for miles
Location: 650 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Price: From 640 AUD / 435 USD

Big-name hotels can often feel cookie cutter. Not this one. Outside the spa, an interpretation of the water wall installation at City Square, a reference any Melburnian will recognise, can be found. Local Indigenous artist Maree Clarke used a traditional welcome necklace to create the lobby doors’ cast bronze handles, and artist Robert Scholten has drawn city scenes that line each lift lobby. Arrival is on the 80th floor, with the city spread out below. There are 257 luxurious guest rooms, all with bespoke furniture and equally spectacular vistas. There’s a glorious pool, the aforementioned spa, Cameo cocktail bar and the exquisite Atria restaurant, whose menu is created using hyperlocal ingredients.

Hotel NO

Best for: Urban campers
Location: 388 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Price: From 399 AUD / 270 USD

A car park rooftop is not the sort of place you’d expect to find a hotel, but this is exactly where Hotel NO comes in. Six 1970s Airstreams were gutted in the US, sent across the Pacific to Melbourne and were craned up to these great heights before being fully decked out with queen-sized beds, pink ensuite bathrooms, free minibars and iPad Pros loaded with Netflix. There’s one Airstream with Benefits – the benefit being a private deck and spa. There’s no lobby, no concierge (but there’s plenty of local info on the iPad) – it’s just a great bit of fun in a part of Melbourne surrounded by good things.

Inner-north suburbs

The StandardX Melbourne

Best for: Observing life in one of Melbourne’s hippest neighbourhoods
Location: 62 Rose Street, Fitzroy
Price: From 229 AUD / 155 USD

It took an international brand, Standard Hotels, to see the potential in hip Fitzroy. In August 2024, the debut hotel of its more affordable sibling brand arrived here with a bang (literally – that’s the name of the onsite Thai restaurant). The sophisticated public spaces blend vintage and custom furniture, with stacks of coffee-table tomes and enough lush greenery to stock a nursery. Then, there’s the locally produced art, which feels like a hat-tip to its location, next door to the Rose St Artists’ Market. The 125 rooms are uncomplicated and comfortable, with striped white and cobalt blue carpet, a foldout timber desk for those who have to work, a mini bar hidden in a terracotta-hued metal locker, and fluted glass to screen the bathroom. Each room also has a tiny, fluoro-toned painting by Jane Sinclair. Higher levels have amazing views, but head to the palapa-inspired rooftop to look out over the northern suburbs, towards the Dandenong Ranges in the east and the city skyline to the south.

lyf Collingwood

Best for: Solo travellers
Location: 42 Oxford Street, Collingwood
Price: From 122 AUD / 83 USD

Each of the 105 studios here has everything you need (a comfy bed, flat-screen TV, free wifi, a small desk, compact bathroom) and nothing you don’t. For instance, don’t expect a mini bar or even a fridge, although you can stash anything you want in the communal kitchen on each floor. The rooms might be small, but colourful abstract murals brighten the sleek spaces, including one huge mural on a wall outside to improve the view. Downstairs there’s a big kitchen, laundry and various large tables with powerpoints where you’ll see people tapping away at laptops. The front-desk staff – called lyf guards – are all young and fun, and if you bring your cup down in the morning, they’ll make you a complimentary coffee. Plus, you’re just a couple of minutes’ walk from buzzing Smith Street.

The Interlude

Best for: Luxe digs with a difference
Location: 1 Pentridge Boulevard, Coburg
Price: From 375 AUD / 255 USD

The gates slammed shut on Pentridge Prison in 1997, and now the entire site in Melbourne’s northern suburbs has been turned into a lifestyle precinct that includes this 19-suite hotel. Each takes up four or five cells, featuring the original bluestone walls and cast-iron doors. Thankfully, there are luxury inclusions, soft furnishings and local art to make guests feel less locked down. This is a full experience though. Destress in the underground relaxation pool, take a tour of the old prison, gather by the campfire in the old exercise yard at sunset and have dinner at Olivine Wine Bar. You might not want to check out, but unlike previous guests, you can.

South Yarra

The Royce

Best for: Glamorous city-fringe weekending
Location: 379 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Price: From 305 AUD / 210 USD

The Royce’s rooms are elegant and calming, with steel blue throws on white linen beds, grey fabric bedheads, marble side tables, plush velvet chairs and chaise longues, and occasional panels of bespoke peacock-printed wallpaper imported from Barcelona. Some rooms have balconies or terraces; others have a mezzanine level and original art deco detailing along curved staircases and pressed-metal panels. These, the Loft Rooms, are in the former mechanic’s garage for the Rolls-Royce dealership that was once located here. The old showroom is now a glittery all-day venue called, appropriately, Showroom Bar. Just weeks after the Royce reopened in 2023, the locals were already popping by for post-work drinks. The hotel is set on the doorstep of the Royal Botanic Gardens with easy access to excellent neighbourhood restaurants – hello, Bistro Gitan and Gilson – and is a quick tram ride to the city.

The Lyall

Best for: A home away from home
Location: 14 Murphy Street, South Yarra
Price: From 305 AUD / 210 USD

Back in the 2000s, this was where low-key celebs and high-maintenance magazine editors would rest their glamorous heads while visiting Melbourne. After changing hands, it reopened in March 2024 after a two-year refurb. Don’t worry: all that everyone loved about The Lyall remains. For starters, it feels more like staying in a Parisian apartment than a hotel room. There are 51 rooms and suites, each with separate living and sleeping zones, and a balcony overlooking the Japanese maple garden. Expect panelled floor-to-ceiling grey velvet behind the bed, oak furniture with gold accents, a dressing suite, and expansive grey marble bathrooms. An à la carte breakfast is served in a serene lounge near the lobby, but with a location just off bustling Toorak Road, there are other options a short stroll away. Highly recommended is Da Noi, an Italian restaurant where much of the produce comes from chef Pietro Porcu’s nearby farm. The service is discreet, personalised and on-tap, and instantly makes anyone staying here feel like they’re someone special.

United Places Hotel Botanic Gardens

Best for: Your ever-changing moods
Location: 157 Domain Road, South Yarra
Price: From 650 AUD / 445 USD

First-time hotelier Darren Rubenstein felt Melbourne’s accommodation options were lacking a certain style, so he decided to open his own. He tasked architect Sue Carr with creating a four-storey, glass-and-concrete building opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens in the tony suburb of South Yarra, just ten minutes from the city. With 12 luxe yet understated suites – half with moss-green tones and views of the gardens, the others in shades of dusky pink and overlooking the neighbourhood – every detail is carefully considered. Relax on the expansive balconies with a dram of Tasmanian whisky or curl up on the living room’s Patricia Urquiola Redondo sofa. There’s no lobby, just a discreet entrance and a custom-made Laura Woodward kinetic sculpture drawing you towards the lift to your room.