The great Melbourne, Sydney hotel boom enters stylish new era​on January 21, 2025 at 6:00 pm

Melbourne has undergone a hotel boom in recent years. The city has added about 9000 rooms since 2020 in response to a critical deficit, identified well before the pandemic sparked the urgent need to address the shortage. The growth represents a rise of 32 per cent in Melbourne’s stocks, and the city is not done yet, with a few significant hotels due to swing open their doors in coming months.

Sydney, too, is amid its own mini-growth spurt. Some remarkable hotels came onto the market last year, including the W Sydney, and Josh and Julie Niland’s 14 beautifully considered rooms at the Grand National in Paddington, above their restaurant, Saint Peter, are available to book from January 31 (saintpeter.com.au/stay).

The much anticipated opening of The Eve Hotel Sydney (theevehotel.com.au) is scheduled for February 13, as the centrepiece of the new Wunderlich Lane retail and hospitality precinct on the Redfern side of Cleveland Street.

In keeping with its inner-city locale – Surry Hills’ Crown Street begins just across the road – The Eve has serious design credentials. A trio of top practitioners – Adam Haddow of Australian firm SJB and the president of the Australian Institute of Architects, landscape designer extraordinaire Daniel Baffsky of 360 Degrees, and award-winning interior architect George Levissianis – contributed to the property for TFE Hotels, the Sydney-based end-to-end hotel developer.

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Other notable openings in Sydney include the re-emergence of Adina Sydney Town Hall (adinahotels.com). Another TFE hotel, it was shut completely in early 2024 for a “major repositioning”. Architect firm Bates Smart, with glamorous hotel projects aplenty to its name, has directed the design, which is aimed at making the 27-storey property worthy of its valuable Kent Street location.

25Hours The Olympia (25hours-hotels.com) is another high-concept hotel waiting in the 2025 wings. It is one of the hip Ennismore (an Accor collaboration) brands, and the playful-style hotel debuts in Australia, taking over a heritage-listed building on Oxford Street in Paddington, in Sydney’s inner east.