Hotel paradiso

Drum roll, please. We present the award winners in this year’s Gourmet Traveller Australian Hotel Guide.

It’s a happy coincidence

that we launched our Australian Hotel Guide three years ago on the crest of a wave of hotel investment. Last year, the national inventory hit a record 100,000 hotel rooms, and industry body Tourism Accommodation Australia has forecast a further 30 per cent growth by 2021. That’s when the 120 hotel projects currently on drawing boards will reach completion (see Stay Tuned on page 16 of our hotel guide for the highlights).

This unprecedented investment in accommodation has produced some standout new properties among the top 50 hotels we’ve reviewed in this year’s Gourmet Traveller Australian Hotel Guide. Victoria leads the pack with two remarkable new addresses: QT Melbourne in the city and Jackalope on the Mornington Peninsula. Brisbane has upped its cool factor with the opening of The Johnson, and Crown Towers Perth has added 500 rooms and a dose of big-hotel glamour to the Western Australian capital.

These four new properties join the ranks of our favourite 50 hotels in the country, alongside two strikingly revived addresses: Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort Gold Coast and Pier One Sydney Harbour, now the jewel of Walsh Bay.

As well as hotels, you’ll find our round-up of the nation’s best resorts and lodges, a collection of unique places to stay, top spas and a new category called Restaurants with Rooms, celebrating the irresistible combination of great lodgings and superb meals in special locations.

Our reviewers have stayed at all the featured hotels anonymously and paid their way. And because excellence deserves recognition, we’ve awarded those properties that really stand out. Time to check in.