KENDALL HILL writer
Having just wrapped up his fifth Gourmet Traveller Australian
Hotel Guide, project manager Kendall Hill confesses he’s looking forward to spending some quality time at home in Melbourne. “It’s a great privilege to check in at Australia’s best hotels while researching the country’s leading hotel guide,” he says. “But eventually I start craving my own bed.” Among
GT’s top 50 hotels are nine new entrants and 11 award winners.
We’ve witnessed the rise of chia puddings in hotel breakfast buffets this year, and the inexorable fall of paid WiFi; only one hotel group on our list of Australia’s top 50 hotels still charges its non-club guests for what should be as indispensable as running water and a cheerful check-in.
While researching the 2018 Gourmet Traveller
Australian Hotel Guide we’ve noticed more complimentary inclusions – minibars, happy hours and guest laundries – largely due to the rapid expansion of freebie-friendly Ovolo Hotels. And we were poured a craft beer from a tap installed at the check-in desk during one particularly memorable stay – a gesture so hospitable we wonder why we haven’t seen it before.
There are many reasons to celebrate Australia’s vibrant hotel scene this year. Our reviewers were excited by the arrival of Paramount House Hotel, at the heart of a cool community of like-minded projects in Sydney’s Surry Hills (and by the aforementioned ale on arrival). Also in Sydney, we checked out the glittering new Sofitel tower in Darling Harbour, and a heritage restoration in inner-city Potts Point.
In the west, Intercontinental Perth City Centre has warmed up the welcome in the world’s most isolated capital city. And we were charmed by the proudly made-in-Tasmania ethos of Macq01 on Hobart’s Macquarie Wharf.
Exactly what distinguishes a hotel from other genre-bending accommodation is the subject of much pillow-talk at GT. In the end we follow our instinct, and this year it led us to Byron Bay; see our reviews of Elements of Byron and The Byron at Byron Resort & Spa (page 166), both with welcome new features and renovations.
Further afield, we name our favourite lodges and resorts on page 186 – happy 10th anniversary, Southern Ocean Lodge.
We aim to recognise and celebrate the best in the business, and this year we’ve added an award for best bed (we were flat out researching that one). From bars to boutique hotels, you’ll find all our award winners on page 152.
When we’re reviewing, we check in unannounced and pay our own way. If a hotel isn’t up to scratch, it doesn’t make this list. We’ve nominated our top 50 hotels because we like them – in some cases love them. Each has a special appeal we think is worth recommending.
It’s time to get packing.