A Review Of W Melbourne: Eccentric Sophistication

Location

Located at 408 Flinders Lane, W Melbourne has 2 separate entrances from both Flinders Lane as well as Collins street. Collins street remains our preferred option since there is better accessibility to the trams. The hotel is located in a very accessible area and its walkable to Flinders street station as well as Southern Cross Stations and has plenty of wonderful cafes and restaurants.

On saying that, the W brand is really not for everyone. It is bold, dramatic and eccentric and this Melbourne property is just that. There is an eclectix mix of striking modern, colourful installations together with sleek surfaces.

Our Stay

We booked with AMEX FHR which is usually our preferred travel method.

These are the listed benefits for our stay:

• Guaranteed upgrade

• Early check in (12 pm)

• Late check out (4 pm)

• Daily breakfast for 2

• 100 USD property credit

The actuals:

Every bathroom has a very quirky quote and its always fun to see what you end up getting

View from the Balcony

Our room was upgraded from a cozy room (1 king bed 377 sq ft) which we paid 364 SGD per night for to a cozy cool balcony room. This room rate is not available online and honestly, was not a fantastic upgrade. Yes, there is a balcony, however, because this is a city hotel, the views were not terribly impressive and we probably spent 2 minutes in the balcony. Our previous stays we were upgraded to the Fabulous room (1 king bed 452 sq ft) which was better valued at 415 SGD, with an upgrade value of 50 SGD. So unfortunately, this time round, our upgrade value sits at 0 SGD.

The Pool was wonderfully heated and looked absolutely gorgeous.

We always utilise the early check in and late check out for these FHR properties. It was the same for this stay and we were able to get our room at 12 pm and checked out at 4 pm. Unfortunately, although we could have late check out, we were unable to use the same room that we had stayed in for the night and had to shift to another room. Whilst it is still nice to have late check out, it was not a great experience having to pack and shift everything and try to make ourselves comfortable again. Its difficult to put a value on this, but we use a 10 % of hotel rate for this, which makes the value 36 SGD.

Food from the buffet and St Ali Coffee

Breakfast was at Lollo and they had a great selection buffet style. The food quality was really good and coffee was also fantastic, with beans from St Ali. We value this at the local rate of a breakfast, which would make it valued at 40 SGD x 2 pax.

Entrance to the Curious Bar

Fusion Bar Snacks at Curious

For the 100 USD property credit which was approximately equivalent to 130 SGD. We had a fantastic night out at Curious where there was a live DJ on select weekends.

As a Marriot Bonvoy Platinum member, we were given extra credits which we spent on getting some W socks. There is no lounge in this hotel but we did manage to get some points earned on this stay.

In total, the AMEX FHR gave us a total of benefits worth approximately 246 SGD.

Would We Recommend?

Yes, but. It was overall a nice stay and the location was great for us to explore Melbourne. However, there are other hotels in Melbourne which we prefer over W. On saying that, W Melbourne presents itself as a 5* establishment which is of fantastic value and if we wanted something a little fun and quirky, we would certain head back to W Melbourne.