There are two main reasons that make Rydges Melbourne worthy of a stay, in my opinion. Well, three if you count the sparkling water tap in its next-door restaurant Bossley Bar and Restaurant, which you’ll get to use if you add on breakfast with your stay.
If you don’t count that though, the reasons are, first, its lobby and lifts’ scent. It’s lemony and fresh and hits you right when you walk in, making you feel instantly on holiday — something I greatly appreciated after waiting 30 minutes in an Uber line at Melbourne airport (I flew in from Sydney on one of Virgin Australia’s 16 daily routes into Melbourne).
If you don’t think a scent is a strong enough reason to book a stay, you haven’t smelled this Rydges Melbourne fragrance.
The second reason is its always-heated rooftop pool that I was fortunate enough to visit entirely on my own, despite the fact the hotel has 370 rooms, and seemed busy the weekend I was there. The rooms include 310 standard size, 35 suites and 25 apartments with kitchenettes, laundry and separate lounge and dining spaces, one of which I was in.
But back to the pool. The pool at Rydges Melbourne isn’t your standard rooftop lap pool with two ugly chairs you usually find at hotels in the city. Instead, it’s all creamy stone, striped seating and pops of greenery. Frilled white umbrellas, a white table set and two strings of lights zig-zagging across the pool complete the look.
Basically, it feels like you’re at a pool at a resort — though, much on a smaller scale, of course. And completely unexpected in the middle of Melbourne CBD, at a hotel right on Exhibition Street.
While I consider the pool and hotel scent to be the two most important elements worth mentioning about Rydges Melbourne, other guests are bound to find plenty of other reasons to visit the hotel and Modern Australian restaurant Bossley which opened mid-July this year, following its massive renovation.
Guests might call the standalone bathtub in the bedroom of the apartments a highlight. Or the self-check-in you can complete on screens in the lobby and that’ll spit out your room card. Or even the Rooftop Terrace on level two, which looks out over Her Majesty’s Theatre and Chinatown.
The highlight, for other guests, could also be the hotel’s great location, in the East-End Theatre District, near Chinatown, the Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens, the smart TVs with free on-demand movies or the work zones you’ll find throughout the lobby, where you can work, as you breathe in that delicious scent.
What may really take guests’ breath away though may be the standard room rate, which, incredibly for all of the above, starts at $225 a night.
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