By Edwina Gillespie
With the opening of two new hotels this month and another to follow in May, does Melbourne now have too many hotel rooms?
The 290-room Travelodge Docklands, 241-room Olsen in South Yarra and the 658-room Crown Metropol on Southbank are collectively adding an additional 1,189 rooms to Melbourne’s already expansive accommodation market. The difference they claim is their attraction of different market segments.
The Travelodge, ideally located in the growing business area of the Docklands is targeting the business and convention market. Whereas the Olsen, only the second of the Art Series Hotels and located next to the junction of two of Melbourne’s upscale retail areas – Chapel Street and Toorak Road – is targeting a more up-market boutique.
So where does that leave the Crown Metropol?
The hotel features two restaurants – Maze and Maze Grill – and an in-room menu designed by internationally-acclaimed (albeit controversial) chef Gordon Ramsey. But does this alone mean they’ll be attracting the food-lovers market?
It will definitely be interesting to see how these new enterprises fare in this still fairly-fragile marketplace. We’re interested to know what you think of this issue.
