This was published 6 months ago
Does Townsville need this new five-star hotel? We went and found out
By Matt Shea
Does Townsville really need a hotel like Ardo? Absolutely, Michael Jones says.
“It’s about [showing that] Townsville as a tourism destination can compete with Cairns and the Sunshine Coast,” explains Jones, chief executive of Ardo and neighbouring property The Ville.
Ardo’s expansive ocean corner suites are 73 square metres of travertine, terrazzo and exposed concrete ceilings.Credit: Courtesy of Ardo
“It’s really about making sure we offer that level of luxury, but also service. And making sure we can offer the very best food and beverage experience has been a big focus for us to attract people from the capital cities.”
Ardo is a five-star COVID baby – a response to enormous demand for rooms at The Ville in the depths of the pandemic. And not from Townsville’s traditional Queensland-based market, but from Sydneysiders and Melburnians desperate to get back across state borders in winter.
“It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realise we needed more rooms,” Jones says. “Once we decided to follow up on that, it was a question of, ‘What else do we need that would fit to service those rooms?’
“We ended up with Terasu, Ardo’s Japanese restaurant downstairs, and [steak and seafood restaurant] Marmor upstairs, and then the [Ardo Rooftop] bar. We’re really proud and excited about what it means.”
Ardo’s ambition is on display from the moment you arrive.Credit: Courtesy of Ardo
It’s another step up from the four-star The Ville, which itself was billed as a game changer for Townsville when it opened in 2018. That property, though, is ultimately built around its in-house casino; Ardo is angled as a more rarefied experience.
Marketing yourself as a hotel for big-smoke guests brings with it big-smoke expectations. And that can be hard in a smaller city. Then again, Ardo is part of Morris Group, which, among other interests, owns and operates the Northern Escapes Collection, some of the most beguiling regional properties in the country.
Ardo’s ambition is on display from the moment you pull into its cavernous entrance. The porters are decked out in slick sneakers and crisp shirts, the lobby built out of crazy pavers and enormous slabs of polished terrazzo. It’s real statement-of-intent stuff, even if the hotel’s facade is a touch brutal and its ground-floor areas so neutrally designed they almost have a liminal vibe when not left open to the lawn and Coral Sea outside, as is the intention during the cooler months.
Ardo follows the lead of a bunch of other modern properties by being a hotel of hard surfaces. The only carpeted areas I find are the guest hallways and Marmor on the top floor – it’s that thick, patterned pile that’s come into vogue over the past six or seven years – a slight bummer to wheel a suitcase across but excellent for absorbing the sounds of your drunky-monkey neighbours when they get in.
Once you’ve stepped inside your room, though, you might as well have entered a flash modern beach house.
Mine is an expansive ocean corner suite – 73 square metres of travertine, terrazzo bench tops and exposed concrete ceilings. The main living area is enormous and filled with soft light. Located on one of the lower levels on a seaside corner of the hotel, it has cracking views of Magnetic Island to the east, and not-so-cracking views of an empty car park to the north.
There’s almost more space than the suite’s furniture knows what to do with, and the layout gives away a few design compromises, such as a television that’s been stuck to a slightly weird angled wall in the bedroom. And for a suite that’s pitched to those “who want a residence, not just a hotel room”, it still has one of those frustratingly poky minibar fridges.
The hotel’s 132 rooms come in a stack of other layouts though, ranging from a 33-square-metre ground-floor courtyard number – a neat option if you’re not fussed about the views – to a 107-square-metre family suite that sleeps four. Rates start at $225 a night, and all feature tablet control centres, make-up mirrors and LaGaia Unedited toiletries.
Ardo’s swimming pool boasts brilliant views out towards Magnetic Island.Credit: Courtesy of Ardo
Still, Ardo is as much about what’s waiting for you outside the rooms. A spa is present and correct, as is an infinity pool, which is snappily designed and has those same killer views out towards Magnetic Island (although the industrial port terminal off to the south isn’t quite as crash hot). There’s also Ardo Rooftop, an open-air bar with a brilliant outlook north-west towards the city’s iconic Castle Hill. Here, the cocktail-driven drinks menu is accompanied by refined one-handed eats such as oysters, flatbread pizzette and burgers.
But the stars of the Ardo show are its two restaurants: Marmor and Terasu.
The proliferation of fancy steak and seafood restaurants in our capital cities has also been a bit of a gift for regional centres. These are relatively simple eateries to create and make consistent, and Queensland’s northern cities tend to have strong connections to primary producers and seafood suppliers, meaning you can build something that wouldn’t feel out of place in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne.
Marmor, a terrific 140-seater hidden behind a dark timber door on the rooftop, is all low lights, plush carpet and friendly but precise service.
Steak and seafood restaurant Marmor is a highlight at Ardo.Credit: Courtesy of Ardo
My 350-gram Cape Grim scotch fillet is perfectly cooked on the wood fire. Accompanied by a luscious roasted zucchini side finished with almond cream and granola, it’s one of the best pieces of beef I’ve had in months.
I don’t get a chance to eat at Terasu, which occupies a lovely spot overlooking Ardo’s seaside lawn, but I have it on trusted authority that its take on Japanese dining is also the business.
What didn’t work food-wise? Having to schlep it over to The Ville for something to eat in the morning.
It’s a pleasant enough stroll, and there’s nothing at all wrong with the resort’s expansive buffet, but I don’t stay in a five-star hotel to go for breakfast at its four-star neighbour. That said, you can have breakfast ordered to your room, and the Ardo team tells me there are longer-term plans to bring breakfast in-house.
An ocean suite with balcony bathtub at Ardo.Credit: Courtesy of Ardo
There are a few other wrinkles that slightly let Ardo down, such as the lack of a turn-down service: by the time I get back to my room after dinner – after days on the road and an afternoon necking tea and eating snacks while meeting a deadline – it’s in a bit of a state. Also, a 10am check-out in a five-star hotel? We’re not in the 1990s any more, Ardo.
Still, for the most part, Ardo nails its brief and reflects the changing needs of a city that’s rapidly evolving.
“People are looking for somewhere new because everyone’s been to Cairns and the Gold Coast,” Jones says. “Good luck trying to get a room on the Sunshine Coast. Why not come up here and experience what we have to offer?”
Matt Shea was a guest of Ardo.
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