Queensland hotel boom as cool new properties prepare to open

Queensland is set for a busy year of hotel openings in 2024.

In Brisbane alone, a mix of hotels is due to open, mostly thanks to the 12-hectare, riverfront, $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf development finally coming to maturity in April.

A penthouse view at the Star.

The Star Brisbane comprises two crescent-shaped towers with interiors by international design studio Hassell. The hotel’s 340 rooms are crowned by four opulent penthouses on the top two floors affording uninterrupted panoramas across the Brisbane River, and west to Mount Coot-tha.

Hotel guests will have access to three pools on the resort’s Leisure Deck, a 12,000-square-metre open-air space, plus The Star Brisbane’s showpiece Sky Deck, a 250-metre rooftop “runway” of restaurants and bars.

The Queen’s Wharf precinct will also soon be home to the 4.5-star Dorsett Brisbane and a purported six-star, Rosewood Brisbane.

In the inner-northern Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill, The Hilton Garden Inn will open in late 2024, as part of the prolific expansion of the mid-range Garden Inn sub-brand worldwide.

LyLo Brisbane opens in early 2024, the first for Australia of EVT Hotels & Resorts’ youth-oriented LyLo brand which has expanded in New Zealand over the last couple of years. There’s one in Auckland, Christchurch and in Queenstown.

The Fortitude Valley pod hotel – a step up from a hostel with great tech, design, comfort and shared or private room options – will feature a rooftop “hangout space” that doubles as a social and working area. It has a self-catering kitchen and bar and retractable roof.

Also in Brisbane, after a $30-million refurbishment, the former Novotel Brisbane on Creek Street in the CBD opens December 2023 as the 296-room Amora Brisbane, with a Cottee Parker design aimed at positioning the Thai family owned, Amora Hotels and Resorts property as a five-star.

In Far North Queensland, Townsville is set to get a new luxury hotel. Ardo, Townsville will have Coral Sea views and feature 132 suites, two restaurants, day spa and a rooftop pool and bar. Ardo is the latest addition to the tourism portfolio of Morris Group which includes sister property, The Ville Resort-Casino, located next door on the Townsville Breakwater and under the Northern Escape Collection, Orpheus Island Lodge, Mount Mulligan Lodge and Beechmont Estate.

Poolside at Ardo.

Also on the Queensland coast, Peppers Gladstone opens mid-year in the eponymous city, 550 kilometres north of Brisbane.

Touted as Central Queensland’s first five-star, the 32-room hotel shares its address with the 60-room Mantra Gladstone – all up, the first new hotel construction in the region in more than a decade.

There’s a heated outdoor swimming pool, a cinema room, gym, secure undercover car parking, two restaurants and a member’s lounge.

An artist’s impression of the Mondrian Gold Coast.

And south of Brisbane, Mondrian Gold Coast will finally swing open its doors, bringing Ennismore’s lively, creative style of stay to Burleigh Heads.