Regional hotels all the rage from Orange to the Adelaide Hills
Regional accommodation is suddenly all the rage, from Orange to the Adelaide Hills.
While we’ve been sleeping, there’s been a flurry of activity in the tourism catchments of Australian regional centres. The notion of doom and gloom in the hospitality industry, with no international arrivals, seems turned on its head at road-trip destinations. Australian travellers are rediscovering driving holidays on home turf and, with money saved on airfares and international bookings, spending more on up-market accommodation and typically staying at least two consecutive nights.
READ MORE: Oval Hotel’s perfect timing / Country comfort in Orange / Making tracks in Bathurst / A world away in Tassie / Paradise in Patonga
But not everything has been securely on track for the big-city players. Business Events Australia issued a list of “10 new openings for 2020”, most in metro locations, before the pandemic hit and, unsurprisingly, there have been substantial delays with many properties. Hilton Little Queen Street, Melbourne, scheduled to launch this past April, anticipates a February 2021 debut. The funky W Hotel Melbourne, in Flinders Lane, was planned for a ribbon-cutting reveal in March, then June, and now for the middle of the first quarter of 2021. In Hobart, the opening of The Tasman, a member of Marriott’s luxury collection, has been pushed back from mid-2020 to next March. But Hotel Verge, a new build in central Launceston, has opened with 86 guestrooms; general manager Kate Bucknell says COVID-related delays have enabled the project to be “fine-tuned”.
In June it was announced that accommodation at Jewel Towers on the Queensland Gold Coast would be put back 18 months. Crystalbrook Collection’s Flynn Hotel in Cairns, slated for October, is now looking likely for a March 31 reveal. The group’s 130-room Kingsley Hotel, claimed as the first five-star hotel in Newcastle, north of Sydney, is on its original schedule for April.
But at least one newcomer, Oval Hotel in Adelaide, which is integrated via two elevated pods into the stadium’s eastern stand, is taking bookings from the final quarter of this year. In the NSW capital, residential and commercial developer Crown Group fast-tracked its third Sydney urban property, Skye Suites & Residences at Green Square, to open in April this year, three months ahead of its projected date, in the revitalised heartland of Sydney’s inner-east.
The accommodation scene is encouragingly buoyant beyond the CBDs, and has been since well before the recent advent of springtime weather. In Orange, in NSW’s central west, Kristen Nock, co-owner with husband Thomas of the year-old Byng Street Boutique Hotel, says occupancy levels for the 22-room property are “crazy … but good crazy” at an average of 95 per cent this past winter. On the NSW central coast, owners Brian and Karina Barry of Bells at Killcare report a similar situation for their 25 garden cottages, suites and villas, which have been “busier this past winter than usual summer peaks”.
Designer-driven holiday cottages are all the go, too. Recent arrivals in NSW include The Pause by SOUL at Gerringong near Werri Beach on the south coast, opening in October. It’s the latest project by Simone Mathews of SOUL Home and features five ensuite bedrooms and bunk-style kids’ accommodation. The SOUL mantra is all about “blurring the line between a holiday house and a boutique hotel”. It’s a concept embraced at the just-opened group or family house party pad at the seaside-chic Boathouse Hotel Patonga, near Pearl Beach on the central coast. This four-bedroom cottage with pool, fire pit and lawns has been added to the inventory of three apartment-style suites within the hotel’s wings. For those who prefer to channel rural France, the four-bedroom manor at Talits Estate in the Broke Fordwich wine-making region, 15 minutes from Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley northwest of Sydney, is a charming Provencal faux-fantasy.
But it’s not all five-star frills in popular holiday regions. Many vineyards and small resorts are diversifying with glamping tents, farm-stays are booming, and self-contained cottages, such as the eight hideaway options at Bay and Bush Retreat at Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, are pulling in the bookings.
Or stay in restored, heritage-listed 19th-century stables at The Sir George in the Jugiong Valley between Yass and Gundagai, near the banks of the Murrumbidgee River; or at beautiful architect-designed holiday residences on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island. In Tasmania, small lodges such as Kittawa, on King Island off the Apple Isle’s northwest coast, offer a sense of splendid isolation with all the expected creature comforts. Tasmania’s Satellite Island, in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, and Picnic Island off the Freycinet Peninsula, are completely private retreats that couldn’t feel more removed from pandemic-era realities.
Tiny houses are popular, too, providing miniature bunkers in which to go off-grid and hide away in an uncertain world. Check out the range from Tiny Away or In2thewild, with choices across farms, vineyards, tablelands, valleys and even a four-person cabin named for To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee, set snug on a working farm in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, about 90 minutes by road from Melbourne. Time to read, relax and revive.
More to the story
Six top road-trip revivers
Farmers’ Home Hotel, Northam, WA:
In the Avon Valley, 90 minutes from Perth, there are 16 new guestrooms in this historic corner pub, now smartened up throughout with a contemporary design. Grange category chambers have access to a traditional first-floor balcony and sweeping district views; farmershomehotel.com.
Flash Jacks, Gundagai, NSW: This nine-room boutique gem occupies an immaculately restored 1888 Catholic convent; each guestroom has its own entrance and reception is via a digital concierge. The hotel was launched in April to quiet but sustained success; stay tuned for news of its restaurant, due to open in an adjacent schoolhouse; flashjacks.com.au.
Byron at Byron, Byron Bay, NSW: Now in the hands of the fast-expanding Crystalbrook Collection, this 92-suite property, surrounded by lush rainforest, has been revamped to the tune of $6m and phase one includes the oasis-like Forest restaurant helmed by chef Etienne Karner, ex-Park Hyatt Sydney. An Eleme Day Spa will launch at the property in November; crystalbrookcollection.com/byron.
Mount Lofty House, Adelaide Hills, SA:Fourteen suites, with stone-clad fireplaces and deep views, in this small hotel’s new Sequoia category are now available to book; expect open-plan interiors, 180-degree valley views, sunken loungeroom with gas fireplace and cantilevered balconies with daybeds. The complementary Sequoia Lodge facilities of exclusive lounge, plunge pool and guest-only gardens are expected to be fully available by early December; mtloftyhouse.com.au; sequoialodge.com.au.
Binnaburra Lodge, Lamington National Park, Qld: A year after bushfires caused extensive damage to this well-known eco-retreat up in the Gold Coast hinterland, its doors have reopened. Premium Sky Lodge studios and apartments command views stretching across the Coomera and Numinbah Valleys, spa baths with mountain aspects and stylishly updated interiors. The Rainforest Campsite is set on a ridge surrounded by subtropical rainforest, bordering Lamington National Park; DIY tent set-up or book a safari-style shelter; binnaburralodge.com.au.
The Lodge Dairy Flat Farm, Daylesford, Victoria: A nearby outpost of the Wolf-Tasker family’s acclaimed Lake House boutique hotel and restaurant, this newly conceived accommodation sits amid a 15ha private realm of vegetable gardens, small vineyard, orchard, olive grove and glasshouse. Available as a whole booking (groups up to 12 persons) or on a non-exclusive basis in wings of ensuite guestrooms. Tailored experiences are available, including cooking classes and estate tours; dairyflatfarmdaylesford.com.au.
In the know
Most CBD properties are offering good-value “staycation” deals on weekends as well as midweek specials. Regional hotels and inns are likely to be busiest on Friday and Saturday nights, often with higher rates and minimum two-night stays. Booking Sunday or Monday nights could be the best option during peak periods. Check state tourism organisation websites for details of new country and regional accommodation, travel tips and COVID updates.