Step inside Melbourne airport’s first new hotel in 20 years
This new accommodation option is ideal for travellers flying to and from Tullamarine, but there’s a lot more to it than mere beds.
Airports have long outgrown their original purpose of merely processing passengers and planes, so Melbourne Airport is doubling down with the opening of both the Novotel and ibis Styles, the first new hotel builds at Tullamarine in 20 years.
And they’re not just about easing the burden on the airport’s existing accommodation, which the brands’ parent company Accor says is usually full. It sees these properties as destinations, given the likes of the URBNSurf wave-riding park and Melbourne Airport Golf Course right next door, and the Sunbury wine region 20km away. With downtown Melbourne just 25 minutes down the freeway, they’ll doubtless be reining in the weekend trippers.
The hotels are barely five minutes’ walk past Terminal 4, and while each has its own wing, they initially present as one unit, with an entrance beside a remarkable sculptured awning resembling a cross-section of a wing. This is just one element from the hotels’ top-tier creative team – architects Fender Katsalidis, with interior design from Woods Bagot – that connects to the location. The walkway linking the foyer with reception is paved in Melbourne’s iconic bluestone, while the paths you tread on the accommodation floors represent, with some imagination, the “urban grain” of central Melbourne (ibis) and the timbered greenery of regional Victoria (Novotel). My wife immediately picks up that a distinctive piece in reception is by the sculptor whose works command several significant sites around Melbourne, Akio Makigawa.
The ibis has 216 compact guestrooms, splashed with art inspired by Melbourne landmarks. Larger but more sedate are Novotel’s 248 rooms, including junior suites in prime corner positions. Our eighth-floor suite faces the airport proper and has plenty happening outside its broad windows: taxiing planes, bustle on elevated approach roads and a swath of green on the other side of the freeway. Rooms on the opposite side score a vista of the Macedon Ranges and the start of Victoria’s rich volcanic plains.
For a suite, the bedroom isn’t particularly big, which allows for wriggle room where you appreciate it more. There’s a lounge that can be closed off by a sliding door – a good feature when dealing with unaligned jet-lagged sleep patterns – and a generous dressing-room. Also of note is the bathroom, with twin basins, a large walk-in shower and separate bathtub. The lotions are of no great repute, although it’s a tick for a Dyson hairdryer.
The lounge has a firm chaise-style sofa, two chairs and a large TV. The pod coffee is rather good, the tea is Dilmah, and the minibar conveniently stocks half-bottles – a red and a white vintaged in “southeastern Australia” – plus an iced coffee from Melbourne’s renowned St Ali.
The sleeping quarters have another TV, comfortably viewed from an inviting bed, with pillows so deep and soft they almost swallow our heads. Decor is simple and strong. It’s clear they’ve tried to inject a cooler rural feel into this jet-fuelled environment with timber, forest green and bluestone tones in the features and furnishings. Overall, it’s a clever use of space.
The hotels will see custom from non-guests venturing away from the terminals, particularly for Higher State, the airport’s first health and fitness facility, accessed adjacent to the Novotel reception. It incorporates a two-lane 25m pool, a full-service gym plus infrared sauna, yoga and Pilates spaces, and a treatment room for facials and massages that follow the principles of Victoria’s lauded Hepburn Bathhouse and Spa. And there’s Tullamarine’s first co-working space, Aerofoil, two levels of 24/7 hot desks, private offices and meeting rooms.
Dining and drinking are spread across three outlets, starting with Small Holdings, a daylight hours bakery cafe operating on the grab-and-go model. The menu focuses on pies, focaccia, muffins, croissants, St Ali coffee and commercial juices.
The restaurant, Boccata, is Italian-themed. We begin the evening in its companion bar, which has some quiet corners plus a congenial communal space with a backdrop of an internal rock garden clustered with bamboo.
It’s only a few weeks after opening during my visit yet they’re out of both my first beer choice (Fixation Obsession IPA from Collingwood) and the desired red, a Piedmont nebbiolo. Nevertheless, there are worthy alternatives on the list, the wine being either Victorian, including very close (Sunbury), close enough (Macedon), plus Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula choices, or Italian, for example, a fabulous Pecorino from Abruzzo and a fine chianti. The beer is bottled only; where is the draught? In Amber State, it turns out, a taproom and kitchen scheduled to open on September 30.
The choice of cuisine for the restaurant is smart, given the needs of travellers through its doors, many of whom will be in need of a comforting go-to, be it pasta, risotto or pizza. Boccata also has adventurous offerings, and our waiter points out the highlights, including swordfish as catch of the day. “Any Italian words you don’t understand,” she advises, “are probably cheese.”
We start with a generous antipasto serving of kingfish crudo and a delicious mushroom risotto, the mushies panfried until almost crisp. Crumbed cotoletta of eggplant and artichoke is like the beds upstairs, soft and comforting, and I can’t fault my 250g of scotch bistecca with anchovy butter, into which I dip fabulous fries. Of two desserts tried, the tiramisu is somehow bland. Not so a fior di latte soft serve with olive oil and Murray salt, which gets even richer and textural when the salted oil at the bottom of the coupe kicks in.
Breakfast is either at the bakery or Boccata, and the latter experience, while usual buffet fare, has some excellent elements, such as really good bircher muesli with all the yoghurts, nuts and fruits you’d care to add, and hot dishes (try the chipolatas) served not from bain maries but in Le Creuset casseroles, which imparts a homemade touch, a laudable trait in any hotel, let alone one at an airport.
In the know
Novotel rooms from $239 a night, suites from $389.
ibis Styles rooms from $179. There is a complimentary shuttle to the terminals.
Higher State gym, pool and sauna are complimentary for Novotel guests, while ibis Styles guests pay a small fee.
Jeremy Bourke was a guest of Novotel Melbourne Airport.
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