Hyatt Centric Melbourne review: New Hyatt targets young travellers with understated style

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This was published 2 years ago

Hyatt Centric Melbourne review: New Hyatt targets young travellers with understated style

By Anthony Dennis
Highlight: The striking indoor 25-metre pool and a 24-hour fitness studio.

Highlight: The striking indoor 25-metre pool and a 24-hour fitness studio.

THE PLACE

There's Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Destination by Hyatt and something called Caption by Hyatt. By the time you work your way through all of the multinational Hyatt brands you will need a decent lie down on one of the signature Hyatt Grand Beds (registered trademark). Whatever your style and interests nowadays there is a hotel calibrated to your lifestyle and outlook. Take another new key brand: Hyatt Centric. Defined as "flexible, lifestyle hotels in the centre of their destination", Hyatt Centrics target younger business and pleasure travellers. I'm not so young (sigh) but I am here for business and pleasure with an inflexible desire for some polished lifestyle-oriented digs in a CBD location.

THE LOCATION

My appealingly minimalist, smartly designed 32-square metres King Bay Room is lavished in light from its tower location.

My appealingly minimalist, smartly designed 32-square metres King Bay Room is lavished in light from its tower location.

There are hotels that shout their presence and flamboyance and there are the carefully understated ones, such as the Hyatt Centric, which barely register a murmur. This contemporary 277-room hotel is positioned a little off centre, if truth be known, on Downie Street (more a laneway), burrowed between gritty Flinders and Spencers Streets. Even the front entrance, a bit of a taxi or Uber driver's nightmare, is intentionally discreet, being a large sliding timber door that suggests an exclusive though not stuffy club, rather than a mainstream, if niche, hotel. Such is the tightness of Hyatt Centric Melbourne's location, it's easy on arrival to overlook the fact that a 25-storey tower looms above you that forms the core of the hotel.

THE LOOK

In their vision for the hotel, designers Architectus and Hecker Guthrie have sought to reflect Melbourne's cultural identity, finding inspiration in the CBD'S unique laneway network embodied in the city's historic Hoddle Grid, flanked by a treasure trove of heritage buildings. The tower's subtly curved facade is characterised by vertical blades of varying scales which provide solar shading with the laneway influence extending to the moody, dimly-lit interior featuring tessellated tiling that extends across the lobby floor and across its walls.

Mediterranean-inspired restaurant and bar TOMA.

Mediterranean-inspired restaurant and bar TOMA.

THE ROOM

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While the lobby may be fashionably on the darkly-lit side, wedged as it is between those concrete canyon alleys, my appealingly minimalist, smartly designed 32-square metres King Bay Room is lavished in light from its tower location. From this higher floor, my blonde-timbered room comes with the added bonus of Port Phillip Bay views and custom rugs inspired by Melbourne's Victorian-era brickwork. The green conscious amenities include 100 per cent waste-free bathroom toiletries by Mr. Smith, sustainable hooded bathrobes and slippers, recyclable coffee machine pods, all in a "single-use plastic-free environment".

THE FOOD

The pleasant surprises at Hyatt Centric keep coming when you make your way to the level 25 restaurant and bar. From here the clubby space, with panoramic views of the city and the bay, seems to go on forever with in-the-know Melburnians already seemingly aware of its virtues. The space is dominated by the around-the-clock Mediterranean-inspired restaurant and bar TOMA (which stands for "Tastes of Melbourne Australia" and which thankfully remains an acronym). Opt for the snazzy and adjoining lounge if you're after a casual drink or bite.

STEPPING OUT

If there's a Paris end of Melbourne's expansive CBD, then here is its Naples-with-pretensions-to-be-Milan extremity. Not to worry as this edgier part of town, well suits the nature of this laneway hotel. Don't miss the nearby artful Hardware Societe cafe in Katherine Place which elevates the humble breakfast to the level of a lunch and dinner. Further afield, the lively Southbank and somewhat less lively Dockland precincts are minutes away.

THE VERDICT

There's nothing too eccentric about the low-key but well conceived new Hyatt Centric with each and every aspect carefully calculated to appeal to its target market and others who share similar tastes and values.

ESSENTIALS

Rates from $260 a night for a lower level king room. Hyatt Centric Melbourne. 25 Downie Street, Melbourne. Ph: (03) 9120 1234. See hyatt.com

HIGHLIGHT

Pack your togs. There's a striking indoor 25-metre pool and a 24-hour fitness studio that scrubs up even better in person than it does in photos.

LOWLIGHT

The location at the still less lovely end of Melbourne's CBD may not suit all guests, though, if you're one of them you're probably at the wrong type of Hyatt.

Anthony Dennis stayed as a guest of Hyatt Centric Melbourne.

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