Little National opens new Sydney hotel just above Wynyard Station

It's a perennial question for hotel guests when trying rooms on for size: how small is too small? Now, thanks to clever, space-saving design techniques, what was once a negative is now considered a positive.

In one small leap for the global trend of micro-hotels, which has put the word "small" back into small hotels in Australia, the Canberra-based Little National brand has opened its first off-shoot in Sydney above Wynyard Station, slap-bang in the middle of the CBD.

Admirers of the original, Zen-like, Canberra establishment will be familiar with Little National's cool and cosy, though ingeniously-designed, 17-square-metre rooms, which have been ostensibly replicated in the Sydney equivalent.

Designed by architects Bates Smart, with the option of pandemic-friendly contactless self check-in, what Little National's 230 rooms lack in space is compensated for in the hotel's generous communal guest areas.

They include an open plan, indoor-outdoor 11th-storey rooftop space with double-height ceilings which incorporates an expansive library work-space, bar and intimate lounge seating.

Back in the rooms, somehow Little National's designers have managed to squeeze in a "bespoke" king-size bed replete with charging ports, a TV and lighting options, all in easy reach within the one self-contained unit, one side of which faces the window.

But if you're hanging out for a proper wardrobe, don't be hung up about it (there's a in-room closet, of sorts, stuffed with welcome fluffy bathrobes, as well as an ironing board and an iron, but with not a lot of room for much else).

Space-hungry micro-hotel interior designers, you see, tend to figure that most guests never use wardrobes, preferring to fish out their wears directly from their suitcases when required.

See littlenationalhotel.com.au