Melbourne’s hotel ‘for those who don’t like hotels’

When lockdowns descended on Melbourne in 2020, the Lyall Hotel & Spa used the hiatus to renovate, opening all sparkling and refreshed in September 2022. It was barely the end of that year before the people who founded it in 2002 and had owned it since, local identities Rowina and Peter Thomas, sold the property for a touch over $30 million to another local, property and hospitality investor Mazen Tabet.

Tabet’s Tabet Group was in the midst of relaunching the Royce Hotel less than two kilometres away, having spent two years and an undisclosed amount on appointing it in glossy luxury.

The company immediately shuttered the Lyall again, new renovation and all.

Now the Royce has well and truly found its feet, it’s nearby once-rival and now sister property reopens in April as The Lyall S. Yarra.

Dubbed “the hotel for those who don’t like hotels” and designed by Collingwood-based DKO Architecture, part of the design brief was to retain its townhouse-away-from-home character. Its Murphy Street address is just off the boutique, bar and restaurant strip, Toorak Road, South Yarra, and the Lyall had been popular with celebrities keen to stay on the down-low yet in a fashionable address (Olivia Newton-John was a regular), as well as Australian Open players who enjoyed the upmarket homeliness and proximity to Melbourne Park.

The 49 guest rooms range up to Grand Suites and a Penthouse Suite with two fireplaces and a private outdoor terrace. But across the board, the designers aimed for a sense of calm and comfort.

“The inspiration for this transformation is drawn from the idea of a European pied-a-terre, combining Australian and European furniture to create a blend of comfort and style,” says DKO’s Michael Drescher.