Rydges Melbourne — Hotel in Melbourne

I very rarely leave reviews on businesses as I believe they can be unfair and relative to timing and individual, user experience. However, I just took the time to share the below with my sister who owns a travel agency and thought it was worthwhile sharing.

“I feel too guilty to tell (My Partner), so I’ll tell you - I ordered myself a celebratory, room service, 28 day aged, rump cap steak with smoked bone marrow butter, watercress and Lemon & Fries with confit garlic Aioli - FREAKING DELICIOUS!!!!!! 🤤

Perfectly cooked and perfect temp. It wasn’t even just good for room service steak, it was amazing and arrived within about less than 25 mins? Faith in old school room service restored” 😊

As someone who has travelled the world, extensively, she mentioned that steak isn’t usually a wise room service choice and we discussed that a pizza or burger etc. are normally safer options.

“I really don’t like to call out other businesses, negatively (Le Meridian is truly a lovely hotel), I don’t know how often you recommend melbourne hotels to clients, but the first time I stayed at Le Meridian, joined as a member, still really expensive, room service took 2-3 phone calls, they didn’t have what I wanted from the menu (that somehow took them an hour and a follow up call from me to discover) and took almost 2 hours to deliver. Food was crap, Luke warm and overpriced, basically a re-heated, Lean Cuisine meal. Really average customer service and decor semi tacky/tacky.

Joined Rydges Members and on first stay I left a beanie behind (just a beanie, I know, but quite expensive and very sentimental). They actually found it, offered to post it out to my home and when I got sick for a while, followed up repeatedly for weeks until I picked it up, kept it safe, clean and labelled. Left my laptop charger at the office and they loaned me a compatible charger for the night.

Staying in a super cute (but Luxury) little apartment tonight with view of her majesty’s theatre, for about $200 + 2 days/nights free parking, a $25 meal and drinks voucher + members 10% discount. Some tech issues with wifi, logging into my account and ChromeCast but that wasn’t an issue during my last stay so I wouldn’t count it. The days that I work in my city office are hectic, like a meeting beep test and I rarely get time to eat. I live in the Yarra Valley so the commute is quite arduous. However, staying at Rydges makes them a breeze and a lovely little “treat yo’ self” occasion. Everything is easy, effortless and Nothing is ever too much trouble ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Rydges has become my affordable, home away from home when staying in the city for work. Service is amazing and this stay the concierge sneaked me a days free parking tomorrow. I’m going to shower soon, slip into a robe and snuggle down 🥰.

Rydges is a Dream, the staff are always warm, welcoming, beyond helpful and always go the extra mile. If I didn’t have to, I’d never leave”.

Also, a huge thank you and shout out to @BossleyRestaurant for the beautiful food and service. You have both earned a fiercely loyal customer.

Many thanks and warmest...

2 months ago my friends and I booked a night at Rydges. We overall enjoyed our night. Sadly, the parking process with their parking “contractors” allegedly not employed by Rydges itself, ruined the experience for us all.

Originally we were directed to park on the first level of their basement and then told to move to a "better spot" where we were instructed to double park further down a level, so the car was not obstructed to get luggage out of the boot.

The following day, as we were putting the luggage back in, we were met with a different parking attendant, who accused us of double parking on purpose and demanded we move the car, because we were stopping others from parking. We complied immediately, expressing that we did not double park intentionally. Unfortunately, my attempt to clarify the situation was met with dismissiveness and a skeptic "yeah, sure you did" comment on his end.

Subsequently, I was pressured to hand over my car keys so that he could reposition my vehicle to accommodate other guests. Feeling uncomfortable with this demand, I expressed my intention to depart within the hour and confirmed his help was not needed. Regrettably, I encountered further resistance and was informed that such procedures were standard for all guests, thus resulting in my keys being handed over.

Upon retrieving my vehicle later, I discovered a dent at the front of it and two chips (see attached), which was not present prior to leaving it in the parking attendants care. I looked around for help and spoke the parking attendant who assisted me the previous day that was on the level. He assured me that he would provide me with the necessary contact forms for further communication regarding compensation within the hour, after taking photos and my number down to document the incident (he called my phone to verify he had the right phone number so I do have this number on file). However, despite his assurances, I had not received any communication or forms.

After 24 hours I emailed Rydges, was contacted after I followed up on the phone with them by the hotel manager who assured me they would "keep on top of the carpark operators to ensure I am looked after" but as time went on I was the only one following it up weekly…pretty much prompting them to do what they said they were going to do.

It's beyond the point of frustration now and honestly, the customer service was appalling - I tried to give the hotel the chance to find a resolution, but it’s been 2 months of me chasing, with the last comms on 16/08 stating that they are escalating the issue “further up the chain”. I find it really hard to believe that a contracting company that provides regular services to Rydges hotel has been unresponsive for the last 2 months.

Overall, my friends and I would not recommend the stay at Rydges based on our experience, with allegedly no cameras in the carpark "since Rydges Melbourne...

Stayed here Jan 14th to 18th.

Pros: Freshly refurbished Polite/friendly staff Good location Modern nice room, despite small size. Corridors all clean and tidy after refurbishment. Good variety of sitting / laying areas by the pool. Nice pool, with sink, bench and complimentary sunscreen Plenty of nice areas to sit in the lobby, with different areas catering for business / holiday guests. Choice of two shower heads, both very good despite being prone to flooding bench, floor etc due to shower glass not extending far enough / lack of a shower curtain.

Cons: Alcohol advertising (Aperol Spritz) literally everywhere, even on the table tennis table in the lobby. I dont have kids but it I did, I wouldnt be thrilled with them being so heavily exposed to alcohol advertising (even a car parked out the front advertising alcohol). Feels like this hotel has sold its soul to that company. Pool opening times not displayed anywhere. Looked up on internet and it said 6am til 10pm on the hotels own website - wrong! It turned out to be 730am til 9pm.....you can imagine my excitement when I left the tennis early to have a dip in the pool around 915pm on a beautiful summer night just to find it closed already (rang reception to work out what the pool hours actually were). Can get breakfast via room service all the way up til 1130am BUT breakfast at the hotels restaurant stops at 1030am. Again, you can imagine my excitement when arriving to breakfast at 1030am thinking I still had a good hour to enjoy some food whereas in reality I was denied service due to it being closing time, was told I could still get breakfast via room service til 1130am. No way was I going to go back to the room, wait for them to deliver the food then charge me $5 a tray for room service. As a hotel on the east coast you are dealing with customers from various (mostly behind) timezones. Good luck if I were over from WA, breakfast would essentially close at 730am. Middle of summer, Australian Open is on, city is buzzing yet the bar closes at 930pm! Went to the bar at 940pm to be told the bar closed 10 mins ago. Breakfast, bar and pool all close too early, especially given the time of year that it is. Housekeeping arrival times very inconsistent, quality of job questionable. Room rather tiny Encouraged to do self serve check-in and checkout whilst staff just stand at the desk watching you do their job for them. Self serve checkout via mobile phone is good except need to swing past the front desk to hand back the room key anyway (ultimately still need to line up, just for slightly less time than without online checkout). Different sets of lifts depending which level you're on, quickly got used to it though. No...