voco Melbourne Central by IHG — Hotel in Melbourne

I stayed here twice. In early August 2022 and in October 2022. Both of my stay has similar pros and cons with a lot more cons in the later stay.

We were very excited to try out this new hotel, in August we booked the 2 single beds premium high floor and in October we booked 2 x 2 single beds standard high floor. For both visits, we were pretty satisfied with the view from the room, location of the hotel, check-in and check-out experience. Unfortunately for both visits, I have to say that we were very disappointed from the management perspective. The hotel seems to be running on a very low number of staffs especially during weekdays, and because of this, a lot of things was rather a big hassle for us.

On both our visits, we noticed that the window frame was very dusty. We also saw a shoe mark left uncleaned on the window frame on our first visit. We had trouble getting refills for our soap, shampoo and conditioners on both our visits. On our first visit, all bottles was only 1/3 full. We requested it to be re-filled as it ran empty after a few days of our stay, but instead we were given more bottles with one of them being dettol hand wash for a replacement for body wash. They brought us these replacement bottles because the room service said they didn't have access to the key to undo the screwed in bottles. The next day, I requested for another body wash again, and they finally gave us 2 small soap bars for the body wash replacement.

Due to the above experience, a few weeks before my second visit, I especially requested through email that the soaps, shampoo and conditioner to be fully filled, as we don't want to keep requesting for it. The management confirmed and assured me that all soap bottles will be fully filled at all time during my visit. Disappointingly, this promise was not kept and I found myself with 3 bottles that are around 1/4 filled. We requested for a refill, but it never came, so we gave up and ended up getting our own soap, shampoo and conditioner from Coles instead.

Pros: Great location. It's in the city centre, everything that we wanted to do and visit were within 1km radius. Awesome view (if you like the city scape) Very new

Cons: Very new (so taxi and/or uber drivers still doesn't know where it is) No good place to stop and set down when you come using taxi or Uber The hotel entrance is in the small alley way among other entrances into Brady apartment next door. There seems to be 2 entrance indicating entry to VOCO (saw multiple travellers confused, including myself when I first visit the hotel) When you came in from the main entrance, you are greeted with a signage on an empty small high table that said lobby and reception is at level 6 (labelled 6M on the lift button) Rooms are new, but already very dusty and carpet is starting to get stained and dirty Short staffed (especially during the weekdays) You need to bother the reception multiple times before what you requested came to your room (Example cutlery, soap). Probably caused by the short staff. Level 26 seems to be rather abandoned after 10am Lift is very confusing and cannot have 3 people from different room in 1 lift as the third person will not have time to swipe their card to confirm their floor (I lost count in regards to how many people I helped to use the lift) Google chrome cast connection to the tv is temperamental App to mirror your phone to the tv connect to another tv 4 floors below Very soft pillow and no other selection Broken beer tap at the bar The use of receptionist area for drinks and nibbles area for function (loud, no room to walk through to just grab filtered water)

Tips: Lift: Swipe your card inside the lift until your floor number stop flashing Bring your own toiletries Bring your own pillow if you like firm pillows Use the filtered water bottle to fill in your kettle If google chrome cast is temperamental, connect to youtube first before changing it to Netflix or other streaming app google chrome cast doesn't...

I loved the decor of the hotel, it felt cozy but cool. The colour palette felt both calming and chic, rather than being too bland. The room itself felt very plush. Blacksmith's buffet breakfast was another highlight – very good. Loved the space and the food and coffee were excellent and good value.

The room service I had for dinner however was a bit of a letdown – I had hoped that it would come from Blacksmiths, but I'm guessing it's actually a separate kitchen? I didn't think the quality was quite as good as what I was expecting given the restaurant reviews. The serving size of the sticky date pudding was tiny and not worth it for the price. The burger was decent, but again not as good I was expecting from a restaurant of this calibre/cost.

The gym was decent, with the usual range of cardio equipment, a bench and some free weights. I always appreciate when hotel gyms aren't tucked away in a windowless room or basement and this one was nice and light with floor to ceiling windows and a view of the street.

I paid extra for a room with a bath which was worth it but slightly let down by my own confusion over whether the bathroom windows were coated for privacy or not – I assumed not given the curtains but that kind of spoils the whole 'bath in the sky' effect of being able to see the view while bathing. The hot water also wasn't hot enough either in the evening or the morning – it was warm but really needs to be hot to make a decent bath that lasts.

The bed and pillows were very comfortable but the duvet was too light for me – could have done with a blanket or something extra on top as the room was very cool in the evening (partly my fault for leaving the climate control on which was a mistake even at 21 degrees).

Call me a traditionalist but I really appreciate a robe and slippers in the room. It just completes the experience of 'treating yourself' and a feeling of small luxuries – however there were none in the room, so I requested a robe (I had to call up twice as it didn't arrive the first time) and when it did arrive it was thready and a bit scratchy, clearly a bit old and possibly not something that was used very often! Perhaps this hotel is more targeting the purely business traveller who is in and out so robes have been done away with?

Finally, the lack of minibar was frustrating. I rarely use them when offered but this was that one exceptional time where I got in and was very hungry and wanted a snack and didn't want to have to leave the hotel again to find one – likewise I would have loved a glass of wine and would happily have paid the minibar premium for it. I guess they want you to use the in-room dining but not sure why you can't have both? Especially given the tray charge for the room service which makes you think twice about ordering multiple items over an evening. There was also no bottle opener so going and getting a bottle from elsewhere was seemingly discouraged.

A final gripe – the cups in the room were coffee cups not tea cups. You can't make a proper cup of tea in a cup with 100ml capacity. They were aesthetically nice and matched the decor but not very functional unless you're just having coffee – and given there was a decent tea selection I would have expected some mugs.

These are all small things which overall added to a sense of 'good but not great' – all of which could really elevate the experience...

I stayed at the Voco Melbourne Central for over a week and here are my thoughts. The biggest positive of this hotel is the staff, they really impressed me with their service, the staff were always really friendly and accommodating. There was one man, whose name I unfortunately forget was always bright and cheerful every morning and it really brightened our day. ||The hotel itself is perfectly positioned with trams within a few minutes walking distance and 5 minutes walk from Melbourne Central, which is a great shopping centre with a range of great restaurants and shopping. ||The hotel rooms had very comfortable beds, however the rooms were not too roomy and the bathrooms were very quite small. The bathrooms had big bottles of shower gel, shampoo and conditioner for use. One small thing that I found inconvenient was that you had to ask for the basic amenities such as a shower cap, because these things were not available in the room. I have stayed at many IHG hotels and those amenities are always in the room. There were also slippers available, which I later discovered could be requested when you ask the staff. There were tea bags and a coffee pod machine with coffee pods, a kettle and also UHT milk in the fridge. I found it rather odd that there was a curtain which can be opened and closed which is where the shower is, this can be quite intrusive if you want privacy in the bathroom. When booking your room, avoid the rooms facing Lonsdale Street, because it gets very noisy from the Club Retro across the road. I also suggest requesting a room away from the lifts, because they have rooms in front of the lifts. ||The one thing that annoyed just about everyone I met at the hotel were the lifts. The lifts were frustrating at times. To access the hotel rooms, you had to press the hotel option on the key pad and then when you get into the lift you had to hold your hotel card against the sensor, however the sensor did not always pick up the hotel card, so you had to get off at the next level to repeat the process again. Occasionally we found that we had to wait a while for the lifts to arrive.||The hotel's breakfast buffet was an inclusion with my hotel rate, which was a good deal. The buffet is located on level 7 which is also where their restaurant is located. The breakfast buffet was okay, but not anything special. There were a range of pastries, cereals, fresh fruit, cold meats, salad, a range of breads, hot food such as bacon, eggs, soup, sausage, hash browns and a automatic hot drinks machine which you can use which makes your selection of coffee or hot chocolate. I did appreciate that you could order eggs to be cooked the way you would like. There were a few options for people who require gluten free food, these included bread and pastries. There were separate toaster for people who require gluten free options. To be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the pre cooked hot food options because they weren't always hot. If the breakfast buffet is not included in your hotel rate, I would not pay for the buffet breakfast, because there are better breakfast options located nearby. |||Overall I thought the Voco Melbourne Central was a decent hotel and pretty convenient if you want to be close...