The hip new Melbourne hotel vying to be among the world’s best

When the hyped (though still coveted) World’s 50 Best Hotels list for 2025 was announced, there was only room (or, perhaps, suite) enough for a mere two Australian hotels – one of them The Calile Hotel, Brisbane.

Once known for its chain of serviceable serviced-apartment hotels, TFE Hotels’ growing management portfolio of Australasian deluxe design properties includes The Calile, The Eve, in Sydney’s Surry Hills, which opened last February, and Hotel Britomart in Auckland, New Zealand.

Now TFE is hoping that its latest 188-room, Flack Studio-designed Hannah St Hotel in Melbourne, will emulate its Brisbane counterpart’s somewhat unlikely international success.

Built in inner-city Southbank next to a bulky, unprepossessing traffic overpass that lends a certain gritty urban edge, the triangular-shaped, Fraser & Partners-designed hotel building is vaguely reminiscent of New York’s celebrated Flatiron building.

The operators of the 10-storey hotel, with its faux Melbourne bluestone facade, opened just before Christmas, with an official launch set for February, just in time for the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix at nearby Albert Park.

(Drivers, of taxis and Ubers that is, may find the hotel’s confected name, Hannah St, a tad confusing, as it is actually located in the rather more prosaically titled Walker Street, a mere poker-chip flick from the behemoth Crown casino complex.)

Whatever the case, Hannah St Hotel, with rooms from $335 per night, is a key component of a more than $400 million development that encompasses 350 apartments over 65 storeys, 209 metres high, making it one of the city’s tallest buildings.

Residents of those apartments will have full access to the design hotel and its facilities, including the lavishly marble-floored Coupette Corner Bistro & Bar, with its Franco-Italian menu, something which its operators hope will add to the unmistakable Melbourne vibe of Hannah St.

“We want our guests to discover the city by living like a local, exploring hidden gems, experiencing art and music off the beaten track,” says Peter Minatsis, general manager. “It’s hospitality with insider knowledge, curated to offer experiences that stay with you long after you leave.”

Every hotel needs its own in-house podcast studio (well, actually, no, but Hannah St has one anyway) with the facility part of its operators’ ambition to establish it as “a cultural hub”, merging design, art and “community-focused experiences”.

Unlike the W Sydney, which opened in 2023 and which also has a freeway flyover running directly below and beside it, Hannah St is far more subtle in its allusions to its adjacent road with the main nod to it being Mirror Sheila, at the entrance to the lobby.

That nod is a 2.86-metre, mixed-media sculpture by Brisbane-based artist Justene Williams, made from fibreglass and convex safety and security mirrors.

Mirror Sheila is a lot of fun, but no beauty, unlike the impressive Hannah St herself. See tfehotels.com