La Madonna opens at new Next Hotel Melbourne in CBD goodfood.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goodfood.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
It may be the first major international five star hotel to open in the Victorian capital since the protracted COVID-19 lockdown but, for a city without foreign tourists, save for tennis players, the uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking that the W in the W Melbourne s name might stand for Why? .
It could, after all, be viewed as one of the worst times, perhaps since the rise of mass tourism, to open such a hotel anywhere, not least Australia, with its closed international border.
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Nevertheless, the 294-room W Melbourne is receiving its first guests this week. And, of course, the answer to the why question is that many hotels were already under construction prior to the pandemic and were optimistically commissioned to exploit the boom in international tourism, particularly the Chinese inbound market.
In the Byron hinterland, Unyoked has two new tiny home wilderness cabins from $273 a night.
Up in Port Douglas, there s availability at the Freestyle Resort from $250 a night, and the apartment rental site Stayz has several private residences, including the Garden Villa on Murphy for $499 a night.
In the Whitsundays, meanwhile, the luxury InterContinental Hayman Island Resort has midweek availability through January for $1295 a night. You will now receive updates from Traveller Newsletter
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