
Best of 2024
The Best Australian Hotel Openings of 2024
If you love retro glamour and a hit of culture in your holiday stays, this year’s new crop will delight. There’s a ’70s surf club-inspired retreat with its own wine label, a coastal inn channelling old-world Amalfi glamour and a Byron Bay hotel with a luxe Moroccan feel.

Words by Che-Marie Trigg·Tuesday 26 November 2024
A raft of smaller-scale boutique boltholes and charming motel refreshes have taken over our holiday hitlists. While big names like Marriott and The Standard made fresh entries into the local hotel scene, it’s been the smaller, nostalgic properties that have really made their marks (particularly on the north coast of New South Wales).
From a supremely chic hotel oozing boho luxe in Byron Bay to a glitzy property in the heart of Melbourne and an alluring 25-roomer with ice baths and its own radio station, here are the nine best new hotels in Australia for 2024, in alphabetical order.

Ardo, Townsville, Qld
Hot tip: once you’ve reserved a room at this new North Queensland hotel, time a booking at its rooftop bar for twilight – its sunset views are spectacular. Ardo’s best rooms have Coral Sea panoramas, but all rooms ooze the breezy coastal charm we want from a tropical holiday. The spectacular rooftop infinity pool beckons during the day, but come evening the hotel’s three restaurants – modern-Australian fine diner Marmor, Japanese restaurant Terasu and the aforementioned rooftop bar – have plenty of pull themselves. The lush day spa caps the Ardo experience off nicely.

Basq House, Byron Bay, NSW
Byron Bay continues its neverending glow-up with the launch of the supremely chic Basq House, a 32-room boutique hotel channelling Moroccan boho luxe. The centrepiece of the hotel is a heated magnesium pool with a windowed edge, framed by loungers, cabanas and umbrellas. A clutch of staff members ferry spicy Margs and toasties to bathers. For indoor types, there’s a library well-stocked with board games, hardcover books and magazines. The 1970s-style guest rooms have cloud-like king-size beds, minibars filled with Louis Roederer champagne and yuzu soda, and sliding windows that draw in the breeze of the nearby ocean. An escape from the Byron Bay bustle, it strikes the perfect balance between privacy, luxury and style.

Cheshire Cat Motel, Gold Coast, Qld
The ’60s-built Cheshire Cat Motel is one of the last old-school holdouts in the Gold Coast’s race to raise ever-more apartment blocks and towers. It reopened earlier this year after a makeover that retained its nostalgic motel charm while adding a few modern flourishes – and a magnesium pool. Its six queen rooms and two-bedroom apartment have been kitted out with terracotta tiling in shades of smokey blue, gumtree green and rust orange. Plus, each room has a free minibar.

Il Delfino, Yamba, NSW
If you struggled to make it to the Amalfi Coast this year (most of us), a new opening in Yamba on the NSW north coast is here to plug that gap. The Med-inspired Il Delfino has four suites and a standalone bungalow, each with a private balcony, Aesop toiletries, Allpress coffee and ocean views. Rusty oranges, plenty of reds and whitewashed walls bring to mind Italy’s glamorous beach clubs. Artworks and handpainted tiles by Sass & Bide founder Heidi Middleton are throughout the property turning it into something of a living canvas.

Little National, Newcastle, NSW
New South Wales’s second city is sparing no time in cementing itself as a must-visit destination; it has a burgeoning drinking and dining scene, expansive beaches and charming historic buildings. And while most hotels encourage you to stay in and enjoy the amenities, the third Little National, on the foreshore of Newcastle Harbour, is designed to help you get a good night’s sleep after a day spent enjoying the city. Scandi-style rooms are furnished with ultra-comfy king-sized mattresses, as well as amenities by luxury Swedish brand Byredo and bluetooth connectivity. It’s right in the heart of the city – and because the rooms are practical yet compact, they won’t cost a bomb.

Melbourne Place, Melbourne, Vic
A stay at Melbourne Place means waking up in a room swathed in tactile fabrics and warm colours – right in the heart of Melbourne’s “Paris end” of town. All the booze-free options in the minibar are free, rooms have walk-in showers and the aesthetic evokes all the best elements of ’70s design (textural rugs and chairs, light filtered through sheer burnt-orange curtains and dark wood panelling). Though the hotel puts you in prime position for some of the city’s best drinking and dining options, it’ll soon also have a restaurant by prominent Sydney restaurateurs Ross and Sunny Lusted. Bonus: it’s right next to beloved Melbourne wine bar Embla.

Raes Guesthouse, Byron Bay, NSW
It’s been 30 years since Raes on Wategos brought beachside luxe to a quiet corner of Byron Bay. Now, it has a sibling: Raes Guesthouse opened this year, just moments away from the original. Guests in the property’s 10 suites – some of which have private balconies with sun loungers and beach views – can make use of two lap pools and a communal space that includes a log fire. Tamsin Johnson is behind the Med-inspired design of pastel blues and and greens, hand-painted joinery and mid-century lighting. Crucially, visitors can expect all the top-tier hospitality of the original Raes, and access Raes Dining Room, led by chef Jason Saxby.

Sea Sea, Crescent Head, NSW
Most hotels don’t have their own wine label – but we wouldn’t expect anything less from George Gorrow, co-founder of Ksubi and the brains behind Bali cool-kid hotel The Slow. Gorrow has just opened 25-room boutique hotel Sea Sea with his wife Cisco Tschurtschenthaler on the NSW north coast. The wine label, Zamiang Natural Wines, is a collaboration with Mike Bennie of Sydney’s P&V Wine & Liquor Merchants, and hints at the all-encompassing approach Gorrow and Tschurtschenthaler have taken to curating the hotel experience. Bedecked in a ’70s surf club-style fitout – plenty of wood panelling and exposed brick – it’s also a cultural hub. It hosts regular art exhibitions, a “surf club”, a live-music lounge and even its own 24-hour radio station. A heated pool, a sauna and ice baths are set among the native landscape. And the on-site restaurant is headed up by Daniel Medcalf, co-owner of No 35 Kitchen & Bar in nearby Cabarita. Each room’s minibar is stocked by ex-Scout Sydney and Icebergs drinks maker Antonello Arzedi. The final touch is the custom rental surfboards for guests to make the most of the nearby breaks.

The StandardX, Melbourne, Vic
While hotels fusing art, culture and nightlife with design-forward rooms and a good night’s sleep are de rigueur these days, when the first Standard Hotel opened in LA in 1999, it was a novel concept. Finally, Australia gets its Standard fix with the launch of StandardX, a stripped back new brand for the group aiming to be a base for exploring the neighbourhood – in this case, buzzy Fitzroy. Enter the signature Standard red revolving door and inside you’ll find macrame-wrapped columns by Melbourne artist Sarah Parkes, plus rooms decked out in blue and white with Frank Green french presses and artworks by local artists. While there’s an on-site Thai restaurant, Bang, and a guests-only rooftop bar, the StandardX is perfectly placed for exploring your surrounds.
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