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Discover South Wharf, Melbourne’s new playground to meet, dine, shop and stay. The newly built four star Novotel Melbourne South Wharf stands proudly in one of Melbourne’s oldest locations, the historic South Wharf promenade. In contrast to the maritime docks and cargo sheds, is the contemporary architecture of Melbourne’s newest buildings and attractions. The hotel is complemented with direct access to the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre (MCEC), the Southern Hemisphere’s largest meeting space and the DFO South Wharf with 180 premium retail outlet stores on offer. The shimmering gold hotel tower spans 26 levels and boasts 347 accommodation rooms and suites, with views across the city skyline or towards Port Philip Bay. All rooms and suites feature modern and thoughtfully designed bathrooms with walk-in showers and back-lit mirrors. Hotel guests enjoy access to a 24 hour fitness center with the latest cardio and weight training equipment on offer.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Accor Hotels.
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Enjoyed our stay. Staff are friendly and helpful. View over Melbourne from the upper floors is fantastic, Very comfortable beds. Dined in their restaurant and was impressed by the selection of chioces. Prices very reasonable. Very close to Lume (visit recommended), the DFO (didn't visit), the Casino, and the Arts Centre. Had a very restful two days - was lazy enough to order room service for breakfast! We definately intend to return.
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Date of stay: August 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The hotel still have a fresh new vibe. We got the standard room with 2 double beds (2 adults and 2 teens). We fit perfectly fine. We went during July school holidays and paid $224 for the night which included breakfast.
The beds were firm and comfortable. I thought I would feel squashy sleeping on a double bed size since our bed at home is king size but it was manageable for the night. Bathroom was nice and modern. Had a great view of the city/city traffic.
Great location right next to DFO outlet and the convention centre. We did some shopping at the outlet which was so convenient as it was just next door. Location is also walking distance to crown casino and a min walk to nearest tram.
Parking was conveniently located on main DFO parking for $35 a day, you can just drive to the front of the hotel, drop yours bags/check in then move the car into the car park. We were able to get parking on ground floor which is just a few steps to the hotel door. Concierge will greet you as you enter the hotel and you will need to go to level 5 for reception. There are 26 floors in the building. An allocated parking space at the front of the hotel for guests to drop off bags - this is just for a few minutes.
The buffet breakfast included was really great variety of food and great quality. Yummy pastries and hot food. My teens was just disappointed there were no hash brown that day. When it’s a busy time (usually from 8.30 - 9.30) it’s a bit of congestion when getting your food. Appears location of the bread toasting should be move elsewhere not in the middle of the back wall which causes delay on the flow of people getting food. The buffet table is a small area with a number variety of food. Overall we really enjoyed our stay and we would be back again.
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Date of stay: July 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Parking ticket will be validated by reception upon check out
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Novotel Team, Other at Novotel Melbourne South Wharf
Responded 27 Jul 2023
Thank you for your review Sabb11y. We look forward to welcoming you all back in the near future. Kind regards, Novotel Team
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I recently stayed at the Novotel Melbourne South Wharf and found the hotel to be an excellent choice for its location. Situated right by the South Wharf shopping mall and waterfront, it’s perfect for exploring the area. The room was very clean, and the rate was fair, making it a good value for the price.
Unfortunately, the food and beverage experience left much to be desired. The room service was disappointing—I ordered a hamburger, expecting a straightforward dish, but it was subpar and not even edible. The breakfast buffet didn’t fare much better, with food quality below standard and service that felt inattentive.
While I’d recommend the hotel for its convenient location and reasonable pricing, I suggest skipping the on-site dining. Instead, take advantage of the numerous excellent F&B options just across the street in the shopping mall area or along the waterfront. These alternatives more than make up for the hotel's shortcomings in this department.
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Date of stay: December 2024
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Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip:Great F&B options right across the street.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Hotel- cmanager, Owner at Novotel Melbourne South Wharf
Responded 24 Jan 2025
Dear Guest, Thanks for your review about our hotel. We are delighted that you appreciated the cleanliness of our rooms and found our hotel to be a good value for the price. Our team strives to maintain the highest standards of cleanliness and affordability for our guests. However, we regret to hear that your dining experiences did not meet your expectations. Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment caused by the quality of the room service and the breakfast buffet. We understand how crucial meal satisfaction is to the overall guest experience and we will take your comments into consideration as we continue to improve our dining offerings. Nonetheless, it is great that our unbeatable location enhanced your stay, providing easy access to the nearby South Wharf shopping mall and the vibrant waterfront. We are proud to offer such a prime location, which is perfect for guests looking to explore Melbourne. We are hoping to welcome you back in the future. All the best. Novotel Melbourne South Wharf Team
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We just spent a night at the Novotel South Wharf and this was the third time we have stayed there.
We were very happy with the service, I called during the week to request an extra chair in our room, and on check in they had that request and facilitated it immediately. We were also upgraded from a basic Queen to a King room which was nice.
The room was exactly as described, had a reasonable view, an extremely comfortable bed and pillows and all the usual Novotel facilities.
At around 6pm as we were about to start getting ready for dinner, there was an emergency announcement that we had to evacuate and to following the emergency directions. This is fine, but there were no directions whatsoever. My husband and myself, along with three others from another room walked down the stairs from the 20th to the 5th floor. We did not see or hear anyone else along the way. The emergency announcements continued on some floors as we passed but not all.
When we finally reached the 5th floor where reception is located, we were greeted by a gentleman who stated that they thought it was a false alarm, but the fire brigade would check to make sure. The fire brigade strangely went up in the lift, which I always thought were turned off during emergencies.
We were told that we had to wait on the 5th floor for the all-clear. We waited for a considerable time whilst other people came and went, all going up and down the lifts. New guests were checking in and going up the lifts too. After some time, I went to the reception desk, to be told they had no idea what was going on and we could go back to our rooms.
We found the entire experience extremely disorganised and if there actually had been an emergency, very frightening as no one seemed to know what to do. I do think that Novotel need to do a lot more staff training in this area.
Breakfast on Sunday morning was also very disorganised. We had to pay a 10% weekend surcharge which hadn’t been mentioned before, yet they were extremely lacking in staff. The staff that were there though were excellent and worked very hard indeed. The food itself was very good, but again due to the lack of staff, lots had run out and there were long waits for them to be refilled.
I don’t think I would stay again unfortunately until they sort out their staff training issues and possibly hire more people.
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Date of stay: April 2024
Value
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Location
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Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Hotel- cmanager, Owner at Novotel Melbourne South Wharf
Responded 25 Apr 2024
Dear Guest, Thank you for reviewing your recent experience. We are delighted to hear that your requests were promptly accommodated, from the additional chair to the complimentary room upgrade, and that our facilities, including the comfort of our beds and pillows, met your expectations. However, we are genuinely concerned to learn about the confusion during the emergency evacuation and sincerely apologize for any distress this may have caused. We strive to ensure clear communication in such situations and will reinforce our emergency procedures with our team. Regarding your breakfast experience, we apologize for any inconvenience due to the surcharge and the wait times. Rest assured, we are committed to providing efficient service and will review our staffing levels to better serve our guests. It is, nevertheless, pleasing to know that the quality of our breakfast offerings was to your satisfaction, even amid the busy service. We are also grateful for your positive remarks on our staff's friendliness and the cleanliness of our hotel, which are aspects we take great pride in. We hope to have the pleasure of welcoming you back in the future for an experience that not only meets but exceeds your expectations. Warm regards,
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Thanks to some incredibly good deals, we have stayed at Novotel South Wharf twice already this year. If you love to outlet shop, the location can’t be beaten as DFO is right across the road. The hotel is just out of the CBD grid, which means it’s nice and quiet at night yet only a 10 minute walk from the nearest tram stop (outside Crown). It’s a great base for tram trips into the CBD, or out of the CBD towards South Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Albert Park or St Kilda. The Lume is right next door, and is a great attraction for those with even a vague interest in art.
For both stays, our room had two double beds and views over the freeway. If you crane you neck you can see some of the city skyline. The bathrooms have a spacious walk-in shower with non-slip tiles, and almost all the amenities you could wish for. There was no vanity kit supplied, but other extras like a spare toothbrush and razor were there.
The hotel gym was impressive, with cardio machines, dumbbells, benches and free weights. Unfortunately the water and wipe dispensers were not operational during my visit.
The restaurant, Mr Carpano, does a decent buffet breakfast with eggs to order, pancake machine and some of the best danishes I’ve ever eaten. Their al a carte dinner menu is also delicious and not too expensive for a hotel restaurant. We can recommend the fish and the caprese salad.
For a clean, functional room in a quiet location just out of the CBD grid, it’s hard to beat Novotel South Wharf. I’ve stayed there twice now and would happily stay there again (if the price is right).
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Date of stay: March 2022Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Timothy Cannon, General Manager at Novotel Melbourne South Wharf
Responded 30 Jun 2022
Thank you so much for your kind feedback, we look forward to welcoming you to the hotel again!
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We were staying nearby and received an email from Travelzoo offering rooms at this hotel from $129. We took up the offer and stayed at the hotel to extend our city stay. This price is an excellent price in comparison to booking directly with accor. We are gold members so are quite loyal to the excellent accor brand.
We actually went for the King Room on a higher floor with Yarra River views for an extra $30 per night. I feel that the cheaper room would have been sufficient for us as the views are not that spectacular. (Mainly highway views and city views with slight yarra river views)
Location is great with DFO South Wharf across the road and many restaurants and bars to choose from at South Wharf. A short walk away is Crown Casino and a little further away is Southbank. All very easily walkable.
If staying here a must do is visit The Lume which is downstairs at The Convention Centre which is an excellent digital display of van Gough's works of art.
Whilst we faced a busy highway the window glazing must be very good as we heard no highway noise and slept well.
Rooms are very modern and clean but slightly smaller than other hotels we have stayed at.
We did have a problem with the television as it seemed to freeze and wouldn't allow us to change channels on occassions. It may be an internet related issue? We didnt report the issue as it wasn't a big deal for us.
The King bed was super comfy but I do prefer much softer pillows.
Bathroom whilst small was very functional and a generous supply of toiletries was provided.
An improvement would be to have a coffee machine in the room like many hotels have these days. Nowadays I struggle to drink instant coffee.
I would definitely be happy to stay here again.
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Date of stay: January 2022
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Timothy Cannon, General Manager at Novotel Melbourne South Wharf
Responded 30 Jun 2022
Thank you so much for your feedback, we are glad you enjoyed your stay, look forward to welcoming you to the hotel again!
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Great location, clean neat and tidy hotel with great rooms. The staff are all very friendly from the moment you arrived, checking in, bar staff and and the cleaning staff you pass along the way. The restaurant on site had great food and as a member of the Accor All it was very good value
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Review collected in partnership with Accorhotels.com
Date of stay: August 2022
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Trip type: Travelled on business
This review is the subjective opinion of an individual contributor and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Modern, clean, efficient hotel. Friendly staff. Warmly greeted and arrived in time for Happy Hour at the bar on Level 6. Enjoyed a glass of sparkling, a beer and shared the calamari with chorizo. Very nice! We were there to see The Piano Guys at the Plenary, so this was extremely convenient as it’s just next door. We had a King bed room with views of the city. The bed was very comfortable - felt like s nice, plush mattress topper. Pillow menu on offer if you wanted something different than what was on the bed. The bathroom has a good shower with shampoo and liquid shower gel, but no hair conditioner. Also, no lotion or shower caps that I saw. There is a kettle to make tea or instant coffee, but no coffee machine. I think there is a coffee in the foyer, but it wasn’t open when we were there. It appeared to have a cocktail bar there as well with displays of cocktail glasses, but I misread the sign when it said it was open between 8-11. I think it meant for the morning, but when we returned to the hotel after the concert at 10:30pm, I thought it meant you could get a cocktail. It also wasn’t open Saturday morning, so we ended up walking to The Boatbuilders Yard for coffee and breakfast - which was delicious! A very clean, comfortable place to stay in an area that’s easy to see the city from.
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Date of stay: March 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Parking is convenient and can be paid at the hotel,
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Novotel Team, Other at Novotel Melbourne South Wharf
Responded 13 Mar 2023
Thank you for your detailed review kozkan
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While the hotel itself is conveniently positioned for access to the south wharf precinct, and the rooms are nicely furnished (albeit with the smallest minibar fridge I have ever seen) there were a few things that I think should be noted by management: The check-in was the most express that I have ever had, the guest agent on the desk barely said more than two words past welcome, didn't enquire about the purpose of the stay, and was so casually dressed that if you had seen them in the foyer you would not know that they were staff. We had a drink at the bar, and despite being the only couple in there, the 3 or 4 bar staff clearly weren't interested in making money as once we had finished our drinks no one approached us to buy more or upsell us on getting dinner. We decided to order room service, and while the app was easy enough to use, there were a few quirks; the Pana Cotta desert asked us to substitute it for chicken Tikka, which was odd, and we were unable to charge the meal to the room which meant we weren't able to accrue points. The room is nice, and the view of the setting sun over the city is lovely. The only other thing; which didn't impact the stay, was that the Chromecast function of the television didn't work as the service providers website was down. I would recommend the hotel if you are looking to stay in the area or are going to something at the MCEC, and I think that with some sharpening of service they would offer a true Novotel experience.
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Review collected in partnership with Accorhotels.com
Date of stay: September 2022
Value
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Location
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This review is the subjective opinion of an individual contributor and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Disappointed with our stay over Easter 2022. First time we had stayed here, and in the south bank/wharf location. no valet parking, which was not listed on their website, had to park @ neighbouring shopping centre and whilst hotel validated our ticket to be eligible for $30 per day this only included 1 exit per day. not practical if you want to go out & about. room not maintained daily, excuse was hotel was full and we dont service daily & short staffed, this was evident from pizza boxes left in the hallway overnight & 1/2 of next day by another guest. Again we were not informed of no room make up on arrival or before we travelled. supposedly 3 restaurants in the hotel, 2 closed due to COVID, again not disclosed on website or on arrival. room was however of high standard and well maintained, breakfast was included in our deal, whilst it was nice, could do with a little more variety in the cooked breakfast part. good location, close to DFO & south bank restaurants etc. annoying that reception on 5th floor so had to travel in 2 seperate lifts to get to our room. would not recommend to others or stay here again.
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Date of stay: April 2022
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Sue.. not sure as we parked at ground level and only entered and left the hotel by that level. I don't recall seeing an entrance on level five other than the lift from the ground floor.
There are more places to choose from in the Melbourne area.
PRICE RANGE
$192 - $325 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
LOCATION
AustraliaVictoriaMelbourne
NUMBER OF ROOMS
347
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect total costs of the stay, including all taxes and fees known to our partners. Please see our partners for more details.
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