11 Little Things That Make Hotel Hotel Amazing
Every hotel is basically the same. There’s a reception at the front where you check in, you get allocated a room with a bed and a bathroom and you spend your nights there until you’re ready to check out. There’s not much variation on that, right?
Well, not quite. There are so many little things that a great hotel can do that separates it from the good. The differences themselves are small individually, but collectively they add up to make a truly amazing place to rest your head or relax between sightseeing. So instead of talking about the big things, these are the 11 little things that make Hotel Hotel in Canberra an extraordinary place to stay.
#1 The wooden room card
The first thing you get given at Hotel Hotel is a thin, wooden room card. “Hello hellooo people person,” it says. “I’m from a sustainable managed maple forest.” It is 100% biodegradable and uses 30% less energy to make than a similar plastic card. That’s a very good way to begin your stay at Hotel Hotel.
#2 Every room has an iPad
From ordering room service food without picking up a phone to choosing one of dozens of global radio stations to play music from, the iPad next to the bed in every room is a super useful and very modern way of getting rid of the pages of information that you normally find in a traditional hotel room.
#3 There’s a library
Got a spare few minutes to burn? Hotel Hotel’s reception area has a well-stocked library full of art books you’ve never read before – the perfect way of getting you in the mood before heading to the National or Portrait Galleries on the banks of Lake Burley Griffith.
#4 The bathroom talks to you
Fun little quotes are hidden in unexpected places at Hotel Hotel. Like the one above the (full size!) bottles of Aesop shampoo and conditioner in the shower from Richard Buckminster Fuller that proclaims: “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly”.
#5 The rooms are designed to be touched
Everything at Hotel Hotel is so tactile – concrete walls, furry chairs, cork bathrooms, hairy stools. The textured design is so warm and inviting that it doesn’t take long until you start touching all the surfaces like a madman who’s never seen fabric on walls before.
#6 Free bikes for guests
One of the great things about Canberra (as anyone from Brisbane or Sydney will tell you) is how flat it is for bike riding. Hotel Hotel provides free Goodspeed bicycles for its guests, and an easy 45 minute round trip around the tranquil Lake Burley Griffith is one of the best ways to see our nation’s capital.
#7 Even the hallways have character
Just walking to the rooms at Hotel Hotel feels like an experience. Not content with long boring walkways, the hall feels like a moody, well-lit entranceway to a really fashionable mine.
#8 You could survive on the mini-bar alone
Instead of the traditional coffee, tea and Toblerones, each room’s mini-bar is stoked with proudly locally sourced made goods like freshly ground coffee from A Baker next door and organic and fairtrade certified Little Monster Chocolate handmade in Canberra.
#9 It’s surrounded by emerging foodie places
The NewActon South development where Hotel Hotel has popped up is emerging as one of Canberra’s new café and dining hotspots. Led by A Baker and Mocan & Green Grout, you don’t have to venture far for some of the best coffee, baked goods and fresh food in the ACT.
#10 There’s a cinema in the foyer
Palace Cinema have opened up a new Canberra outpost in the foyer directly underneath the hotel, with a smart selection of films, a great candy bar and even a zine vending machine – and you can catch the hotel lift directly there.
#11 Even the fire escapes are fun
The place has fun with even the serious things, like the mandatory fire escape signs in every room. “Oh shit, a fire!” it says. “Do not pick up your possessions. Seriously your Prada shoes won’t do you any good if you’re not around to wear them.”
(The writer was a guest of Hotel Hotel. Lead and all other images are courtesy of Hotel Hotel and author’s own.)
Hotel Hotel is at NewActon Nishi, 25 Edinburgh Avenue in Canberra. There’s 68 unique rooms, with prices starting at $257AUS per night.
