A new $150 million urban development at Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 4, due to open in 2020, will include a new dual-branded Novotel and Ibis Styles hotel, the airport has announced.
The 464-room property will sit within a new “urban oasis” precinct known as ‘The Hive’, just outside Melbourne’s Terminal 4. Currently, domestic low-cost carriers including Jetstar and Tigerair operate from here. The ten-storey building will offer 246 rooms flagged as Novotel and 218 available as Ibis Styles.
Designed by architects Fender Katsilidis, the hotel will be fitted out internally by Woods Bagot.
“Guests will find that the Ibis Styles hotel represents the urban grain of Melbourne through a personalised, modular and playful aesthetic, while the Novotel will take on a regional Victorian feel that has a sense of space and openness with a natural palette that creates the idea of a sanctuary,” Woods Bagot lead interior designer Sarah Alessi said.
Guests and the public will have access to a restaurant, a café and two bars as part of the new development along with a swimming pool and rooftop garden. Conference facilities, a co-working hot-desk hub, a commercial gym and wellness centre will also be available and is expected to draw a new crop of business travellers looking to hold events and meetings as close to the airport as possible.
AccorHotels Pacific COO Simon McGrath said: “We are excited to be working with Melbourne Airport on this development and thrilled to be embarking on another dual branded hotel complex and attracting more visitors to Melbourne.”
The new Melbourne Airport property will become the second dual-branded hotel to open in Australia following the opening this December of a joint Novotel and Ibis Melbourne Central. A third dual-branded property, this time from InterContinental Hotels Group and featuring a combined Hotel Indigo and Holiday Inn, is currently slated to open in 2022.
A spokesperson for Melbourne Airport said its on-airport hotels are operating at significant capacity year-round, making this investment crucial to supporting Melbourne’s tourism industry.
Construction of the new property will begin before the end of 2018.