During my year of travel, I planned to visit Melbourne for a couple of days and used it as a base for the Great Ocean Road trip. I was also looking for good value Best Western properties in or close to the Melbourne CBD area. This hotel fit the bill since it looked like it was in a solid neighbourhood.
Having stayed in bad Best Western hotels in North America, I was skeptical, to say the least. When I think Best Western, I associate it with dirty rooms, weird smells, and poor sound insulation in the rooms.
Thankfully, this hotel was not typical of the ones in North America.
For once, photos of clean rooms are a reflection of what you would get in real life. As well, I found our stay at the Best Western Plus Travel Inn Hotel to be a comfortable and quiet one. It also had a small hotel feel even though it had over 100 guestrooms. Another great perk to this hotel is that there is free undercover parking for those who are driving.
The ambiance at the Best Western Plus Travel Inn Hotel Melbourne
The hotel was quiet, and seem to have families as well as business people. The hotel has two multi-purpose rooms and a business center that has a photocopier and fax. The area was not in the center of Melbourne, but rather, in a residential area.
The hotel room and the hotel
Because I have the diamond status with their loyalty program, we received an upgrade to a queen sized bedroom. The room was at the back of the hotel, meaning there wasn’t much foot traffic in the area.
I’ve stayed in Best Western hotels in North America where the sound insulation was generally bad (think, hearing every door slam!). Fortunately, we didn’t have to worry about the noise at this hotel. I did find the sound to travel through the hotel a bit. Since our room was all the way in the back, few people passed by our room.
We had 6-8 pillows available (I am a pillow person), and the bed was very clean and comfy
The room was well kept and clean, although it did have a weird smell at first. The smell went away after we let the AC run for a while.
Another thing I look for when staying in lower end hotels is safety. The hotel room did not have a bolt over the door, so we used a door stopper at the bottom to keep the door secure.
While most people complained that the space is small, we found it to be just fine. Keep in mind though, we both can sleep comfortably on a double bed. We had enough space to lay our stuff on the ground. But then again, we were travelling for a year with minimal belongings so I’m sure that helped a bit.
The service at the Best Western Plus Travel Inn Hotel Melbourne
What made our yearlong travel smooth was the ability to leave behind our suitcase during our two-day tour of the Great Ocean Road. We took a backpacker’s tour (I had no idea it was a backpacking tour until halfway through the tour!), and we were limited on the amount of stuff we could bring so it was a relief to be able to leave behind our large suitcase. Plus, we were staying at a hostel on the tour and having too much luggage would have brought a whole host of problems.
The location at the Best Western Plus Travel Inn Hotel Melbourne
I found the location to be pretty good. It was next to a road that had a ton of Italian eateries, and it was within a 20-minute walk to the CBD. Getting from the Southern Cross Station to the hotel wasn’t so bad either. We did have to walk for ten minutes to get to the hotel from the tram.
I was craving Asian food and was able to find some good restaurants that are a ten-minute walk away from the hotel.
For those who like to grab stuff at the grocery store, there is one called Woolworths nearby.
The hotel is next to Lygon street, which is the heart of little Italy in Melbourne. The area becomes very lively as people come in to eat at the Italian restaurants.
The tram is also close to the hotel, meaning it’s very convenient to travel around the city.
The pool at the Best Western Plus Travel Inn Hotel Melbourne
The hotel had a cute small pool in the inner courtyard of the building.
There is also laundry at the Best Western Plus Travel Inn Hotel Melbourne.
Note that if you don’t want to do your laundry, the hotel can do your laundry for you as well.
Best Western Plus Travel Inn Hotel Melbourne offers excellent value for travellers
I found the Best Western Melbourne to deliver well on value for the price we paid. Clean, comfortable rooms in a decent location and very little noise. If we were ever to come back to Melbourne again, I’d consider this hotel.