Hot Hotels – Six of the Best from Woods Bagot

Welcome to the hottest hotel in town. Woods Bagot has transformed InterContinental Sydney with a top-to-bottom redesign of the five-star property, flooding it with the blues and greens of Australia’s largest and most beautiful city. Natural materials are used to sensational effect. Sandstone, marble, limestone and local timbers all play a leading role. “The heritage architecture gave us a beautiful palette of colours, textures and classic geometries,” says Tracey Wiles, Interior Design Leader at Woods Bagot.  Locals are embracing the changes, filling the property since work finished in September with fresh energy. Especially popular are the hospitality venues. The Treasury Bar, a green marble island icon, is an increasingly popular place to meet, while new rooftop Aster Bar on Level 32 attracts a buzzy crowd inspired by the amazing view. Time to check it out.

Ten years in the making, this luxury ‘super-boutique’ hotel in the beating heart of London’s West End is all about entertainment. Guests can walk to the latest shows and the property itself puts on quite a performance thanks to an audacious Woods Bagot masterplan of interconnecting volumes and spaces, creating drama and an enthralling guest journey. The Londoner has 350 guest rooms, six bars and restaurants, a gym and wellness centre. There’s plenty of places to hide, and the interior design by Yabu Pushelberg oozes comfortable luxury.  It launched in September 2021 and has been a huge hit with travelers who love its modernity, design and Leicester Square location.

The Next Hotel Melbourne is a flagship project for the Next Story Group and a central protagonist of Woods Bagot’s 80 Collins mixed-use precinct in Melbourne’s CBD. It’s a sophisticated sanctuary, offering travellers a sense of immersion in Melbourne’s local culture. With an entrance on Little Collins Street, the 255-room hotel opened in early 2021 and features multiple food and beverage offerings – including an anchor restaurant, a distinctly Melbourne ‘hole in the wall’ ground floor café and cocktail bar. Guest rooms nod to the so-called ‘Paris end’ of Collins Street with detailed stitching, textured fabric and leather. Coloured cabinet linings and tables reference the lacquer finish of Chinese cabinets, while the use of deep reds and jade greens conjure the luxury of the Orient in the 1800’s.

The impact is instant. Guests know 25hours Hotel Dubai is different the moment they enter the lobby, a dramatic introduction to the property’s design theme of hakawati – Arabic for storyteller. With interior design led by Woods Bagot, drawing on Bedouin and Nomad influences, the lobby’s main feature is a fountain mounted on a three-level circular reading platform lined with thousands of books. “It’s a soulful, playful environment unlike anything in Dubai right now,” Josh Craddock, Director of Marketing and Communications at 25hours Dubai, told travel industry website Skift. The property opened in mid-2022, has 434 rooms, and overlooks the Museum of the Future. Dubbed “the coolest new hotel in the Middle East” by Conde Nast Traveller it’s a must-stay.

Hotel AMANO Covent Garden is a celebration of city life and culture, with distinctive art and design features throughout. Woods Bagot did both the architecture and interiors, transforming a 1980s office building known as Drury House into a stunning 141-room property. Earthy tones, dark accents and golden design elements give the hotel, which opened in May, its signature “AMANO look”. For a touch of glamour, the hotel’s Goldy Rooms come with their own freestanding golden bathtubs overlooking the city. It’s the first property outside Germany for the AMANO Group, Berlin’s best-known hotelier with eight properties in the city. Located in the middle of Covent Garden, the property is close to some of London’s best theatres, boutiques, restaurants and pubs.

Woods Bagot has revived seaside glamour with InterContinental Sorrento Mornington Peninsula, the centrepiece of an arresting reinvention of a grand 19^th century hotel into a multi-faceted leisure destination called Continental Sorrento. It’s an intriguing network of bars, restaurants, terraces and wellness facilities. The design draws inspiration from one of Melbourne’s most beloved bayside locations and some of Europe’s top summer destinations. Woods Bagot CEO Nik Karalis says the new design, revealed in August, has brought fresh energy to the 1875 character of the former Hotel Continental, and is a tribute to entrepreneur George Coppin, who developed the original venue. The property includes 108 rooms and suites, either within the beautifully restored original limestone building or a new wing featuring private outdoor terraces.