Crown Towers Melbourne

Truly 5 stars! Spacious and comfortable rooms, with a great bathroom make this place a fantastic place to rest at the end of the day. The location is great, right on the Yarra river, and it's an easy walk on the riverside or across to Federation Square. Breakfast is great and the staff is really friendly (free chocolates every turn down service!) It is quite expensive, and no free water is a sore sight, especially when you're paying so much. The other thing is that it is so so busy. The rooms and hallways are quiet, but the lobby/casino and food court area are just way too packed. It's the only casino in Melbourne, and it's right in the city too, so expect lots and lots of crowds, regardless of the day of the week. If you can manage the crowds -- or if you're going to join them in the casino -- this is a great place to stay right in the middle of the action!

The first time I heard about the Crown Towers, someone told me it was the type of place that Oprah and Tiger Woods would stay at if and when they came down to Melbourne. Well coming from Sydney meant I didn't have to make quite a long trip, but enough to make me curious about what all the fuss was about. Safe to say, it put an image in my mind immediately. But the image in my head did not do it justice. The lobby at Crown Towers is an immaculate display of polished marble and high ceilings. The line at the concierge was a bit of a bother (and it also took us three hours to check in because they had trouble finding the booking). Instead of putting us in a bad mood, we waited in down stairs food court, had a bite, and by the time we came back, everything was in order. We had a double room which was pretty decent size-wise; it had the usual flat screen TV, iPod docking station, mini bar, walk in wardrobe and safe etcetera, etcetera. What we were really impressed with were the bathrooms. It had a bathtub with fully functioning in built LCD TV, marble tops, a massive mirror, and separate toilet and shower. The shower also had that cool rain shower option or the traditional hand held. Think about attention to detail! We had room service, extra fluffy bathrobes (they are amazing), and slippers brought up on request. Definitely the one place I'll be staying at in Melbourne from now on. I looked forward every time to an immaculately clean room and welcome Lindt chocolates next to my pillow.

I find the hotel foyer extremely tacky to be honest -- there are Rolex and Louis Vuitton stores literally in the lobby of the hotel. That said, the room and the service has been impeccable, the bed is very comfortable, the view from the 17th floor is absolutely amazing (and I'm only halfway up the building) and I like that they included plenty of bathroom amenities and even a tv for the bathtub. (Suggestion for Crown: Bubble bath would be nice.) I also like being able to order room service from the in-room iPad. Food delivery has been surprisingly prompt each time and, though pricy, the meals have generally been delicious. (I highly recommend the cheese plate and Caesar salad, and the ice cream is pretty good, but I didn't particularly like the goat cheese ravioli with lamb ragu.)The free breakfast in the morning is extremely classy, overlooks a great view and has a wide variety of tasty items. I had the best massage of my life in the hotel spa. (Very therapeutic. He gave me feedback on the various tensions he found throughout my body and recommendations for repairing them.) I also made a few atypical requests to the hotel staff and they accommodated all of them! I expected to hate the hotel after seeing the lobby, but it's actually been a great.

This hotel tries to give the appearance of luxury from the moment you step in - from the fancy, high-end shops to the decor in the room, to the little touches like chocolates on your pillow and turn-down service. But what is luxury if the basic amenities that humans need or so lacking (or expensive)? To start with, no free water?? What are you, a Holiday Inn? For $300+ AUD a night, that's pretty shocking, considering Sheratons and Westins give out free water in the room. The big bottle is $8AUD, if you can believe it. Also, no tissues in the room. Which meant I had to run to the bathroom every time my allergies woke me up in the middle of the night. And, they use ultra-thin, ultra-coarse, single-ply toilet paper. What the hell? I know there's a Costco nearby, go get some Charmin please. I've never, in all my travels and staying in hotel, used such flimsy toilet paper in my life. Finally, your "free" wifi is woefully slow and inadequate. That it took 2 full minutes to load my gmail page isn't even the worst part. Imagine trying to load a site that had more images and cookies to download and store, like say, the Qantas website, so I could preorder meals and check-in. The extremely slow speed was almost insulting, like it was taunting their customers. Why offer it at all if you're going to make it that excruciating to use the internet? Every other hotel and $20 hostel I've been to that offers free wifi have significantly faster speeds than here. Eating at the hotel stretches the wallet even more, as everything is ridiculously expensive there, even the food court. The one thing I will say, is that this hotel has the nicest hotel gym that I've been to anywhere in the world. This is a gym that I would definitely pay for if it was offering membership. I can forgo the chocolate and the faux-luxury for a hotel with basic necessities. The experiences I've had with this hotel seem to indicate that they are more focused on squeezing every single cent out of every single thing, like a cheap airline like Frontier or Spirit. My other review was highly critical of the casino, and combined, I definitely will not be coming back to this hotel on my next visit.

I stayed here when i was in Melbourne to catch the Def Leppard concert. I stayed in a suite as the standard rooms were booked out. The suite has a separate living room with capsule coffee machine. There is a walk in wardrobe separate from the bedroom. The bathroom has a large tub. This is a luxury hotel but no porter service. There are many restaurants in the Crown complex.

I have stayed at the crown towers quite a few times before, and I am always very impressed by their rooms on offer. The standard room is beautifully designed, with classy and modern furniture. The room is quite spacious- enough to walk around comfortably. There is also a walk in wardrobe, desk and lounge seat with an accompanying coffee table. The bathrooms here are also very well designed, two large glass doors lead into the expansive bathroom that is brightly lit and covered in stone/marble. The bathroom offers large mirrors, twin sinks, rainfall shower and a bathtub that faces a mini TV. Overall I am always pleased when I stay at crown, the hotel staff are all very professional and friendly. I always have a fantastic time.

If this is a five star hotel then I'm an astronaut getting ready for my mission to mars on Monday. Forbes obviously have never stayed at The Langhams or The Grand Hyatt. This is a four star and that is being extremely generous. So overpriced.

My wife and I stayed at the Crown Towers during our visit to Melbourne for the Australian Open. The location of the hotel is great-it's a short walk into the Central Business District and there are a multitude of restaurants on the property/complex or within a 10 minute walk. There is a major transportation hub (Flinders Station) within walking distance-from there, you can pick up the tram which makes Melbourne navigation simple. There are also a number of higher end stores (Rolex, Louie Vuitton etc) part of the Crown complex along with a huge casino. So, if you are looking for things to do, you won't be lacking options. The room we stayed in was excellent-we had a king size bed; the bathroom was large with dual sinks and a separate soaker tub/shower with rainfall shower head. The room had a refrigerator and a safe-both of which were very nice features. Service was excellent throughout our stay, including a nightly turndown service. One of our favorite parts of the hotel was the pool/workout facility. There are two tennis courts available for guests-the tennis courts are outside of the exercise machines. The pool is indoors but the pool area had numerous loungers including cabana's which are available to guests. The workout facility had plenty of newer/well maintained machines. Service was friendly throughout our stay-if you are heading to Melbourne, the Crown Towers is worth your consideration.