The Best Hotel Club Lounges

Lounge access isn’t just for airline passengers! Many premium hotels also have exclusive club and executive lounges. These hotel club lounges can generally be accessed by customers who purchase a club room or hold elite status with that hotel chain.

Hotel club lounge access is one of the many benefits of holding status with hotel loyalty programs such as Accor Le Club, Hilton Honors, Marriott Rewards or World of Hyatt. Top-tier members in each of these programs can enjoy executive lounge access when staying at hotels with lounges available. Marriott even extends lounge access to Gold Elite members, and Hyatt offers 4 annual lounge passes to mid-tier Explorist members.

Not every hotel has a lounge. Hotel club lounges are commonly found at 5-star hotels, but are not usually a brand requirement for 3 and 4-star hotels.

Like airport lounges, the quality of hotel club lounges varies. The amount and quality of food and drinks, as well as the service and views on offer can be very different between lounges. With that in mind, our members have started a thread to nominate their favourite hotel club lounges.

My experience is largely restricted to spg and hilton, but I do have a few stand outs, these being Grosvenor House, Dubai, Conrad Macau and Sheraton Grande Taipei, with honorable mentions to Sheraton D Cube Seoul and JW Marriott Pune. Based on overall ambience, food offering – quality and variety, staff service levels and the sorts of beverages available.

Other top picks include the Conrad Bali, Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur and Four Seasons Hong Kong. But one well-travelled member has yet to find a better lounge than the Pacific Club at Pan Pacific Singapore.

The Pacific Club at Pan Pacific Singapore (Raffles Blvd) remains my favourite, after many hundreds of nights in club rooms around the world over the years. Dedicated top level of the hotel (a former restaurant), with 360 degree views over Singapore, by the Bay. Good variety of seating and settings. Great service. Good drinks and quality of food is generally very high. Champagne breakfast a bonus for my weekend stays, too  Hard to beat, but I keep looking!

Within Australia, the Melbourne Sofitel and Sydney Sheraton on the Park lounges each get a vote. And across the ditch, several members like the Club Intercontinental lounge in Wellington.

Unfortunately it seems that hotel club lounges in the United States – much like US airport lounges – are fairly basic. Most have limited food options and some even charge extra for alcohol.

I’d go so far as to say, all US lounges fall right to the bottom of the list (not that I’ve been in many either).

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Best hotel lounges?

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.