So I decided to give it a try this week (Tuesday night). Paid $131 (a sale rate) and glad I didn't pay any more than that. Don't believe I received any meaningful Diamond upgrade (although room did have an external window most definitely not what anyone would call a view. Was next to the elevator which is the opposite of what I specify on my hhonors profile. Room was fine but nothing special -and certainly not even close to a patch on upgrade rooms I usually get at Hiltons.
Thanks for the update on this property.
I had a look at pricing about a month ago, before it opened. Looks like the rooms with a window are 'premium', at least they were charging a 10AU$ or slightly more fee for those rooms compared to the 'internal' no window rooms. Certainly aren't going to get any sort of meaningful view in that part of town though, but still, I guess if I had to choose and other things being more or less equal I'd go for the window room.
DT's are, after all, on a lower peg in the hilton family tree, I've been a bit spoiled by some outstanding DT's in Asia (where the Hiltons are generally _extremely_ good). Having said that, some other parts of asia have very ordinary DT's and I'm led to believe that USA DT's are pretty ordinary as well. Given the feedback I've seen on the existing DT's here in Australia it appears they are not building a threat to the existing Hilton branded hotels here.
Having a look now at the MEL DT website I find it quite misleading. A lot of the external pictures appear to be taken from a vantage point closer to the HSW rather than the flinders street location. Also didn't see any clear warning of ongoing construction work - this annoys me with any hotel that undergoes such things. I know its unavoidable, but it needs to be clearly stated when there is likely to be noise, or amenity that are not available (like restaurant or pool for example).
No restaurant yet (under construction) - breaky was free but very average. May be a lot better once the restaurant's done?
Front desk suggested they were looking at developing an executive lounge in the future (on the top floor) but wouldn't hold my breath especially as the restaurant looks a ways away.
For me, the addition of an exec lounge would at least put it in the running if the HSW was ridiculously priced.
In all, very fine for $131 but wouldn't pay much more than that unless everything else was substantially more expensive.
Agree. I'd not pay more than around this given the reports so far.
Random date later in DEC I see MEL DT at $151 for the lowest King bed AP, HSW is $220 for its version. With a decent (even if not guaranteed) chance of an exec upgrade and exec lounge as well as windows and decent space I'd be strongly inclined towards HSW in this race even given that I don't like the location of the HSW at all.