The Olsen Hotel, Melbourne
Expert reviews
“The Olsen Hotel, a 224-room property in South Yarra, is dedicated to the 91-year-old landscape artist, John Olsen, one of Australia’s most accomplished painters, with his works scattered throughout.”
Featured in New York Times’ 36 Hours in Melbourne.
What guests liked
- Boutique style
- Great location
- Friendly staff
- Comfortable beds
All you need to know
The Olsen Hotel is situated in the famous Chapel Street of Melbourne. There are 224 spacious and elegant rooms for the guests. The rooms are designed with the artistic works of Dr John Olsen. When you enter the Hotel, you will find a sculpture that will blow your mind.
Here are some of the best services of The Olsen Hotel.
Rooms
The Olsen rooms are categorized into different styles to complement every guest. The room types are studio suite with and without balcony, deluxe studio suite single and twin bed, and many more. Here, in The Olsen’s, you also get penthouses to make your stay even more pleasant.
Facilities
The Olsen Hotel is packed with loads of facilities for the guests. The hotel gives you a 24-hour room service. You get the facility to organize an event in the hotel. You are granted access to one of the smart cars to tour the city. The hotel has a gym and massage room to give health benefits during your stay. You get many more facilities such as Valet service, local tours, pools, sun deck and much more.
Meeting Rooms and other events
The hotel has six meeting rooms well equipped for all business presentations. You can go pre-booking the dates for your meeting and then you are good to go. If you have a marriage function, then the Olsen offers beautiful penthouses for such events. They offer exclusive discounts on overall costs as the wedding event offer.
Hotel deals & lowest price guarantee
We partner with Booking.com and Agoda. Both booking websites offer the lowest price guarantee so you can be certain you will always get the best deal for this hotel. If you have seen a better price elsewhere, all you need to do is contact the booking website and they will refund you the difference immediately. You can price match right up until the day before check-in.
Location
Recent guest reviews
13 February 2026
Excellent two day get away with the kids. Great facilities and location. Clean.
Location, cleanliness, good staff. Pool.
Nothing I didn’t like
13 February 2026
Wonderful stay and wonderful staff
The location and the rooms were wonderful
11 February 2026
Very good
Help from the desk clerk(s) as to how to move around the city. Room quiet
Kitchen equipment rather sparse and some inappropriate eg. size of spoons for cutlery. drinks etc for sale too expensive.
10 February 2026
Very Good
The gym
10 February 2026
Overall very enjoyable apart from the issue mentioned above. I have praised The Olsen to friends and will definitely be
Everything
There was an issue at check in which was eventually resolved and I was delighted with my upgrade to balcony suite No 102. I was originally charged an extra $30 per night for my 2-night stay. Jess kindly refunded both nights due to my fridge not working and the issue at check in. Don’t lose her! She is a great asset to your team. Excellent attitude.
9 February 2026
Very good
Breakfast included in the room rate was a bit poor
4 February 2026
Sort out your restaurant hours. Why not do the room service menu after a set time?
In the room - Having a kitchen. Had a great Breakfast.
Room: Noisy aircon squeaking through the night and day Restaurant hours: Closing at 8:35 pm on a Thursday, not even able to order room service, what a joke for this type of hotel. I was tired, and I did not want to go out or eat in my room.
3 February 2026
One of my fav hotels in Melb
Art series
Not on the ball about my birthday.
3 February 2026
Definitely coming back!
Excellent location, great facilities, friendly staff
Everything was impecable
2 February 2026
Exceptional
Location
1 February 2026
Fabulous
Great location and vibe. Room great , mini kitchenette more than i would expect in a hotel room. Lolly jars in foyer a bit dangerous!
Too dark in bathroom to apply makeup. Extra lighting would improve.
1 February 2026
Very convenient and comfortable
Very pretty hotel and interesting rooms
Restaurant was overpriced.
31 January 2026
Very good
Tooth brush delivered to room super fast and late check out when requested so as to finish zoom meeting
28 January 2026
Fabulous
Great location!!! Clean. Lovely staff.
Beds were a bit rickety
27 January 2026
Very good
Location, room size and layout/amenities, sun deck & pool
Reception busy/slow at peak times, cleaning of rooms not as prompt/timely as expected
27 January 2026
Exceptional
Very cool.Good spot,well presented.Good service
27 January 2026
Great!
Room was beautiful, fantastic location, bed was huge and comfy
Didn't love the glass bathroom wall because you can hear everything that happens in there which is very awkward when away with friends
26 January 2026
Was ok. In 3 days I didn’t have housekeeping although 1 day I did asked to be not disturbed
Great location close to transport! Great restaurants around the hotel.
There was a mouse in the dining room at breakfast 😳
26 January 2026
Terrific stay.
Excellent stay in one bedroom with balcony room. Aircon did its job in dreadful heat! Clean, comfortable & terrific bed. Lovely staff. Shower over a deep bath was unexpected & a little tricky, especially without a grab rail to safely navigate access.
25 January 2026
Great stay! We’ll be back👍
Wonderful location & very comfortable room. Very helpful staff.
The decor in our room was lovely with the exception of the en-suite sink which needed to be re-enamelled.
25 January 2026
Very good
Great position to see more of Melbourne
Nothing
24 January 2026
Very good
Location
Room should get cleaned more often
23 January 2026
Fabulous
Excellent location with very helpful staff.
21 January 2026
I loved staying at The Olsen. Close to all necessary transport. Will come again.
A beautiful room. Loved the decor. Kitchenette was amazing. Loved to be able to get drinking water from a kitchen tap and not a bathroom basin tap. Lighting was good, block out curtains fantastic. Enjoyed the lollies at reception!!!
The bedside nearest the window was not comfortable it was lumpy, so slept on other side near wall. There was never any hand/body cream in the container at bathroom basin. The curtain was not connected on all the hanging hooks at both ends Unfortunate having building noise next door from so early but not too bad.
20 January 2026
Fabulous
Location and the room was well appointed. Bed was comfortable and comfy pillows. Bathroom and shower was good - nice with the shampoo & body wash being in bottles so we are not adding to landfill with tiny plastic tubes.
Construction next door - noisey. Restaurant closing early so we missed our free drinks. Pool area could with a refresh. Looks a bit worn. Gym a bit cramped.
20 January 2026
Clean well run hotel and very close to all amenities, including supermarkets, shops, markets and cinemas. Tram line stra
I was upgraded immediately when my original room had a non working air conditioner.
They should have been careful giving me a room that had a broken air conditioner. Need to check rooms carefully so that everything is working properly.
18 January 2026
Top class hotel, ticked all the boxes.
Amazing stay, room was well appointed and very clean, beds very comfortable. The staff left a beautiful bottle of wine and tasting plate for my friends 40th as a gift. Breakfast and the coffee was outstanding. Staff were very friendly and professional. Will be back. Also great location.
No fault
17 January 2026
Exceptional
I can only recommend staying here!
14 January 2026
Fabulous
Everything
Nothing
14 January 2026
Great hotel , my favourite in Melbourne
Location and facilities. Loved room 103
Parking was very squashy and expensive
13 January 2026
enjoyable and welcoming
location, staff and facilities
nothing
13 January 2026
Very good hotel, location for the city not the best but South Yarra very interesting area of Melbour
Very good breakfast. Front desk very helpful.
The noise from the construction workers next to the hotel at 7am.
12 January 2026
Pleasant
Location, Bed, Staff.
Lights in rangehood not working. Restaurant not open for lunch. Dinner menu limited.
12 January 2026
Pleasant
Early check in
Ants in room
10 January 2026
Great location, fun, modern vibe.
Modern, location, decor, lolly station in lobby
Outdoor area is small
9 January 2026
Excellent authentic art based hotel in a great location.
Pleasant room with some basic cooking facilities. Excellent artwork making property authentic. Staff helpful. Excellent location with lots of eating options, close to beautiful botanical gardens gardens and great transport links.
N/a
9 January 2026
Great location, nice facilities
Great location, close to South Yarra Train station & trams. Adequate gym, nice pool
Pool steps were a bit difficult, need a hand rail for me & my wife
5 January 2026
Excellent,Perfect,Clean
The swimming pool
The guy at the bar was very rude to me and my partner,interrupting us but as soon as we wanted to order a drink and we felt like we were being ignored
5 January 2026
Fabulous
Location and nice big room with kitchen
4 January 2026
Will go back anytime
Breakfast was excellent. Bed very comfortable. Staff extremely friendly and helpful
3 January 2026
Convenient and good value
Location, clean and safe
2 January 2026
My stay was great, apart from those few things that did put a dampener on my time there, particularly as a couple of the
Well presented, quiet, modern and clean. The building is lovely, close to many things in the area. Rooms are very well appointed with full kitchen, including stovetop. I was impressed with the offering.
Bathrooms get very wet from shower. I asked about breakfast which I had paid for in my booking and the employee said they’d have to find out what I needed to do, they never came back to me, I wasn’t advised where breakfast was, so missed being able to try. I had multiple occurrences not being able to get into parking bay with my room card, when card was replaced, I then could not get into my room on two occasions, having to go back down to reception multiple times to fix and get new keycards. In the carpark, it was so full that at times there weren’t spots available for me to park. Concerning, as I had paid. The staff told me to drive back down and move witches hats around to get myself access to blocked off car parks.
2 January 2026
Great!! Will return again
Great location, friendly staff, great food. Nice room
2 January 2026
Convenient, good access to public transport, spacious
Proximity to locations and events we had scheduled for our time there
Given it was the Christmas holiday period we were understanding about staff availability to service rooms, however our last 2 days no one came to even offer fresh towels or refills for coffee.
1 January 2026
Relevantly good value for money.
Central location . Spacious room with comfortable furniture.
Needs a bit of a refurbishment Wasn't as clean on arrival as expected.
1 January 2026
Perfect everything for a short stay.
Good space and amenities for 2 for a night
Nothing - everything was perfect
1 January 2026
Good location and concept, with room for improvements
Excellent location and art concept
No robes, very slow elevators, and restaurant was not open for lunch while we were there
1 January 2026
Very good
Good location
All ok
31 December 2025
Great
Location is close to restaurants
Minor house keeping issues, lack of scissors.
Hotel facilities
Food & Drink
- - Restaurant
- - Bar
- - Breakfast in the room
- - Special diet menus (on request)
- - Kids' meals (additional charge)
- - Wine/champagne (additional charge)
General
- - Room service
- - Non-smoking rooms
- - Facilities for disabled guests
- - Family rooms
- - Lift
- - Safety deposit box
- - Soundproof rooms
- - Heating
- - Non-smoking throughout
- - Air conditioning
- - Grocery deliveries (additional charge)
Business facilities
- - Meeting/banquet facilities (additional charge)
- - Business centre (additional charge)
- - Fax/photocopying (additional charge)
Reception services
- - 24-hour front desk
- - Express check-in/check-out
- - Luggage storage
- - Concierge service
- - Invoice provided
Activities
- - Fitness centre
- - Fitness
- - Bicycle rental (additional charge)
Outdoors
- - Terrace
- - Outdoor pool
- - Sun terrace
- - Outdoor pool (all year)
- - Outdoor furniture
Cleaning services
- - Laundry (additional charge)
- - Dry cleaning (additional charge)
- - Ironing service (additional charge)
- - Daily housekeeping
Parking
- - Street parking
- - Electric vehicle charging station
- - Accessible parking
Pool and wellness
- - Heated pool
- - Shallow end
- - Sun loungers or beach chairs
- - Fence around pool
- - Swimming pool
- - Swimming pool
Miscellaneous
- - 24-hour security
- - Key card access
- - Security alarm
- - Smoke alarms
- - CCTV in common areas
- - CCTV outside property
- - Fire extinguishers
- - Face masks for guests available

More photos

13 February 2026
Exceptional