Canberra's Design-Focused Hotel Hotel Has Been Sold

Home of arty and romantic sleepovers in Australia's capital city since 2013, Canberra's Hotel Hotel has been sold. Owners Molonglo Group recently handed over the keys to Ovolo, an independent hotel company with digs in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Hong Kong. The Sydney outpost occupies a sizeable chunk of Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf, where designer rooms overlook the Harbour.

If you're a fan of Hotel Hotel and its steady program of experimental cultural happenings, you'll be pleased to know that the staff won't be going anywhere when the venue officially becomes an Ovolo on 1 March. Unless, of course, they're keen to work for the company in another city.

"We are proud to bring our signature concept to the Australian capital," said Ovolo Hotels CEO Girish Jhunjhnuwala. "We believe this venture is the perfect alignment and are delighted to be associated with this property."

Meanwhile, the Molonglo Group — which is both a property developer and a production house — has a bunch of Australian and international adventures coming up, involving architecture, design and culture.

"We wanted to do something special in both Canberra and Australia; I think we've achieved that," said Molonglo Group director Nectar Efkarpidis,. "Hotel Hotel was the physical manifestation of ideas that we had been exploring for several years about architecture, design, objects and furniture, and how they can help us to evolve and expand Canberra's civic sense of itself with others."

Back in August 2017, several of Australia's other arty hotels fell under the ownership of a major international company, when Mantra bought the Art Series for a cool $52 million.

Images: John Gollings / Tom Roe.