Next Melbourne Is the Soon-to-Open Inner City Hotel That'll Barrel Age Its Spirits Onsite

Staycationing in your own city? Heading interstate for a getaway? Either way, deciding which hotel to spend the night in can depend on a range of factors. Some are straightforward, such as location and price. Others span the broader experience, including amenities, facilities, ad onsite restaurants and bars — and whether the place you're bunking down in serves cocktails using spirits that it has barrel aged itself.

Set to open in Melbourne's growing 80 Collins Street precinct in late March, Next Hotel Melbourne ticks the last box — and it's the first hotel in Australia to do so. It'll be home to a space called the Barrel Room, where it'll run a wood-ageing program for spirits, cocktails and herbal liquors. You'll be able to drop in, make your pick, see your choice decanted, have a taste and even make requests regarding what else should be barrel aged. Those tipples will also form part of Next Melbourne's own signature bottled cocktail lineup, which'll be stocked in the in-room mini-bars.

Also on offer at the new Melbourne 24-storey spot: 225 guest rooms; design touches that span marble, eye-catching lighting and art by Jonny Niesche, Consuelo Cavaniglia and Julia Gorman; and in-suite espresso machines and cocktail-mixing stations. The site will also include a club area for working and meeting away from home, complete with its own food and drink selection, plus a fitness centre with on-call personal trainers.

Overseen by Daniel Natoli and Adrian Li, Next Melbourne will feature dining and drinking venue La Madonna, too, which'll span across an entire floor. Also due to open in late March, it'll offer share plates at the bar, a lounge space for cocktails, and booth seating and large tables for meals — and it's where the Barrel Room will be located.

On the site's ground floor, Ingresso by La Madonna is already open, serving up coffees to start the day, an afternoon aperitivo hour, and other drinks and bites to to either eat onsite or takeaway.

Next Melbourne joins a much-talked about precinct, with 80 Collins Street also just welcoming Farmer's Daughters — and already home to opulent champagne bar Nick & Nora's and cafe Maverick.

Find Next Hotel Melbourne in the 80 Collins Street precinct, with entry via 103 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, from late March.