Paramount House Hotel

Overview

The service industry has really been through some things lately. 'Shake up' doesn't even come close. Crowd-sourcing, app-ification, and hyper-localisation mean that the service industry we enjoy looks nothing like what our parents knew. And the latest offering from the team behind Paramount Coffee Project, Reuben Hills and Melbourne's Seven Seeds is a testament to this brave new world.

When it was announced back in August, Paramount House Hotel promised it wouldn't be a hotel in the traditional sense of the word  — a promise which it most certainly kept. It's not a glitzy chain where everything looks and feels the same no matter which country you're visiting. It's more of an immersive local experience which gives visitors a genuine slice of life in Surry Hills.

"We hope to encapsulate the spirit of Surry Hills and offer the guest an immersive local community experience," said Ping Jin Ng, who co-owns the hotel along with Russell Beard and Mark Dundon. "We are considered but not staged, generous but not lavish and we will offer a memorable and inspiring stay — not just comfortable and slick."

The vision for the hotel has been realised by Melbourne architecture firm, Breathe. You may know them for their work on Seven Seeds, Brother Baba Budan, Host, the Collingwood Arts Precinct, The Commons and Transformer. It's connected two buildings on Commonwealth Street, added a copper-clad extension to the roof and decked it out with little luxuries like private terraces and generous spots of greenery.

Rooms start at $225 a night, and have a mini bar stocked with snacks from LP's Quality Meats and Tom Shobbrook wines, and Aesop products in all the bathrooms — of course.

Images: Tom Ross and Sharon Cairns.