The hotel itself is actually quite nice. The staff were courteous and helpful, and the room was clean and comfortable. Broadband internet access is available in-room at a pretty reasonable rate by australian standards. Now the bad: The rooms are small. If you dont need a lot of space, no problem, but I like to relax in a chair or couch after a long day, and you could not fit one in the room if you tried. Its basically a 12 x 12 room with a bathroom attached. The neighborhood is poor. Graffiti is everywhere. Windows have bars. Alleys smell like urine. There are tram tracks right in front of it. Every 15 minutes a trolley goes by that sounds like a train. And finally, the worst thing of all - there is a night club right across the street. From 9pm to 4am all you will hear is drunk teens and college kids yelling, swearing, screaming, fighting, breaking bottles, singing, taxis beeping horns, etc. There are also apartments right across the street, which seem to be the (temporary?) homes of some of the night club patrons. After they get home, they like to sit on their balconies and sing, scream, yell, fight, etc. If you like to sleep, this is not the place for you.

A 3 day stop over in Melbourne was spent at the Cosmopolitan in Melbour St Kilda. On arrival I thought uh-oh bad choice but, its nicer on the inside than out!

Checki n was quick and easy in a large recpetion area. Our cosmo delux rooms was in the same block of the hotel (B block) and consisted of a large(ish) room with walk in shower. A nice desk ran the length of one wall and a wall mounted LCD tv provided entertainment. The room was clean and tidy and had everyhting we needed. A nice touch was all the guides to the local area.

Other facilities included a restaunrant, internet pc, and a small laundry.

Location was central to St Kilda beach and the hotel is close to a tram stop, and indeed trams pass right outside (between 6am and midnight) and cause some noise. journey from Melbourne central was about 30-35mintues.

I stayed at this hotel on NYE. The rooms are tiny and cramped, but that was ok. But, when I left the next day, I found that I had more than 60 BED BUG bites, mostly on my shoulders and back. I didn't know what they were but I was pretty freaked out! I work at a hospital, so when I went back to work the nurses were so horrified at how bad the bites looked (I also had massive bites on my face and neck which were very visible - and extremely embarrassing) that one of them rang the hotel to inform them that I definitely had bed bug bites. Apparently the hotel needed me to ring them, which I did - the manager basically told me that they didn't find any bed bugs and pretty much dismissed me as a liar - what great service! I was so worried about the bites that I went to see my doctor, who confirmed that they were, in actual fact, bed bug bites (if you're not sure check out the website:http://medent.usyd.edu.au/bedbug/). Don't stay at this hotel -they obviously don't care about their customers and their service is not what you would expect from a 4.5 star hotel.

Decent enough apartment hotel in centre of St Kilda, close to that suburb's trendy bars and restaurants but some way out of the centre of Melbourne. Rather tedious tram ride into town.
I booked a studio apartment which covered all the basics but that was about it. It was beginning to show its age.
The staff, though, were very helpful and always ready to assist.
I got a studio at the rear of the building. Given the noise and activity of Acland St I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be on the front.
Melbourne, though, was great.