Ovolo South Yarra: A rock ’n’ roll hotel in the heart of Melbourne

Rock stars and hotels don’t often mix well in musical urban mythology. Just googling Keith Moon or Led Zeppelin and “hotel rooms” is enough to prove the point. So it’s a bold move by Ovolo, the Hong Kong-based boutique-hotel group that has rapidly grown its Australian portfolio over the past decade, to design some of its suites around the concept of “living the life of a rock star”. 

Visitors can book into a small number of suites offering lounges designed in the style of musicians such as John Lennon, Freddie Mercury or AC/DC. (The INXS suite in the Sydney hotel feels like an odd choice given how Michael Hutchence died.)

At first glance, Ovolo South Yarra – one of two in Melbourne, with the other “laneways” location situated more centrally – sits somewhere between achingly trendy and knowingly kitsch. A distinctive hotel with a lot of personality, it’s already proved popular with staycationing Victorians and people keen for a crash pad during the Grand Prix or Australian Open. Its location in a restaurant and shopping district, on the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street, makes it an ideal spot for those looking to do a “Chap Lap” (local slang for aimlessly cruising one of Melbourne’s livelier neighbourhoods). And it’s also a good hotspot for tourists, as Chapel Street is brimming with hip restaurants, bars, designer shops and fashion outlets.

The Ovolo foyer is a wash of colour as warm orange paint and walls festooned with pop art and retro objects compete for attention. My parents, who married in the 1970s when orange was all the rage, once painted their fridge a bright orange colour to liven up their flat. I half expected to see it here.

A large neon open-pit-fire art installation acts as the centrepiece and is one of the first things you see after walking up a narrow corridor alongside the street-side restaurant. David Bowie and Debbie Harry stare down at you in the lobby for the lifts. The check-in counter is decorated with lava lamps, roller skates and musical paraphernalia. There is a free sweet counter plus friendly staff will hand you drink vouchers for the bar if you booked directly through the hotel.

Music is played loudly and constantly in the public areas in keeping with the idea that this is a less formal hotel than larger chains, though the playlist is a fairly safe selection of hits from the 1970s and 1980s. 

ROOMS

The atmosphere upstairs where the rooms are located feels slightly different. Service rooms are labelled “Backstage: Groupies Only” to continue the rock-star theme, but the long, narrow, retro-style orange-carpeted corridors feel a bit more like the Overlook Hotel from The Shining in its deliberate attempt at decayed grandeur. Even the hand soap – Ovolo’s own brand – strikes a musical note: “Wash This Way”.

Rooms run the gamut in size, from the ultra-compact Snug, which is barely bigger than a double bed (a legacy of the original hostel design for the building), to the more spacious Rock Star suites. At the South Yarra outpost, the rock stars in question are John & Yoko and Sonny & Cher.

Despite feeling like a Lennon-style “bed-in” at the time, I ended up staying in the Sonny suite. The rooms open into an Austin Powers-style lounge complete with a rust-brown-coloured couch, cocktail bar, garish 1960s-style wallpaper and a moody portrait of the singer. More retro niceties abound: a welcome note written on a 12-inch vinyl record, and a small selection of albums (curiously none from Sonny and Cher) to play on an Audio Technica turntable. I showed my two daughters the retro suite to gauge their reaction to the clash of autumnal colours and bygone styles, but they mostly seemed interested in returning to the sweet counter in the foyer.

RESTAURANT

A popular vegan Latin American restaurant – Lona Misa – operating on the ground floor made the Ovolo outlet a destination for a certain type of foodie looking for fake-meat tostadas and seafood stews using prawns not made of prawns. That was until head chef Shannon Martinez departed and the restaurant was rebranded at the start of 2026 as Bar Yarra, specialising in decidedly un-vegetarian comfort food such as chicken schnitzels (“schnittys”, in local parlance), fish and chips, and beef burgers – with a quinoa salad kept on for those diners turning up who have been out of the loop. That seems to suit the laid-back nature of the hotel.

LOUNGE

There is also a lounge area in the basement with another bar (it was unfrequented when I stayed but would suit visiting groups wanting to carry on drinking), a games nook and booths set against the industrial concrete and exposed steel and piping on the ceiling. The space is busy both during the day with relaxed corporate meetings and in the evening with hotel guests. This hotel doesn’t have a pool but it does have a pool table. 

At a glance: Ovolo Melbourne, South Yarra

Good for: A laid-back, trendy setting

Not so good for: Those wanting space

Rooms: 123, including six suites

Address: 234 Toorak Road, South Yarra, VIC 3141

By Nic Fildes © 2026 The Financial Times.

This article originally appeared in The Financial Times.