The Olsen

We decided to stay for the weekend at the Olsen was amazing. I love the location as it's walking distance to some great cafe's, restaurants and the shopping on chapel street. The rooms always clean. The kitchen utensils are complete so you can have your meal brought back. The staff are always friendly and welcoming.

We are long time customers of The Olsen. We will never stay there again. We booked 2 rooms. There was no room in the car park. The rooms are tired. The phones had trouble working. Couldn’t get through to room service and reception were very unhelpful. There were no room service menus in the room or on the hotel info on the TV. The draws don’t open. Looked forward to a relaxing breakfast. It was freezing in the restaurant, service was slow, breakfast cold and we didn’t receive one out of four meals which was not noticed. The staff are friendly but not trained to a high enough level. We have had such great experiences in the past at The Olsen and the location is magnificent - it is such a shame to be so disappointed when our family trip accommodation is ruined and you are paying top dollar for a 5 star experience. Feeling robbed.

I wouldn't have bothered to write a review if it was not for an incident that had occurred. My partner and I left our hotel room at 1 pm and returned at 11 pm, only to find that house cleaning had left our room door wide open, with the doorstop, after they had finished cleaning. We have no idea how long our door was open for but we were gone for 10 hours, and had left our valuables inside our room. We had gone downstairs to notify the concierge, however, they did not seem apologetic. We were having a fine stay at the hotel, however, this experience has just left us disappointed.

Staff extremely unhelpful, very disorganised hotel. Multiple instances but the main one being I left a book and my expensive runners behind and on calling the hotel 10+ times no one could help me and kept saying they would call me back once they checked with house keeping but not one staff member called me back even when they promised after me explaining I had already called multiple times. Rooms are nice but so are all nice hotels in Melbourne, will be recommending myself and 6 colleagues stay elsewhere when in Melbourne from now on.

Unfortunately not worth what they are charging. Our room just looked and felt tired. The worse instance was one of the bedside tables, which held a heavy lamp, was broken and tilting forward. Worse still they had tried to repair it, poorly, meaning they knew it was broken. To top it all off the manager told us she was unable to monetarily compensate us because we booked through a third party. This is ridiculous as they choose to be on the third party booking site and we paid directly with them.

Pros: great location, friendly staff (especially in the restaurant), clean lobby, happy hour 5-6pm at the bar (a great place to start a night in Melbourne!), the beautiful art everywhere

Cons: room felt cramped, no hot water in shower on last morning, key stopped working randomly and had to get a new one, lifts took a long time (appreciate though this last one might be harder because of covid / social distancing and probably not the hotel’s fault!). Didn’t feel like a 5 star hotel experience all up.

I have stayed at other Art Series when I’ve visited Melbourne before and enjoyed previously, however found my room at the Olsen was small and felt a little cramped (in particular the bathroom). My friends who booked the same type room as me (and booked direct with the hotel) were on higher floors and had more spacious rooms with views - whereas I had booked with Qantas and had a smaller room on a low floor with neighbouring apartments looking directly into the room.

5 Star hotel, $300 a night for a basic room and not a single thing in the mini bar, we were told there were menus in the room m when there weren’t, we had to then order menus to the room just to get some food, you have to even request your room to be cleaned! This is not 5 star. Not to mention the room is pretty shabby.

And it was all put down to “Covid”.

We stayed at the prince in St Kilda a few weeks back (4 star) and that was far better than this. Have also stayed in other 5 star hotels recently all with mini bars and other normal amenities in the room.

The whole experience has a motel feel to it. Big disappointment.

Also - manager did absolutely nothing for us when we discussed it with him.

I booked at the Olsen to celebrate valentines with my girlfriend. The photo’s looked nice and the rooms spacious. Unfortunately, either they were outdated or photoshopped as the room we were given and the hotel itself looked nothing like what we were offered.
When we got into bed, we first noticed that the duvet “cover”, was just a duvet sandwiched between two flat sheets. On closer inspection of the sheets themselves, there were numerous dirty spots. The hotel seems to like flat sheets, as the bottom bed sheet was a non-fitted flat sheet and slipping off the mattress. While this normally wouldn’t be a problem, the thick layer of dust on a corner of the mattress WAS. My girlfriend attempted to phone the receptionist about this, yet the phone in our room simply provided her with grating static. She went downstairs to discuss the issue, but he just stated, “that’s how it’s meant to be”. She showed him photos but there was no attempt to solve our problem.
While the room did include a bathroom and a kitchen, the bathroom was poorly stocked. Neither toothbrushes nor toothpaste were provided, and the toilet paper dissolved at first contact with liquid. For a 5-star hotel, in an expensive room, the TV came from an era where one paid 17 dollars to watch a movie on a low-quality, poorly positioned “flat” screen. In 2021 it seems insane that a hotel still doesn’t have some form of streaming service available (i.e, Netflix or otherwise). Not to mention the selection of adult movies available for a high price, which was amusing but also pointed to the quality of the hotel.
Needing to escape our room briefly, we decided to brave the pool area. The pool itself was lovely, however the difference between it and the sunroof was night and day. The sunroof was hideously dirty, there was stains all over the concrete and the chairs appeared as though they’d never been cleaned.
At this point, we just wanted to be back home. However, our wistful attempts at trying to sleep were periodically interrupted by bizarre and worrying noises from inside our room and in the hallway.
I also requested a room with a view and was instead greeted by the confronting construction site directly opposite. This led to us having the blinds closed the whole time so we could imagine that we were in a nicer hotel. If you’re looking for a 5 star hotel, I would keep doing so, as I’ve stayed in nicer motels. Unless you’re planning to exclusively dine at the Spoonbill, whose omelet was fantastic.

Horrific! Our bed broke and was on an angle. They never came to fix even after we requested. So we had to prop it up with books ‍️ No fixture was properly attached and it looked like the room has been trashed by a drug fuelled rock star and their posse. The staff were at first very apologetic, promised a complementary night which was never followed through. Not that we'd ever waste our time or money again. Catching Covid was the least of my worries in that filth!

Friendly staff and clean rooms. Services were quite slow, overall a bit worn out for a 5 star hotel.

Gorgeous hotel in a great location. Room has everything you want (full sized fridge, cutlery, stov and microwave, etc). Big room and well laid out bathroom. Bed was comfortable and the room was very clean. The restaurant downstairs looked good but we had already booked our breakfasts and dinner reservations for our stay in Melbourne.

Parking would have been expensive ($32 self park or $40 valet), but on the weekends there are a few spots just outside the hotel which are free all weekend. Also Wilson parking jam factory has 24 hour parking for $18 for one entry and one exit all weekend as well.

The room was beautifully presented. Rosie from the front desk went above and beyond to make our stay memorable. Breakfast was good. Looking forward to coming back.

The attitude of the staff is nothing short of disgraceful. Everything is an issue and a hassle. Stupidly, i gave the hotel a 2nd chance. Try elsewhere, an IBIS would give you better service.

Always a pleasure staying at the Olsen. Great food, nice staff and comfy rooms. Breakfast in spoonbill is great and for a sweet treat try birch and purchase a few doors down. Also the spa is if you have the time. Enjoy

Clean room. Tv didn’t work in first room and was offered a second room after calling reception, had to call several times to be answered. Bed did not have a doona cover only a sheet on top which seemed unhygienic. Location is excellent however quality for price is questionable.

Nicely located to Melbourne's central hipster district. Awesome pool and access to gym. There's also a laundry incase you in for a longer stay. Servohas been great!

Sir i am uber driver.l i was got fine beacuse no parking space for car in hotel driway.sorry sir look after as ur area parking officer very happy to give ticket to drivers

Good location in South Yarra. Staff friendly and efficient. For a hotel of this standard the furniture in our room was in need of some maintenance which was a little disappointing.

Hotel is very quiet, rooms are nice and tidy and smell good.staff is friendly and always there to help. I had just one night stay so I can not say anything about room service.would be good if they had sockets with usb.i had to plug in my phone into tv socket:)

I visited a friend tday and had a swim but the pool area waa filthy and not once did i see someone come and check thr water.dirty towels werent taken away the walls in pool were dirty