I stayed here with my Dad for three nights and we had a great time. We were on the 8th floor with a streetscape view - what you would expect for a Melbourne CBD location.

Our suite was spacious and the sofabed in the sitting room very comfortable. The bathroom had everything we needed and though trivial I must mention the hair conditioner, because it's rare to find one in a hotel that does its job. We didn't use all the facilities of the suite because we're not into self-catering, but it was handy to have a washer-drier in the bathroom instead of having to use an expensive hotel laundry. The only downside was that it did take us two nights to work out where we had gone wrong with the aircon. I recommend asking for help as soon as you have a problem!

Breakfast was good, and great value, and the brasserie also a very pleasant place to spend a couple of hours. As this is right in the heart of the business district, it can be hard to find somewhere to sit if you come in after a day's sightseeing just about the time local workers leave the office - this is a very popular venue. By 7pm though you'll be fine as the crowd thins out.

We were also caught out, as was a previous reviewer, by the Friday night private event. Pity we couldn't have had some notice of that from reception or via a note in the room.

I stayed two nights last week.

I had a room in the Heritage part and they are great. Quite large with a separated lounge and table. The small kitchen is handy too. Quite clean and newish. The bathroom was large and clean. Some stations were missing off the TV.

I would not bother with breakfast here. I started with their limited cereals and when I came back from the buffet my napkin and juice were gone. I get another napkin but the orange juice has run out and was not refilled in the time I was there. Consequently the other juices were also running out and not replaced. There were missing items from the buffet which were not replaced - I went back a second time thinking they would have been replenished. For the price you are better off going to restaurants or even other hotel buffets (I like the Stamford Plaza).

They made the sofa bed for some unknown reason but unmade it as soon as I called housekeeping.

Reading the previous reviews I was a bit wary of booking at the Sebel but with the other good reviews and looking at the photos I thought it was worth the risk. After 2 night stay I share the negatives but also agree with some of the positive comments.

Pros: 1) Location is fine. Convenient for anything central.
2) Building has great character but I would say that I have seen such buildings (especially in Europe) done up better than this. I would say the developers scrimped a bit with a net result being a bit gloomy in my view.
3)Beds are fine. General space is good, and bedroom part of the studio is perfectly OK in a modern, albeit a little bland style.

Cons: 1)I also got the second floor - Plaza building. Dark outlook over alley way and aircon units of next door building 4 metres away- buzzing away continually. I asked to be moved and got a second floor in the Heritage building - a little bit less gloomy overlooking another alleyway and a little bit less noisy, but bottles being thrown away by the restaurant and buzzing of aircon for next door building was a pretty marginal improvement. The hotel seemed quiet, so I agree with the observation of another reviewer that there seems to be resistance to moving one to a better room.
2) Aircon was crap. I turned it to lowest possible as it was a pretty stuffy room - and opening windows with alley noise was not ideal. Woke up at 3am hot with the air con having jumped 3 degrees (but real temp was about 3-4 higher) and it would not come down.
3) Bathroom - Ugly, dated and cheap, cheap cheap. Different designer, or were they being cheapskates on the bathroom - fittings are cheapest DIY available from the look.

OK - breakfast. OK, bit overpriced.
Restaurant - ate at the bistro. Again OK and for first night in a hotel, totally acceptable.

Overall. Unless you can guarantee a higher room, I would choose elsewhere. If you can get higher room and it is useful to have kitchenette and washing machine, it is an OK choice especially for centre.
I had stayed previous week at Grand Hyatt for $20 less per night -(I paid $235 through Wotif for Sebel) definitely better than that. Park Hyatt previous week was more than twice cost and while better it was not worth the difference. (Melbourne full - $532 was outrageous).

I stayed here with a friend in March 2006 and absolutely loved it. No matter what hotel I've stayed at though, there has always been something going wrong or something less than pleasing, but my stay at the Sebel was lovely and everyone was helpful. The only problem we had was the television not working, which didn't bother us but we got the front desk to fix it straight away. They sent up the concierge, who checked the tv over, then they sent up a maintenence man who replaced the tv. This took very little time, and all involved were lovely, helpful and polite.

The hotel itself is beautiful, and we loved exploring the many corridors and checking out the view. The view from the room was less than flash - a brick wall and carpark - but we stayed in the cheapest rooms, so that was expected. The more expensive rooms on the other side do have a view of the beautiful Albert Park Lake, so if a view is very important to you I'd suggest booking one of those rooms.

All in all, we had a great stay in Melbourne, made easier with the hotel being close to the tram stops. I'd recommomend this hotel to everyone wanting to stay somewhere clean, lovely, friendly and close to everything.