What's a good, cheap hotel in Melbourne, Australia?

August 29, 2008 3:40 PM

Looking for a cheap place to stay for a week in Melbourne, the cheapest that meets these criteria: (1) Hotel is 30 minutes or less from the CBD by public transport; (2) I can get a two-person room with its own shower; (3) I will not get stabbed or robbed there.

I don't want to eat breakfast or dinner at the hotel. I don't need a gym or bar or anything like that in the hotel. Just a room with a lock, two beds (or one double bed), and a shower.

Not looking to couchsurf or anything like that; we do have friends in Melbourne but for a variety of reasons we would prefer to just pay some money for a room we can come and go from as we please, without worrying about inconveniencing someone or offending their hospitality.

Meta-answers on how to find such a hotel would be great too. I tried to Google this but found only spammy aggregator sites and super-expensive fancy hotels in the city center. I'm really trying to avoid Googling "hotel +[area]" for each individual area of Melbourne I can think of that's 30 minutes or less from the CBD...

posted by No-sword to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

how much do you want to spend a night- that's probably the best qualifyier
posted by mattoxic at 5:21 PM on August 29, 2008

Using Wotif.com, and choosing max price per night of $120, I found a heap of CBD hotels / motels which would have own shower, and double bed. The travelling I've done through Queensland and NSW leads me to believe that you can't get a room, for under $100 per night, but there's some listed there.
posted by b33j at 5:49 PM on August 29, 2008

Wotif.com was what I used when I was there. I wound up staying at the Mayflower on Lonsdale which, despite my suggestion to NOT stay there on this photo was actually decent. It was very inexpensive, quite centrally located, and clean and average ans safe. It had a small kitchen if I recall correctly. That said, it was difficult to get the sort of room we wanted [three single beds] and that was the source of most of my frustration. It was also sort of noisy with no window curtains. So, if you're a relaxed traveler and want a no-frills place, look into this but for that money you might be able to find something a little less bare bones.
posted by jessamyn at 6:29 PM on August 29, 2008

mattoxic, I want to spend as little as possible, without sharing a shower or being murdered, as described in the requirements. Absolutely not interested in comfort or luxury. Just need a place to stash our bags and crash at night. (The reason I can't specify a particular maximum is because I don't know what's reasonable--the only traveling I've done in Australia before has been on someone else's dime or staying with friends/family.)
posted by No-sword at 9:47 PM on August 29, 2008

(p.s. thanks b33j and jessamyn--I'll give you your best answer props in a day or two, so as not to discourage other folks from hitting up the thread and adding suggestions.)
posted by No-sword at 9:48 PM on August 29, 2008

2nding wotif. I think you may find more rooms as the date approaches, so if you are feeling lucky keep checking until a week or two before.

Also you may want to check out youth hostels. They are basic, but clean and safe. This one has doubles with a bathroom for $100 a night and looks like it is in the middle of Melbourne.
posted by lrobertjones at 12:03 AM on August 30, 2008

As somebody who lives in Melbourne I'd say you can safely scrap the "stabbed or robbed" part of your question. This could, of course, have simply been a manner of speech, but from your follow-up comments on the standard of accommodation I'm inferring that it probably wasn't. You'd really have to go out of your way to get stabbed in Melbourne, and be incredibly unlucky or bereft of common sense to get robbed.

Have you been to Melbourne before? It covers a huge area, and some 3+ million people, so if, for example, you have friends that you are going to want to catch up with who live 30 minutes east of the city you probably want to avoid staying 30 minutes west.

Having never stayed in a hotel in Melbourne I can't answer your question directly. But I'd suggest you'll likely find much of the available accommodation is pretty close to the CBD, and unless you have good reason to avoid doing so I see no reason to stay any further out than 5 or 8km from the centre.
posted by puffmoike at 10:14 AM on August 30, 2008

Yeah, I grew up in Melbourne (but like you, I've never stayed in a hotel there). I was being melodramatic about the stabbing and robbing; I threw it in because I have heard some hairy stories from friends backpacking through the city and staying in the dirtiest of dirt-cheap accommodation.

Everyone I want to see in Melbourne lives clustered around the CBD, so it doesn't really matter what side I stay on. But it does seem like most of the accommodation is very close to the CBD as you say. I was hoping to find some cheaper options up Sydney Rd towards North Coburg, say, but I guess not.
posted by No-sword at 2:13 PM on August 30, 2008