In conversation: Tracy Atherton on why Australians are catching up to the rest of the world when it comes to hotels
RoundIn conversation: Tracy Atherton on why Australians are catching up to the rest of the world when it comes to hotels
18.11.2025
Tracy Atherton is a font of knowledge when it comes to the hotel world. She spent a decade working with Park Hyatt across London, Sydney and Melbourne, before spending another 10 years at Bali’s acclaimed Amankila resort.
Following this, she moved back to Australia to launch three major hotels in quick succession: Canberra’s Hotel Hotel, Jackalope on the Mornington Peninsula and our city’s own Melbourne Place.
Round: Over your career, have you witnessed more focus being placed on hospitality experiences in a hotel context?
Tracy: Absolutely. Australia is catching up with the rest of the world in terms of focussing on dining in hotels. Australians don’t really go out to dine at restaurants within a hotel, but if you’re in London or New York, you definitely would. I’ve been fortunate that at my past three properties – Hotel Hotel, Jackalope and Melbourne Place – there’s been a focus on dining. Especially in Canberra, at Hotel Hotel we had a really great restaurant called Monster. We invested in having a superb executive chef, and we specifically hired him from outside of the hotel world.
Round: Do you think there’s a cultural reluctance to embrace these experiences in Australia?
Tracy: It's tough to make money in food and beverage, so it's a risk for a developer or a brand to invest in restaurants. However, in lifestyle hotels, it’s super important to get dining right to attract the right clientele to come and stay. So, in some ways, I think it’s more of a risk not to invest.
Round: It seems as though we’re moving toward a model where it’s not the hotel that people are seeking as much as the ancillary experiences around the stay.
Tracy: Jackalope, which is an hour from the Melbourne CBD, is a destination in itself. Because we created two very different restaurants there – one fine dining and the other casual – we found that people were staying at the hotel just to dine at Doot Doot Doot.
Round: If we’re entering a period of cultural shift, where more and more hotel operators are adding these sorts of offerings, how can you remain memorable and distinct in a crowded landscape?
Tracy: An independent approach to creating a hotel allows you to be more unique. At Melbourne Place, it was very much about creating the hotel Melbourne wanted and needed. That was our motto. That meant working with local architects. All of our furniture was from Melbourne, too. Having these stories and offerings all help.
Compare that to other places where there’s nothing wrong with the brand name, but the brand standards are coming from Paris or Chicago, and that’s not really relevant to a local environment. If you walk into a hotel and they say ‘Bonjour’, then it’s not really Melbourne.
Round: How can you create experiences that really endure?
Tracy: All the touchpoints need to work together – and you need to keep them relevant. Understand that your guests might change over the years – and you’ll need to change to meet them.
Tracy Atherton
18.11.2025
Tracy Atherton
Tracy Atherton is a font of knowledge when it comes to the hotel world. She spent a decade working with Park Hyatt across London, Sydney and Melbourne, before spending another 10 years at Bali’s acclaimed Amankila resort.
Following this, she moved back to Australia to launch three major hotels in quick succession: Canberra’s Hotel Hotel, Jackalope on the Mornington Peninsula and our city’s own Melbourne Place.
Round: Over your career, have you witnessed more focus being placed on hospitality experiences in a hotel context?
Tracy: Absolutely. Australia is catching up with the rest of the world in terms of focussing on dining in hotels. Australians don’t really go out to dine at restaurants within a hotel, but if you’re in London or New York, you definitely would. I’ve been fortunate that at my past three properties – Hotel Hotel, Jackalope and Melbourne Place – there’s been a focus on dining. Especially in Canberra, at Hotel Hotel we had a really great restaurant called Monster. We invested in having a superb executive chef, and we specifically hired him from outside of the hotel world.
Round: Do you think there’s a cultural reluctance to embrace these experiences in Australia?
Tracy: It's tough to make money in food and beverage, so it's a risk for a developer or a brand to invest in restaurants. However, in lifestyle hotels, it’s super important to get dining right to attract the right clientele to come and stay. So, in some ways, I think it’s more of a risk not to invest.
Round: It seems as though we’re moving toward a model where it’s not the hotel that people are seeking as much as the ancillary experiences around the stay.
Tracy: Jackalope, which is an hour from the Melbourne CBD, is a destination in itself. Because we created two very different restaurants there – one fine dining and the other casual – we found that people were staying at the hotel just to dine at Doot Doot Doot.
Round: If we’re entering a period of cultural shift, where more and more hotel operators are adding these sorts of offerings, how can you remain memorable and distinct in a crowded landscape?
Tracy: An independent approach to creating a hotel allows you to be more unique. At Melbourne Place, it was very much about creating the hotel Melbourne wanted and needed. That was our motto. That meant working with local architects. All of our furniture was from Melbourne, too. Having these stories and offerings all help.
Compare that to other places where there’s nothing wrong with the brand name, but the brand standards are coming from Paris or Chicago, and that’s not really relevant to a local environment. If you walk into a hotel and they say ‘Bonjour’, then it’s not really Melbourne.
Round: How can you create experiences that really endure?
Tracy: All the touchpoints need to work together – and you need to keep them relevant. Understand that your guests might change over the years – and you’ll need to change to meet them.