The Lyall Hotel and Spa

We stayed at the boutique Lyall hotel last weekend which was the first weekend of the Australian Open so I had booked the hotel earlier in the rate to lock in a reasonable rate. A really bad mixup from the hotel who had called me early on Saturday morning as I was arriving from Hong Kong. I rang back 10 times no answer, got to the hotel and discovered the receptionist had switched the incoming calls off! Olivia was there to resolve the situation, took our bags and parked the car as valet parking is the only option at $60. The hotel is ideally located in Sth Yarr near train and tram transport and plenty of great restaurants along Torrak Rd, however there is quite a lot of noise from highly powered cars in Toorak Rd and the nearby station with trains constantly tooting their horns! Also there were a few ordinary people along Toorak Rd late at night! I would request a room on the north side of the hotel. Breakfast and drinks sitting out on the terrace was very good watching the locals go by as a lot seem to eat at the restaurant for breakfast and brunch. Our room had a small balcony and was very comfortable altough not big enough to fit 2 large suitcases so Olivia arranged to have them stored. It's a lovely hotel if only for the noise issues which aren't the fault of the hotel. Thanks again to Olivia for her excellent service for 2 very tired guests.

Fantastic location, lovely, friendly, helpful staff, good value, would recommend to anyone. Rooms are clean and well presented. Great little coffee shop opposite, ask for Jen

A quality hotel with comfortable, well-equipped rooms, very helpful staff, and great food and drink options. Nice quiet street but close to everything you need in South Yarra

Excellent hotel, huge rooms, right near South Yarra station. Lovely decor. Breakfast available til 2pm. Beautiful outlook onto some internal gardens.

I so wanted to love this hotel (beautiful, wonderful location, boutique) but I was, unfortunately, extremely disappointed. I booked the Domain Suite (the largest suite) for my wedding day about 1 year ahead of my wedding. The suite is huge and I was excited to use it as a space to get ready with my mother, bridesmaids and hair and makeup artists. Only 1 week before my wedding day, I was told that the hotel’s policy is that only 2 people can be in a room at any one time, at any time of day. “Building code” was cited as the reason (I seriously doubt that there is a building code with this restriction…). In any event, this policy is not on the hotel’s website (from what I could see), and was not communicated to me in good time before my wedding day. In the circumstances, and to address my frustration and concern, the hotel offered to increase the limit to 4 people and give me another room at the hotel for the day so that the bridal party could spread out. Although this was far from ideal (it defeated the real objective, which was to get ready together), I agreed. However, on the morning of my wedding, the hotel staff “had no record of this arrangement”, and informed us that the room limit was 2 people. We spent significant time over the course of the morning of my wedding negotiating with the hotel staff in an effort to relay the previous arrangement. Eventually, the staff accepted that this offer had previously been made. Suffice to say, this was extremely stressful to deal with on the morning of my wedding and it was unprofessional for hotel management to fail to communicate the arrangement to staff who were on shift on the day. To make matters worse, during my stay, 2 additional, unauthorised amounts were charged to my credit card: one unauthorised charge was $2,800!! I called immediately following each charge to ask what was going on. The response was that these were likely mistakes and would be investigated. Both charges were ultimately reversed but this was, again, highly unprofessional and, frankly, unacceptable for a 5 star hotel. This hotel has so much potential but, unfortunately, has serious shortcomings. I certainly would not recommend it for weddings.