The Lyall Hotel and Spa

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.

This was our 3rd stay at The Lyall in 18 months. We LOVE The Lyall it's like being in a Giorgio Armani cocoon wrapped in cashmere. Couldn't recommend it more. It's just lovely sitting on the terrace with a pot of tea or a drink. On cold days in the beautiful living room common area. I've gone solo once, family (3 rooms) and just as a couple and couldn't be more comfortable regardless.

Fabulous stay. We are locals but needed somewhere to stay for a couple of nights. Could not have chosen better. Great location near Toorak Road. A drink on the terrace late afternoon was great. All Lyall team were exception.

Absolutely the cleanest and most relaxing business trip experience. I highly recommend The Lyall South Yarra for the discerning businessman or woman who appreciates attention to detail and superior customer service.