Just thought I'll share my experience staying here recently.

W Melbourne has a Flinders Lane address and is located corner of Collins Street and William Street. It is within the Collins Arch development which is a mixed-use precinct comprising the hotel, residences and offices. Not a bad location but more towards the business end of of the CBD. This is a very new hotel and given how Australia was cut off from the world the past 2 years, it probably only saw international visitors recently. I booked the basic Cozy room and applied suite night award for the 4 nights stay. I checked in on a Monday and departed on the Friday and coupled with low occupancy the SNA cleared for a Fantastic Suite exactly 5 days before arrival.

The Fantastic Suite is listed as 65 sqm which is a comfortable size but more compact compared to other W properties I've stayed in, for example the W Brisbane's Fantastic Suite which is 80 sqm. It is a longish room layout and somewhat muted design if comparing to the usual loud and outlandish W's. I think given the hotel's location and height there's not much of a view for this property no matter the room type. This particular suite looks over Collins St and on one side the bedroom looks into the adjacent building's offices (remember to draw your curtains, I can see my own reflection and people having meetings).

Full sized MoMo products are given in the bathroom (RIP Bliss), and at the vanity they provide a separately branded cleansing cream, body cream and bar soap from Skin Regimen. Skin Regimen smells exactly the same as the sandalwood stuff found in Marriott properties - I think they are actually the same just branded different.

During my stay, most restaurants have reduced opening times e.g. Lollo closed for breakfast on most days except on weekends. Breakfast for Platinums and above is a AUD$36 credit to be used in Lollo (or Culprit, the cafe/bar in my case since Lollo isn't opened) for an ala carte selection. I found the credit to be sufficient for a main course (e.g. eggs done your way, toast and 2 sides) and a coffee or two. They did charge me by mistake for one of the day's breakfast and it is yet to be resolved.

Some overall good and bad of this property:

Good

• The front desk / Whatever/Whenever responds very quickly to requests via the Bonvoy app messenger.
• Living TV and Bedroom TV has Chromecast and you can easily cast from your phone
• Toilet bowl has a built in Toto Japanese electronic bidet, which is always nice

The bad:

• The room looks high tech but actually not comparable to say the W Kuala Lumpur or W Brisbane. All the touch screen controls seems fancy but they are actually very basic - limited lighting options, closing and opening curtains, turning on TV etc. The TV's annoyingly turns on by itself at 2AM each night!
• The rain shower has very weak water pressure.
• The bed felt uncomfortably soft for me, probably the softest bed I've ever encountered in any property.
• Denied a 4pm checkout but they did offer to move me to another room at 11am on the day of checkout. Reason is they needed time to get the suite ready for the day's check-in at 3pm.

Personally I don't feel like the W Melbourne is worth the rates it is charging. These are rates that are (probably) subdued given the current climate, yet even the Grand Hyatt is cheaper. I moved to the Westin Melbourne after this stay (my first time at this Westin) and I enjoyed it more. Although the Westin don't have true suites, even the base rooms are good sized and it just feels more polished, functional and in a nicer location. If comparing to the only other W property in Australia at the moment, the W Brisbane, I never felt the "wow" factor like I did at W Brisbane, for example when I entered the room for the first time and the curtains opened automatically to a view of the Brisbane River. I don't think I will choose to stay here again for future trips as all other 3 Marriott properties in the CBD (Marriott, Sheraton and Westin) has their own strengths over the W.