I haven't stayed at both, but I did spend 8 days at The Lyall. It has a modern, yet homey feeling. The owners and family live on site and are very visible to guests and accessible. The staff at the hotel is young and enthusiastic. We were upgraded to a 2-bedroom suite and it was terrific! The suite was more like an apartment than a hotel with a full kitchen (sink, dishwasher, convection oven and refrigerator). There was also washer/drayer in one of the bathrooms.

It was a different hotel experience for us and quite enjoyable. We had the feeling we were living in Melbourne, rather than visiting and even cooked dinner for ourselves a few nights. We plan to stay there again our next trip.

The rooftop balcony was rather small, but was okay; nothing to brag about.

We weren't there for the spa experience, so I can't comment on that.

You are a bit away from the CBD, but the trolley cars run frequently and we didn't have any trouble negotiating ourselves around town.