We considered St. Kilda one of the high points of our Australia/New Zealand trip. The shops, the restaurants and the people were all fabulous.
Our travel agent had tried to book a major hotel but the town was full and there was no room at any of the inns - almost. She suggested a small B&B in St. Kilda just a couple of blocks off the main drag. We arrived there late after 14 days in New Zealand, tired and with suitcases full of dirty clothing. We asked whether we could use the washer and were told no. Our hosts insisted on taking our laundry at around 9 pm at night and had it waiting for us, clean and folder, before breakfast. There was no charge for this.
The breakfasts were wonderful. After our second night I explained that I needed to pick up a rental car for a drive into Adelaide planned for the next day and asked for directions back to the B&B. The owner said that because several streets were closed getting back would be difficult. So she drove us to the rental office some 10 to 15 minutes away, waited for us to get the car and had us follow her back.
St. Kilda is great and if you are going to spend time there I recommend that you check out the Fountain Terrace at 28 Mary Street. We stayed in the Melba suite.
The hosts are Penny and Heikki Minkkinen. Check them and the Fountain Terrace out at
http://www.fountainterrace.com.au/.
I rarely recommend places to stay but this place and St. Kilda were magical for us. We spent the next two weeks exploring Australia and stayed in some super resorts, but nothing topped the warm welcome and comfort of the Fountain Terrace.
Overall, we thought our Australia and New Zealand trip to be the best we ever experienced. And we got business class tickets on Qantas for only 90,000 miles each. Guess that tells you that the trip was a few years ago -- March of 2002 to be exact. So I cannot vouch for how things are today but would bet that they have only gotten better.