Melbourne hotel celebrates 125 years

Melbourne’s landmark Hotel Windsor opened on December 18, 1883 – the first of the great international series of renowned nineteenth-century grand hotels that included The Raffles, Singapore (1887), The Savoy, London (1889), The Plaza, New York (1894), The Waldorf-Astoria, New York (1894) and the Hotel Ritz, Paris (1898).

Guests arriving at the hotel 125 years ago could expect to pay a rate equivalent to 50 Australian cents per night for a double room, including breakfast, and would have enjoyed a stay at a property which could boast the latest international innovations, fine dining, and sumptuous drawing, reading and billiard rooms.

Now, to celebrate this historic anniversary, The Hotel Windsor is offering rooms at 1883 prices – 50 Australian cents for a double room and 25 cents for a traditional single room, breakfast included.

The unprecedented opportunity is open for the first 25 people to book a room through the hotel’s website – thehotelwindsor.com.au – from 9 am (Australian Eastern Summer time) on the anniversary date, December 18, 2008. The one-night-only rate is valid for one month from the date of booking and is subject to availability. The rate is not applicable to New Year’s Eve.

“This is obviously a truly unique opportunity to stay at the historic Hotel Windsor for virtually no cost,” The Hotel Windsor CEO and general manager David Perry said. “We’re delighted we can share our anniversary in this way and we’re expecting a significant response not just from people in Melbourne but from around Australia and overseas.

“Today’s guests enjoy a markedly different hotel from 125 years ago, but some things remain very much the same, including our famous hospitality and focus on personal service, our emphasis on fine food and wine and, of course, the magnificent Victorian architecture evident in the hotel’s exterior and in the lobby and ground floor areas such as the Grand Ballroom.”

Indeed, a guest arriving at The Hotel Windsor in 1883 would have admired the same arched arcades and windows, lace-work balconies and the central towers and cupolas. Inside, the reception area and the central grand staircase would also look somewhat familiar to visitors more than a century apart, along with the elegant entrances to the bar, restaurant and grand ballroom.

But the similarities end there. The 1883 guest certainly enjoyed the latest technologies available at that time: an electric call-bell in the guest room, steam-heating and a goods lift operated by a gas engine that could transport the large and heavy luggage of the day.

However, the hotel itself had only 94 guest-rooms and, as it was a time long before a bathroom came with every bedroom as a matter of course, each floor had separate share bathrooms for men and women. There were also a number of parlours and drawing rooms on each floor, as well as smoking rooms, and a comfortable “ladies writing and reading room”. Dinner was available in the Grand Dining Room, now reconfigured to the elegant Winston Room, for one shilling and six pence – less than five cents in today’s prices.

Expansion and renovation over the years means The Hotel Windsor now features 180 guest-rooms, including 20 suites, the fine-dining 111 Spring Street Restaurant, a choice of private rooms and venues for functions, and the popular Cricketers Bar. Over its 125 years it has enjoyed a guest-list roll-call of the rich and famous, the politically influential and families from Melbourne and around Victoria simply wanting a special venue for a wedding or anniversary celebration.

The hotel also continues to win a range of industry awards. It has recently been named one of Victoria’s top three hotels in the 2008 HotelClub Awards, based on a poll of 70,000 consumers and has been regularly listed in the best Australia hotel categories in the Condé Nast Traveller and Luxury Travel Gold Lists.

For more information, log on to thehotelwindsor.com.au.