Victoria’s Yarra Valley will welcome its first globally-branded, upscale hotel in 2021 with InterContinental Hotels Group today revealing plans for a new low-rise, 170-room property in the popular tourist destination.
voco Yarra Valley will be the second signing for the brand in Australia after IHG unveiled the new upscale hotel brand earlier this year, with its debut property being Brisbane’s Watermark Hotel & Spa, set to relaunch under the voco branding later this year.
Entrepreneur Martyn Barnes has inked the management contract with IHG to badge his new Yarra Valley property as ‘voco’. The funky design of the new-build hotel will be set among a lavender farm, rising six storeys at one end and tapering to one storey at the opposite end. There will also be 20 cabins enabling guests the opportunity to share an intimate Yarra Valley experience.
Victoria’s Yarra Valley has built a reputation as one Australia’s leading wine regions.
voco Yarra Valley will offer a “different mindset and an informal attitude; it will be a place that guests want to relax and enjoy themselves in – whether it’s a quiet morning coffee, or kicking off a great evening,” IHG said.
The hotel will offer an on-site gin distillery, mirrored maze, an amphitheatre cut from natural ground and a provedore that serves and sells local Yarra Valley produce. It will also feature large conference and meeting facilities, a gym, bars that draw on the best of their surroundings, and an on-site family restaurant and kids’ entertainment facilities making it perfect for weekday MICE travellers, weekend leisure guests and families alike.
Abhijay Sandilya, IHG’s Senior Director of Development – Australasia, said: “voco delivers a guest experience that stands out, with touches of charm and memorable, distinctive and dependable hallmarks, so we can’t think of a better partner for this new hotel than Martyn Barnes.”
“The signing of voco Yarra Valley continues IHG’s ambition to take our brands into regional markets, including suburban micro-markets close to Australian capital cities.”
IHG Senior Director of Deployment, Australasia, Abhijay Sandilya
Martyn Barnes, Managing Director at Barnes Capital, said: “As one of Australia’s premier wine regions, the last thing people want when they arrive in Yarra Valley is a vanilla experience. That’s why voco is the perfect fit, giving business and leisure guests a great, globally-branded, upscale hotel that guests can depend on, but that’s different enough to be fun.”
voco Yarra Valley is the second partnership between Barnes and IHG, with the parties recently announcing plans to work together on the opening of the out-of-the-box design Holiday Inn Melbourne, Coburg in 2020.
Barnes hinted that further projects with InterContinental Hotels Group could be in the pipeline, saying “Watch this space, because we have more to come”.