Location & Classification

The Westin Hotel is located at 111 Mary Street in Brisbane CBD, a short 10 mins walk to the Queen Street Mall, Brisbane’s premier retail and shopping precinct.

The hotel is classified as Marriott Category 4, with Cash prices starting from $200+. A standard reward room will set you back 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.

Arrival & Check-in

I arrived at the hotel around 2:30 pm and climbed a small flight of stairs to get to the reception, where I was promptly checked in. As hotel lobbies go, this one under-whelmed me.

The Westin Brisbane Check-In desks

The Room

After the efficient check-in, I proceeded to the lifts (of which there are 4) which were located opposite the front desk. I had been pre-allocated a standard King room, which upon a gentle prompting was upgraded to a standard suite, thanks to my Platinum elite status.

My suite 923 was on level 9. I like it that the newer hotels no longer require you to put the key-card in the slot to open the doors, or turn the power-on in the room.

The Westin Brisbane Contactless key-card

As I entered my room, to the left was a 2 tier luggage rack, followed by a set of extra-large wardrobe. The robes had ample space for all the clothes you could hang. It also had an electronic safe to store the valuables. I almost always have a chuckle seeing this and wondering what is it exactly that people store in these safe’s in this age of cards and digital wallets.

The Westin Brisbane luggage rack and wardrobe

The bathroom was located in the Centre. It was a standard bathroom with a single sink laid on a marble top. There was a wooden shelf under the sink, split into 3 sections containing towels, a hair-dryer and other items of personal grooming. The toiletries were from Elemis.

The Westin Brisbane bathroom

The Westin Brisbane bathroom storage shelf

The Westin Brisbane toiletries

The central part of the bathroom had a walk-in shower. I was happy to see that it had the standard shower head as well as the monsoon rain shower head (my preferred). I would have liked to see the monsoon rain shower-head hung from the ceiling though. You may call it nit-picking but in my experience, it adds to the showering experience. The water pressure and temperature control were excellent.

The Westin Brisbane walk-in shower

The bath amenities were from ‘heavenly by Westin’, which is a brand used by several Westin Hotels around the world.

The Westin Brisbane bath amenities

The toilet was located opposite the sink.

The Westin Brisbane toilet

There was no bath-tub.

To the left of the bathroom was the living room. It had a 2 seater sofa (can easily fit 3 adults), a centre table, a tub chair and ottoman. There was a giant flat screen television on 1 corner of the room.

The Westin Brisbane Living Room seating

The Westin Brisbane TV

To the right of the TV was a 3 seater dining table.

The Westin Brisbane 3 seater dining table

The kitchenette was located on the other end of the living room. It was buffet style, with a double door, standard size refrigerator, a nespresso coffee-maker from DeLonghi, a fruit bowl and a small sink, all resting on a marble counter top.

The Westin Brisbane kitchenette

There was ample cabinet storage space above and below the bench, with enough plates and cutlery to feed a small family. The one item missing though was a microwave. Given how much else the hotel has packed-in here, I can only assume this was nothing more than a oversight, one that it may address soon.

The Westin Brisbane Cutlery

The bedroom was located directly opposite the living room. It was decent size (not enormous by any means). It had a king bed, with the trademark offering of ‘Westin pillow menu’. The bed was placed flush by the wall and as such, didn’t need a bed-head.

The Westin Brisbane King bed

There were 2 bedside tables, 1 on each end. The light controls were located above the bedsides. There was no universal power sockets, although there were 2 USB ports which could be utilised to keep your gadgets primed.

A flat screen television was glued on the wall opposite the bed. There was a small buffet, with 4 chest of drawers under the TV. The room also contained a day-bed, which was nice to have.

The Westin Brisbane Bedroom sitting area

There were no views to speak off, all the floor-to-ceiling windows opened up on other high-rises.

Dining

The hotel has 2 restaurants. Breakfast was served at a restaurant called ‘The Eden’s Table’, located on Lvl 1.

At the check-in, the staff advised me that the Club Lounge (more on it later) was not presently open for breakfast and that Platinum elites also had access to the Level 1 restaurant, thus providing a much wider range of breakfast items, rather than the Continental brekky. That was pleasing.

Although technically, Platinum elites and above are only entitled to Continental breakfast, its great when hotels go out of the way and serve full breakfast. The little extra cost incurred is far outweighed by the positive impression this leaves on their guests and goes a long way in ensuring repeat business.

The restaurant was L shaped, had plenty of seatings, and catered for everyone, from couples, families to large business delegations.

Breakfast is served at The Eden’s Table

The main buffet station was in the centre of the restaurant where you could order eggs, cooked your way. The rest of the breakfast was the standard affair which you expect at any decent hotel. There were fresh fruit platters, cold-cuts, hot foods, bread and cereals and so-on. I will let the pictures talk for themselves.

The Westin Brisbane Buffet station

The Westin Brisbane Buffet Breakfast

The Westin Brisbane Buffet Breakfast

The Westin Brisbane Buffet Breakfast

The Westin Brisbane Buffet Breakfast

The Westin Brisbane Buffet Breakfast

There was no coffee machine, rather, tea and barista made coffee were served on table, which was really nice.

The other restaurant located on Ground level and overlooking Mary Street goes by the name ‘The Charles‘. It is a cafe-by-the-day before transforming into a jazz-inspired lounge bar with live music and serves expertly crafted cocktails, once the sun goes down.

The Charles Westin Brisbane

In-Room Dining

The hotel has a reasonable room service menu. On my 1st night, still a little fatigued from the travel and hot weather, I decided to stay-in and order room service. This is what I ordered.

Pumpkin soup from in-room dining menu

The pumpkin soup was delicious, though oddly enough, it was not accompanied with a piece of toast 🙄.

Here is some more of the menu.

The Westin Brisbane In-Room dining menu

The Westin Brisbane In-Room dining menu

Club Lounge

The ‘Westin Club’ is located on Lvl 3. Guests staying in Club rooms and above have access to the lounge. Marriott Bonvoy Platinum elite guests and above also receive complimentary access to the lounge.

The lounge is good sized. The main sitting area is a long’ ish, reasonably wide space. There was seating for nearly every conceivable group size.

The Westin Brisbane Lounge seating

The Westin Brisbane Lounge seating

Complimentary drinks and canapés are served between 5-7 pm each day. I found the food and drinks offering to be stock standard. There were 3 hot food items on both days I attended. You can make up your own minds whether this was a sufficient dinner substitute or not.

Here are pictures of Hors d’oeuvre served on one of the days I attended the service.

The Westin Brisbane Lounge Hors d’oeuvre

The Westin Brisbane Lounge Hors d’oeuvre

The Westin Brisbane Lounge Hors d’oeuvre

And here are the drinks.

The Westin Brisbane Lounge Drinks

On one corner, there was a self service coffee machine and some munchies.

The Westin Brisbane Lounge Coffee Machine

I thought the lounge offering was sufficient, if somewhat limited.

Other Hotel Amenities

The hotel has a pool and a gym located on Lvl 2. It also houses the ‘Heavenly by Westin spa’ on Lvl 3.

I am not much of a spa person, but for those interested, here is the menu.

The Westin Brisbane Spa Menu

The Westin Brisbane Spa Menu

The Westin Brisbane Spa Menu

The pool was on Lvl 2 and was stunning. It was huge and came equipped with a swim-up bar. There were stacks of day beds spread right around the pool perimeter.

The Westin Brisbane Pool

The Westin Brisbane Swim-up bar

Set back further from the pool were these gorgeous circular beds with cushions of various shapes and sizes.

The bed was accessorised with a handy circular table-top, no doubt, to rest those jugs of Sangria, pina-colada’s or whet ever else you fancy.🥂🍸🍷

The Westin Brisbane Pool Day-bed

On the other end of the pool deck, there was a giant chess-board and a row of 4 poster-beds.

The Westin Brisbane Pool deck

To me, the pool and the pool deck was outstanding and one of the defining features of the hotel that set it apart from other CBD based hotels.

The gym was located on the same level. It was on the smaller side, but had all the basic equipments to get you enough exercise out of them.

The Westin Brisbane Gym

The Westin Brisbane Gym

In Conclusion

The Westin Brisbane is a brand new hotel (opened Dec 2018) and is a welcome addition to the Brisbane CBD market, which appears to be over-supplied presently.

There are 2 other Marriott Group hotels within a 1 km radius (W and Four Points), the latter being right next door. As a Platinum elite guest, I was impressed with its location, excellent status recognition and generally good service.

So the big question is, would I stay here again?

I would probably stay at the ‘W’ on my next visit to the city, but only because I am always trying out something different.

With the prices being around the $200 mark and along with everything else detailed above, The Westin Brisbane provides a solid option to the business and leisure travelers alike and deserves to be in their consideration.

Have you stayed at The Westin Brisbane? How was the experience? Leave a comment below.