An honest review of The Adnate Hotel, Perth

The Art Series hotels are some of my favourite hotels in Melbourne, so on my recent trip to Perth I decided to try out the newly opened Art Series – The Adnate.

Each hotel in the collection is inspired by and dedicated to a contemporary Australian artist, from John Olsen to Tommy Watson. Each hotel takes design inspiration from its namesake artist, and so each hotel is uniquely different. There are original artworks adorning the halls, and each is located in a hot suburb, near trendy and exciting urban adventures.

In Perth, the hotel is named for street artist Matt Adnate, and I’ve been a fan of his multicultural portraiture for a long time. Adnate is probably most known for the outdoor portraiture seen on grain silos in Victoria’s Grampians area. The Adnate Hotel in Perth even features an east-west facing ‘mega mural’, one of the world’s largest, an original, monumental artwork spanning 25 storeys done by Matt Adnate himself.

Inside, the 250-room hotel is colourful and soulful, the lobby is welcoming and well designed, while the outdoor pool and adjoining restaurant and bar are decked out in a fun Caribbean style making the most of the Perth indoor-outdoor lifestyle.

The rooms are spacious and light-filled, with city views, some even have views directly over the pool. Each room features photography prints of Adnate’s work, boutique interiors and the thing I was most excited for – the Art Series Signature king-sized bed. When I stayed at The Cullen in Melbourne, I fell in love with this bed. Sadly, the beds in Perth did not meet my standards! I’m not convinced The Adnate are using the same Signature beds, it certainly felt like any other 4-5 star hotel bed.

The Art Series Hotels are usually a boutique stay, typically a small hotel with unique and luxuriously designed spaces. The Adnate didn’t quite meet my expectations across all aspects. It falls down in comparison to other Art Series properties I’ve stayed at, and the service was severely lacking.

If the pool is open from a specific time, there should be pool towels available for guest use. If you’re going to have poolside service, then glasses and plates should be cleared regularly so when I come inside to order a glass of wine, you don’t have to tell me to wait until there are some clean glasses. When housekeeping comes to clean my room, I expect that the deep window sills will be dusted – they clearly had not been for some weeks! And most importantly, in a hotel that does not offer room service, I should not be tripping over trays of dirty plates in the hallway on my way out of the hotel in the morning, and on my return in the afternoon.

Final verdict

All up, The Adnate is a lovely hotel. The rooms are well appointed, and mostly clean. The service is slow, the staff are a little disinterested and the pool is in cold shade most of the day – but the location is great.

Would I stay again? Absolutely. For the location alone I would recommend this hotel, the service of one bartender doesn’t negate that. I do wish they would look into the bed situation though!