HOTEL REVIEW – Accor Hotels Formule One Hotel – Melbourne (Tullamarine) Airport

I have been to the Formulae One Hotel at Melbourne (Tullamarine) Airport once before and was reasonably impressed with its location and cleanliness.  One must remember though that this chain of Accor Hotels is very much for the traveller or the budget concious, and for the fairly cheap price for a room each night there are very limited facilities available.

That said the Formule One Melbourne Airport is a stones throw away from a McDonalds Restaurant, as well as a service station with shelves full of food and drinks and other grocery items.

And, of course, the Hotel is about a 10 minute walk to the Melbourne Airport terminal building.  It should also be pointed out that despite being 'an Airport Hotel', the Formule One doesn't actually have an Airport view!

As mentioned in the other reviews of Formule One Hotels, the room is small – probably smaller than the other Formule One Hotels I've stayed at – in fact the ‘bathroom’ is merely a shower and toilet in a ‘cupboard’, with a wash basin in the corner of the sleeping area – as shown below.  This was a bit awkward for my 189cm frame!

The bed is quite comfy – although care must be taken not to bump one’s head on the overhead bunk!  The room does feature air conditioning and a nice little flat screen television.  The room I was in this time was also quite clean.

Car parking is free, and a continental  breakfast is available at the Hotel each morning for a small charge.

One last feature to mention is that the Formule One Melbourne Airport now offers free wi-fi Internet to all guests – what a welcome addition to the facilities!

In all, I do enjoy staying at the Formule One chain of Accor Hotels.  Granted there aren’t many facilities, but for the price and location, it allows me as a plane spotter to have a nice spotting holiday close to the airport, as well as food and drink places.

UPDATED HOTEL REVIEW – Accor Hotels Formule One Hotel – Sydney Airport

This recent plane spotting trip was for a weekend - 2 nights all up - unfortunately it came with a lot of bad weather in Sydney. I flew with Virgin Blue and a Trip Report can be found HERE.

I again stayed near the Airport at the Formula 1 Hotel (read a previous Review HERE), and again requested a room on the 6th floor. I was given room 632 - which is in the new wing of the hotel - and at the end of the corridor which has the large window that overlooks the NSW Air Ambulance and the General Aviation apron as shown below.

The room itself didn't have the best views of the airport due to the fire escape staircase being right outside and next to this room - this was disappointing. I could only see the GA Apron - as can be seen in the picture below - and the nearby fast food outlets.

I am thinking that Room 633 which is opposite 632 could be a much better room where a lot more action would be seen.

The hotel was very busy during this weekend stay - the reception desk is open 24-hours a day - and from what I could see and experienced, the staff were very patient and handled everyone (including me) in a very friendly and helpful way.

Facilities at the Hotel are basic – it is officially a 2-star hotel – and their market is for transit passengers who need a bed for a day or a night. The room is small – mine is pictured below – this room features only double bed with a closet style bathroom/toilet, which unfortunately floods when guests take showers. There is also a small TV and desk and chair. The windows are double glazed and keep out the aircraft noise! On-site parking is available for a fee.

Breakfast is available daily in a sitting area on the ground floor of the hotel, and vending machines also provide ample selection of food and drinks for other times of the day. There are also nearby fast food outlets which also offer in-store free wireless internet connections!

Overall, for the enthusiast, this hotel is perfect for a one or two night stay, at most. For a longer stay near the airport, there are other airport hotels nearby that range from three-star to five-star. These offer better facilities, and some enthusiasts report that views of the airport are comparable to the Formula One Hotel.

HOTEL REVIEW – Accor Hotels Formule One Hotel – Sydney Airport

During a couple of recent plane spotting trips to Sydney, my wife and I stayed at Formula One Hotel which is located at Sydney Airport. During our most recent trip in June 2010, we requested and were given a room on the top level (six) of the building, and overlooking the Airport.

Incidentally, we flew with Virgin Blue, and a Trip Report can be found HERE.

The hotel staff have always been very friendly and understanding of this request – they indicated to me that they do have a lot of enthusiasts as guests. Incidentally, the reception is open 24 hours a day.

The hotel itself has always had good views over the General Aviation area of the airport, but these have been enhanced with the recent opening the hotel’s new accommodation wing. Several new rooms were added – and the walkway to the end of the Southern end of the rooms now provides even better views over the corporate jet parking area of the GA apron – see photo below.


There are also distant views over to the main Runway 16R/34L, and fantastic views of all aircraft and departing from the smaller parallel runway 16L/34R.

Facilities at the Hotel are basic – it is officially a 2-star hotel – and their market is for transit passengers who need a bed for a day or a night. The room is small – ours is pictured below – double bed and bunk bed with a closet style bathroom/toilet, which unfortunately floods when guests take showers. There is also a small TV and desk and chair. The windows are double glazed and keep out the aircraft noise!


On-site parking is available for a fee.

Breakfast is available daily in a sitting area on the ground floor of the hotel, and vending machines also provide ample selection of food and drinks for other times of the day. There are also nearby fast food outlets which also offer in-store free wireless internet connections!

Overall, for the enthusiast, this hotel is perfect for a one or two night stay, at most. For a longer stay near the airport, there are other airport hotels nearby that range from three-star to five-star. These offer better facilities, and some enthusiasts report that views of the airport are comparable to the Formula One.

HOTEL REVIEW – Accor Hotels Formule One Hotel – Perth Airport

I stayed at the Formula One Hotel Perth Airport once before and thought it was okay. I have also stayed nearby at a little more expensive motel, but decided to save and go with the cheaper Formula One again in January 2010. After this last time though, I will never stay there again!

I flew in with Virgin Blue in the early evening - a Trip Report can be found HERE - and picked up my hire car and drove to the Hotel where parking is free and there is ample room to find a carpark.

On the previous occasion, I arrived into Perth about 9pm to find the reception closed – there is no 24 hour reception here! There is a machine outside the locked door that, with a swipe of the credit card used to prepay the booking, you are issued with your room key which will also access the building.

I arrived earlier this time and found reception still open, so received my room key from the girl behind the counter.

The problem came when I entered the room – there was a fairly strong odour – like a public toilet – and much to my surprise an automatic room deodoriser that sprayed air freshener every couple of minutes – essentially I felt like I was staying in a public toilet!

I also found that the window in the room did not seal properly, and being in the middle of a hot dry Summer (January), the draft that came in through the unsealed window was quite warm and meant the air conditioning didn’t really have much effect on the room (pictured below). To make matters even worse, the TV could not be used properly as the remote control batteries were dead, and the buttons on the TV are almost inaccessible due to the security measures used by this Hotel chain in their rooms.


Reception couldn’t or didn’t want to help – I was told there were no other rooms available – the hotel was full – this was probably the truth as these hotels are usually pretty busy. The girl couldn’t even find batteries for the remote control!!

Overall, I was not impressed. I had the feeling the room had not been used for a while and had been badly soiled by a previous guest. While appearing to be clean, the room did have a strong odour about it, and as mentioned some facilities were not up to scratch.