To continue on my theme for this trip of using redemptions for hotel stays, I chose the InterContinental in Melbourne for our one night stay. I originally booked this using a free night voucher from the Barclaycard credit card, but cancelled and used 55,000 points for this instead because the InterContinental Hong Kong was charging 60,000 points our third night.

The hotel is well located for the station and airport bus, albeit in a slightly more business area, meaning that it is pretty quiet at the weekend in terms of cafes and bars. The building is an old warehouse and office block which has been very well renovated into the hotel, with rooms on either side and a large atrium in the middle where the bar and restaurant are on the ground floor.

Whilst a night on points books into the lowest category, we were upgraded to a slightly more upmarket room because of my Ambassador status, and offered a free drink (or 600 points) for being Spire. I took the drinks, and we got the most expensive cocktail on the house, and then points posted anyway, so that’s a win!

The room was on the 9th Floor, dedicated to Ambassador members, just below the gym and the pool on the 10th.

It has a decent sized desk.

A very comfortable bed.

And a Nespresso machine.

The hotel served its purpose – we were just in Melbourne for 24 hours, so needed a place to crash, and were able to do that here. Whilst it was not the poshest room that we have stayed in, it is perhaps redemptions like this that I love the most. Getting a room that would be at least £100 for no a single penny is what this is all about!