Check in: This new-look Melbourne hotel is an absolute stunner

A theatre district landmark delivers luxury trappings without the price tag.

The opening of the Bryson Centre was big news in early 1970s Melbourne - a "city within a city" that incorporated restaurants, office space, a Jaguar showroom, 600-seat cinema, and a 292-room hotel. In the 1980s Rydges posted its shingle on the high-rise landmark, which over the decades became a mainstay for regional visitors to the city. Now, following a complete renovation unveiled last year, the new-look Rydges Melbourne is the flagship property of the Australian-owned group, and rightly so. It's a stunner.

For those travelling to Melbourne for a show, you could put a blindfold on and do an easy pin the tail on a theatre from this key CBD location. It's across the road from Her Majesty's Theatre with the Princess and Regent theatres close by, too. Chinatown is on the doorstep, plus retro classics such as Pellegrini's Espresso Bar, serving coffee and pasta on Bourke Street since 1954.

Fans of modernist postwar architecture will swoon over the heritage-protected exterior. To admire it fully, you need to cross the road and look up, the tower soaring 23 storeys in its brick, glass and concrete glory - textures that inspired the design team indoors, where colours of Australia are the order of the day across the vast yet cosy lobby, event spaces and guest rooms: think rusty ochres and eucalypt greens and many shades of stone and timber. Curves abound, too, in the furniture and interior architecture.

There are 370, including 310 king rooms, 35 suites and 25 apartments. My overnight stay in the open-plan latter is hardly long enough - it's the sort of set-up that makes you want to spend a whole day inside, just to enjoy all the trappings - a deep standalone bathtub in an alcove in the bedroom; a living area of curvy, covetous furniture; a mini-bar of Australian wines and nibbles; a kitchenette with an island-style bench and bar stools; and an interactive 55-inch wall-mounted tele via which you can order room service (it's quick! My chicken and avocado ciabatta club sandwich takes 20 minutes), call for help with any in-room issue that might arise; or take your pick from a generous selection of free flicks.

The schmick, moodily lit Bossley Bar and Restaurant, led by executive head chef Paul Griffiths, is as much for the local after-work and pre-show crowds as hotel guests (although breakfast - including a buffet of hot brekkie staples as well as pastries, cereals and Asian morsels such as kimchi and edamame - is guests only). Come dinner time, Victorian produce features across the seasonal menu of raw dishes and charcuterie, small and large plates, and prime cuts of 28-day-aged steak cooked on the grill.

There's a state-of-the-art fitness studio if you must, and post-redo the rooftop pool - proclaimed Melbourne's highest back in 1972 - is big on candy-striped Californian vibes. You could even take yourself on a tour of the artworks created exclusively for the hotel - like the lobby's eye-catching Black Billabong, a work in wool by Melbourne fibre artist Zetta Kantas.

This hotel does not declare (nor price) itself as five-star or even luxury, but it feels like it, from the Rydges DreamBeds to the signature scent to the service - while check-in and -out can be done via self-service kiosk, friendly staff are at hand to help carry your bags to the cab.

Where: Rydges Melbourne, 186 Exhibition Street, Melbourne

How much: Standard room rates from $255 a night

Explore more: rydges.com

The writer was a guest of Rydges.