The welcome
The receptionist spots the taxi pull up outside, scuttles down the stairs, greets me by name and carries my case up. There’s an overriding sweet, caramel-ish smell in the lobby – for reasons that will soon become apparent – and the reception desk appears to be a cart pulled by a life size wireframe horse. The somewhat surreal air is added to by the big candy jars that new check-ins are welcome to tuck into as their keys are cut.
The neighbourhood
The Adelphi is in the heart of the most engaging quarter of Melbourne’s city centre. Many of the best casual laneway restaurants are with a few minutes’ walk, as are the best examples of the city’s street art. Also just around the corner is Federation Square, Melbourne’s thoroughly engaging hub of museums, cultural centres, eye-popping architecture and ever more eccentric mini-festivals.
The room
Perkily playful décor – zig-zag carpets, twin basins with the look of a metal horse trough – is complimented by a trail of cute little touches. On the mirror, “Enjoy your stay Mr Whitley” is written in lipstick. Beneath is a fridge full of free soft drinks and a big glass jar of gratis popcorn, jelly beans, Ferrero Rocher and other assorted snacks. On the edge of the bathtub is a little box of tricks – salts, bath fizz and the like. The sense of fun shines through without ever descending into honking wackiness.
The scene
This was Melbourne’s first self-styled boutique hotel, but its owners ran out of money last year. New owners gave it an energetic revamp. There’s a young feel, and judging by fellow guests it seems to have great appeal for city-breakers who want to throw themselves into Melbourne’s cultural and foodie scenes.
There’s a dividing line between relaxed hip and try-hard cool chasing, and the Adelphi falls on the right side of that line.
The service
As is the Australian way, interactions with staff are unobsequious – it’s human-to-human conversations rather than ingratiating servility. So when the receptionist asks what I’ve been up to, it’s out of genuine interest and in the hope of being able to make helpful recommendations. It’s somewhere to share a joke about taxis rather than be fawned over.
The food
The downstairs restaurant – Ezard – veers towards Asian-influenced fine dining. But the twist at the new Adelphi is Om Nom, a dedicated dessert bar. That’s where the sweet smell wafting over reception comes from, and it’s an exercise in willpower-abandoning decadence. The chocolate soufflé with mandarin marmalade, lime sorbet and a milk foam palate-cleanser for 22 Australian dollars (Dh71) is thunderingly good.
Loved
One aspect kept from the original Adelphi is the 25-metre-long rooftop pool. It’s essentially one lane only, but the legendary gimmick is the far end, which overhangs onto Flinders Lane. Not a swim for the acrophobic.
Hated
Turndown service didn’t include the blinds being pulled down to block light out at night, which rather seems to defeat the purpose of having it in the first place.
The verdict
Melbourne is brimming with fun and energy, but its hotels don’t tend to reflect this. The new-look Adelphi is a welcome exception to this perplexing rule. It opts to throw things in rather than going for needlessly penny-pinching (something sadly common with Australian hotels), and does so with hugely engaging panache.
The bottom line
King rooms start at 260 Australian dollars (Dh840) a night, including tax but excluding breakfast (187 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, www.adelphi.com.au, 0061 3 8080 8888).
weekend@thenational.ae
Follow us @TravelNational
Follow us on Facebook for discussions, entertainment, reviews, wellness and news.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20The%20Cloud%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20George%20Karam%20and%20Kamil%20Rogalinski%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hub71%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Food%20technology%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20size%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%2B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Middle%20East%20Venture%20Partners%2C%20Olayan%20Financing%2C%20Rua%20Growth%20Fund%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Tenet
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Rating: 5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
PSL FINAL
Multan Sultans v Peshawar Zalmi
8pm, Thursday
Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
