New hotel brand plans to focus on Sydney city fringes

Sydney is set to welcome a new boutique hotel brand with big plans. 

Veriu Hotels and Suites will unveil a 64-room serviced apartment hotel, Veriu Broadway, in April this year, with four more properties due to open under the same brand by the end of 2018.

Veriu Broadway is an $18 million conversion of a former warehouse space offering self-contained studios, each over 40 square metres, and one- and two-bedroom split-level apartments. 

Located close to the International Convention Centre, the hotel will provide 24-hour reception with staff trained as local area guides plus on-site food and beverage in keeping with the precinct’s contemporary café and bar offerings.  

Veriu Hotels is the brainchild of property and hospitality specialists Alex Thorpe and Rhys Williams. 

Having successfully developed a long-stay accommodation business, Furnished Property, in 2002, Thorpe and Williams have now moved into the hotel space to create a portfolio of hotels with a diverse mix of heritage and new developments, all located in Sydney city fringe locations.

"We have been providing long-stay-style self-contained accommodation for 16 years under Furnished Property, where we developed a passion for sharing 'local'," says Williams.

"We created Veriu because we saw no reason why a hotel brand can't provide that authentic local experience backed up by traditional hotel services, excellent customer service and attention to detail in rooms.”

Veriu Broadway will be the marquee hotel for the brand following its first foray into the market with the successful opening of Veriu Camperdown – a new-build all-suite hotel which opened in March, 2016.

"Camperdown was our first test and it was amazing to bring the brand to life in such a vibrant area. You only need to look at places like Deus Cafe and Camperdown Commons to see what local business can deliver and we want accommodation to be a part of this,” says Williams.

The current network is complemented by a pipeline of hotel developments to take place under the Veriu brand by the end of 2018, including: Veriu Randwick (35 rooms) opening April 2017, Veriu Central (110 rooms) opening early 2018 and Veriu Green Square (142 rooms) opening late 2018.

Veriu will specialise in operating sites with 20-120 rooms in CBD and city fringe areas with capacity to go larger if the location is right.

In celebration of individuality, Veriu says its hotels will all have its own with its own distinct personality and style.

"We have seen Sydney emerge as a city of villages and we want to share the uniqueness of Sydney's diversity through the Veriu brand in areas like Camperdown, Broadway, Green Square and Surry Hills," says Thorpe. "These villages really excite us for the leisure market but equally corporates want these bespoke experiences."

With an authentic local experiences paramount to the Veriu ethos, guests will also receive complimentary drinks and snacks from local area operators and local artists are also engaged to incorporate designs based on the genuine character of the building and neighbourhood.

"Beyond this, we want our guests to move freely through our properties so we have developed a unique concept called "Veriu Connect"," says Williams.  "This allows any Veriu guest to drop into one of our other locations, flash a room card and have a complimentary locally sourced drink and ask the concierge about the best places to explore."

Guests will be able to discover their surroundings with use of the hotel’s complimentary ‘explorer bicycles’ – a service that will be offered in all future Veriu hotels.  Other complimentary offerings common to all Veriu properties include a welcome drink, wifi and in-room tunes via Smart TV technology.