Luxury 170-room international hotel unveiled for the Yarra Valley

The Yarra Valley, one of Australia's most popular wine regions, is set to get a new luxury hotel. 

Entrepreneur Martyn Barnes has signed a management agreement to badge his new Yarra Valley property as voco, the IHG group's new upscale brand.

The voco Yarra Valley bills itself as "the first globally-branded, upscale hotel in the Yarra Valley, creating a destination for guests who are looking to eat, sleep and everything in between".

The 170-room new-build hotel and will feature an on-site gin distillery, a lavender farm, mirrored maze, an amphitheatre cut from natural ground and a providore that serves and sells local Yarra Valley produce. 

It will also feature large conference and meeting facilities, a gym, bars that draw on the best of their surroundings, an on-site family restaurant and kids' entertainment facilities. 

The building itself will be a quirky design that will stand out to anyone passing by, rising to six storeys at one end and tapering to one storey at the opposite end, and will also include 20 cabins for an intimate Yarra Valley experience

Martyn Barnes, Managing Director at Barnes Capital, said: “As one of Australia's premier wine regions, the last thing people want when they arrive in Yarra Valley is a vanilla experience. That's why voco is the perfect fit, giving business and leisure guests a great, globally-branded, upscale hotel that guests can depend on, but that's different enough to be fun.”

The hotel will be situated at the gateway to the Yarra Valley on the Maroondah Highway, less than an hour's drive from Melbourne's CBD. 

Beyond wineries, the Yarra Valley also offers walking trails at Dandenong Ranges National Park, the Tarrawarra Museum of Art, the Healesville Sanctuary animal attraction, as well as skydiving and hot air ballooning. 

IHG currently has 48 hotels operating under four brands in Australasia, including: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, with another 22 in the pipeline, including properties under the Indigo and voco brands.