The Cullen

The cheeseburger was exquisite!!! Perfectly grilled beef, a great choice of cheeses and a suitable stack.

The Cullen is a lovely, modern, boutique hotel. Very comfy beds, huge room with a kitchenette and a good shower! Art Series hotels don’t disappoint and this one is no exception.
Excellent spot — you can wander to Prahran market and it is less than 5 mins walk to Chapel St — so easy access to restaurants, cafes, shopping & bars.
Only disappointments were that Wifi was not included and my room service tray wasn’t removed from my room all day (was from breakfast — forgot to put it outside).
Tops hotel overall and would love to stay again; highly recommend.
Stayed October 2014, travelled on business.

Outstanding hotel in an outstanding area.
From the moment you walk in this hotel grabs your attention with its art and décor.
It’s modern funky interior continues into their rooms.
I was lucky enough to get a room upgrade to a large suite. The room is self contained including fridge, hot plate and convection microwave. There are also 2 supermarkets (Coles and Woolworths) within a couple of minutes walk and markets too.
Great little welcoming touches like s hand written note and a little bag of lollies!
There is room service from the bistro attached to the hotel but there is also an amazing array of cafes etc around the hotel.
This is definitely a must stay and my new favourite spot to stay!

Good location, clean and spacious room with a funky décor. Within walking distance to shops (chapel st), restaurants and bars. Would definitely stay here again

Ugh. Reserved 2 nights in one of their penthouses. Feeling disappointed. First of all, I can’t believe they charge for wifi access despite the cost for the room itself. Also every time the door closes in the room behind my bedroom, my headboard shakes violently. Last night, the folks who stayed next door partied all night and I heard everything. Walls seem paper thin.

I’ve stayed in many hotels in Melbourne and this one is certainly up there as one of the best.
The artwork is fantastic, I love the bright vibe around the hotel. The rooms are super stylish, clean and equipped with a super awesome mini bar and the best bathroom toiletries I have ever come across at a hotel. The staff are lovely and not in your face.
The location is perfect, right next to Chapel street. I can’t rave on enough about the ridiculously comfortable bed we slept in. I would recommend this place to stay in a mili second. Definite thumbs up from me.

Stayed for 1 night, lovely boutique hotel. Rooms really nice! Great Location! Super comfy bed and very friendly staff! Nice breakfast options available downstairs also!

Even though I live in Melbourne, I’ve had reason to visit The Cullen on many occasion. Friends and colleagues stay here regularly, and parties held in the penthouse are always fun. What’s so great about it?
— The mini bar is really well put together. They have chocolate coated old school lollies like strawberries and cream, pineapples and choc babies. The booze selection is great and the tea selection is varied and interesting.
— The beds and linen are super comfy.
— The robes are soft and you’ll never want to take them off.
— The toiletries are divine. Steal them.
— Staff are super helpful and there’s none of the fussy/​stuffy attitudes that you get with big hotels.
— With loads of shops, cafes and restaruants nearby (including the market over the road) it’s really well placed for leisure.

Upon entering you can tell immediately this is part of The Art Series Hotel Group. Original paintings and prints inspired by Adam Cullen are scattered across each floor and every room. This place is a party for your eyes. I loved it.
My room was huge and my bed was super comfy. I had a few showers with Ned Kelly.
Great tea selection, modern appliances and awesome salon downstairs :)
I tried to blowdry my hair in the room but the hair dryer overheated. They brought me another one and it happened again. Then it happened again. And again.
In Prahran so great for shopping and close to restaurants.
I’ll be back soon with my hair dryer!

Writing this review from the perspective of an album launch in the penthouse suite. The location itself is very easy to get to. We headed straight up to the penthouse suite and the views were pretty awesome. Could see right out over Melbourne, and had quite a lot of space out on the balcony.
Would definately come back to check this arthouse series hotel out. The cow in the foyer was rad!!!

This was recommended by a colleague and I’m quite pleased with the hotel and its staff. It’s a very cool and progressive place to stay. The décor is very modern and the accommodations are very nice. The location is pretty good and as noted in other reviews, the beds are amazing. The staff has been very friendly and accommodating — overall I’d highly recommend to others.

I can’t fault this hotel. The bed was comfortable, the room was silent as well as being huge. The fact it comes with a kitchen meant we were able to cook in the room one night, taking advantage of Prahran Market over the road (if you’re interested, we got two chicken breasts, two portions of fresh linguine and a tomato sauce all of which we were able to cook with just one fry pan and a saucepan).
The staff were super friendly and helpful. I dream of staying here again when visit Melbourne next time.

I just had the most solid night’s sleep in memory. From the second I hit that pillow to the moment my phone went off and scared the bageebuzz out of me, I was out. These beds are SO SO SO comfy. Must have. Apparently this is a common occurrence, so it’s lucky that you can actually buy the beds from here.
My partner works in hotels (disclaimer: currently this group so I won’t comment on anything but amenities to avoid any nepotism) so we stay around the place quite a bit. The stay here was so immensely enjoyable and I think I really underestimated the kind of impact the artwork would have on how I felt about the place. The Art Series has soul. The kind of soul you don’t often get from a hotel.
With HuTong downstairs (DUMPLINGS!) and the Prahran Market across the road (Market Lane coffee), this is a great spot for a stay in Melbourne out of the CBD… and I’m buying one of those beds!

Best bed in Melbourne.

A stay at the Cullen was a birthday present to myself on my last most recent visit to Melbourne in early January. I’d been wanting to stay at one of the Art Series Hotels since I’d first heard of them, and the Cullen is the perfect spot to pull up stumps when you want to explore Chapel Street and surrounds.
I mentioned my birthday when booking (just in case, you know?) and the payoff was worth it, in the form of an upgrade to a street art suite (Smokey Mills) and a lovely little welcome gift. The room was stunning, the bed was insanely comfortable, and the bath had a spa setting, so after I’d spent a good fifteen minutes checking out every corner of the suite, I decided I never wanted to leave.
The Cullen has a bunch of awesome pluses: as a guest, you can hire a bicycle or a smart car to zip around. When they’re not in use, they’re stationed out the front of the hotel, basically doing jazz hands at you every time you walk past them. «USE US!», they cry. One day in particular would have been perfect for bike riding, but sadly when I enquired about them, they were out of action. Display purposes only. Well, Cullen, now you’re just rubbing my face in it. Ouch!
The in-​room wi-​fi is cheap compared to a lot of hotels in the area (come on Australia, isn’t it standard free hotel wi-​fi time yet?) and I highly recommend becoming a Priority Guest Rewards member for an even further discount and other bonus things. Also, it’s easy not to trust the decency of a lot of hotel restaurants, but Gramercy Bistro goes above and beyond the standard «hotel restaurant» call. Well worth visiting.

This is a great hotel in a slightly less traveled (by tourists and business people) part of Melbourne. Of course, some of your more parochial Melburnians simply do not travel south of the Yarra. Full stop. Nice rooms with extra touches of both comfort and design to satisfy the needs of the long and short term traveler. Service was top drawer as well, with the exception of knowledge of the local area — many questions requiring specific local knowledge required internet lookup and/​or apologies. The coffee from the on-​site café is available in a handy take away window and is up to the exceedingly high general Melbourne standard. Breakfast in the café was very good but also rather expensive for the neighbourhood. A short walk over to the local market is always an excellent dining alternative and the rooms are set up for a bit of in-​room storage and food prep if desired. If you can get this hotel at a reasonable discount and are prepared to use public transport I think you’ll be quite pleased.

Plush room with great linens, well-​appointed bath, and even a fully-​kitted-​out kitchenette, complete with pots, pans, dishes, refrigerator, two-​burner stove, sink, and dishwasher. I had not planned to self-​cater but ended up using it with some groceries from the Prahran Market across the street.
Gym on the sixth floor is minimal — a couple of treadmills, an elliptical, a bike, and some free weights. I had hoped for something a little bigger. But it had flloor-​to-​ceiling windows that opened onto a deck for some city views and fresh air.
Wireless requires a fee, which I hope all hotels will abandon in the near future. $ 9.95 per day, or (if you’re just checking email before going off for the day in the city) $ 3 for one hour.
The art, by Adam Cullen, is pretty amazing and is everywhere in the hotel. Sadly, my favorite painting (of Ned Kelly, hanging in one of the elevators) is not one of the ones they offer for purchase as a print. Though I think even the prints are out of my price range.
If you stay at the Cullen, make sure to visit Greville Street (left out of the hotel door onto Grattan, two or so blocks down to Greville) — charming shops and some good cafes.
Getting into the city center is easy — 72 tram toward Melbourne U going in, 72 tram toward Camberwell coming back.

Hip and arty, this hotel is soaking, seeping and splashing around in cool factor. Luckily, all that cool the Cullen is swimming in didn’t drown out the all important aspects of what actually makes a great hotel room — this one ticked all the boxes with a super comfortable bed, great shower and bath products, comfortable towels, a well stocked mini-​kitchen complete with hobs and a sink, and a massive flat screen tv. (Channel selection untested…) The mini bar vitamins were a bit of a fun touch.
The lack of free wifi did put a dent in the star rating, but if you’re willing to cough up $ 9.95/day for wireless, the speed was great enough for me to have an uninterrupted Skype video chat with London and the login exceptionally easy.
A bit off the beaten CBD path, but Prahran is back b*tches, so get on it. (I actually have no idea what that means. But I did find the area completely charming. The fact that it was next door to Market Lane Coffee helped immensely.)

Recently, I was lucky enough to win a free night in one of the Cullen’s studio sweets. I’m a big fan of staying at hotels in general, but this place is next level. It’s the perfect mix of flashy and comfortable. And with Adam Cullen’s artwork showcased all over the hotel, including original pieces in each room, there’s a real sense of exclusivity to the place that isn’t reflected in the pricing.
My room was super plush, with all of the trimmings that you would hope for (including a big flat screen TV, wifi, king-​size bed, and a view of the city). The bed, particularly, was insanely comfortable — like sleeping on a big white cloud.
The only questionable design element was the frosted glass wall that separates the bathroom and shower from the open plan bedroom/​lounge/​kitchen. From the photos on the website, I’m pretty sure that’s a design element that’s only in the studio sweets, so I’d imaging the other rooms have actual walls. I don’t think anyone wants to be seen, even in frosted silhouette form, in the toilet. Or maybe that’s sexy now?
In any case, the entire experience was fun and relaxing and I’d definitely recommend the place if you’re planning on booking a stay in the area in the future.