Accommodation Australia recently revealed that at June 30 it was tracking 45 hotel construction and planning projects in Victoria and 30 per cent of them – 14 developments – were in regional towns. Brands in various stages of the development pipeline include Crowne Plaza, Quest, TRYP and voco. There are regional event spaces and meeting rooms in the mix too.
One Melbourne developer, Veriu Group, who own the Punthill brand that started as one small hotel in suburban South Yarra, announced last week that it would open Punthill Shepparton in late 2026, its first regional hotel.
At its launch Veriu Group CEO, Zed Sanjana, said Shepparton had historically been undersupplied in quality accommodation, however the state government has forecast the agricultural and food processing city will add 5,400 new jobs by 2027, rising to 18,450 by 2034.
Punthill’s 145-key apartment style hotel will include “comprehensive conference and meeting facilities” and will occupy a prime site on Shepparton’s main street near its Art Museum and urban renewal precinct.
Geelong, Victoria’s largest regional city, has also gained from net migration out of Melbourne and among new hotels being developed there is TRYP by Wyndham, described as an urban lifestyle hotel.
The Tryp property will be built in the Geelong suburb of Belmont and is scheduled to open in December 2026, offering 226 rooms plus meetings and event space.
At Inverloch in Gippsland, where the RACV recently announced an extension to its existing resort property, Wyndham is also due to open a 50 serviced apartment complex. The $35 million upper-midscale serviced apartment hotel is expected to open in June 2026 according to Accommodation Australia’s listing.
Meanwhile, popular Yarra Valley wine estate Levantine Hill is due to open its 33-room hotel designed by Fender Katsalidis architects later this year. It already has a range of conference and event space and the accommodation will enable residential corporate retreats.
Its existing spaces include a Pavilion for 100 in theatre and a boardroom for 12, and it offers an exclusive hire of the property for 500 guests. Incentive appeal is added by helicopter landing pads which are already well used by city-based business guests to the winery and gourmet restaurant.
Other new hotels noted by Accommodation Australia are in the construction or planning phase in regional Victorian towns including Ballarat, Bendigo, Bairnsdale, Geelong, the Grampians and Philip Island.
