Diamant in the Rough

A boutique hotel opens in Sydney's former red-light district

October 12, 2007—Somehow Sydney managed to dodge the global boutique hotel boom for a full ten years. (Blame—or credit—the glut of new properties that were constructed, like Marion Jones' thigh muscles, in the run-up to the 2000 Olympics.) The just-opened 77-room Diamant—the city's first new boutique hotel in nearly a decade—is worth the wait, however. Located, as the best new hotels are, in a gentrifying former red-light district, the property has huge, well-designed rooms featuring the requisite plasma TVs, iPod docks, and fancy grooming products (by the Vidal Sassoon of Oz, stylist Kevin Murphy), with prices that start at a Schrager-shaming $205 American. Expect to pay more for one of the soon-to-open suites, which boast roomy outdoor terraces with killer views, especially if you opt for one facing the harbor.

The property is part of the Eight Hotels group, which plans to open an 80-room Diamant in scene-deficient Canberra this February. "We're going all out with some of the best architects and designers, and it's set in an old heritage building with an amazing history," says company CEO Paul Fischmann. "We'd love to go overseas next year, and we're talking to a developer in London." Just as long as it's done in time for the 2012 games.

Diamant Hotel, 14 King's Cross Rd., Potts Point; 61-2-9295-8888, eighthotels.com