The unlikely location of Sydney's newest five-star hotel
If booking a place to stay in Parramatta on a trip to Sydney doesn't seem luxurious to you, just give it a few years. Top international hotels are flooding the city ahead of the opening of the new Western Sydney Airport, hoping to cash in on lucrative cabin-crew contracts and a new batch of global travellers.
On Thursday, Marriott Hotels will announce plans to open a 279-bed five-star hotel in Parramatta's CBD by 2027, joining the InterContinental and QT hotels in developing high-end accommodation in the area.
The Sydney Marriott Hotel Parramatta will occupy an under-construction building on Church Street, erected by local developer JGZ, that was initially planned as a fully residential block.
But the experience of other hotel operators in the region provides a stark warning for entrants in the market: Hilton announced in 2018 it would open in Parramatta, but no development applications were ever lodged (Hilton did not respond to questions by deadline). And the Intercontinental, announced in 2021, is in construction limbo amid ongoing talks with Sydney Metro about building works on top of one of its Metro West tunnels.
'Parramatta has been a strategic priority for us for many years and we've been waiting for the right opportunity,' said Richard Crawford, the vice president of hotel development for Marriott International in Australia and New Zealand. 'Parramatta is the second CBD of Sydney, if you like, and it's underrepresented [for hotels]. There's not a lot of great supply.'
Despite that, current western Sydney hotels are only about 75 per cent full – worse than before COVID, said Glen Boultwood, a boutique hotel investor. He told the Parramatta Lord Mayor Business Forum this week that the new airport, due to open to passenger flights by late 2026, would help drive tourists and business travellers to the area but that alone wouldn't be enough.
'Everyone's heard the saying, 'Build it and they will come'. Unfortunately for hotels, that's just not the case. Most people don't realise that hotels are demand takers, not demand makers.'
But the airport will bring planes, which will bring hundreds of cabin crew in need of a place to stay. Hoteliers will soon begin jostling to win their contracts.
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