Como The Treasury Perth: Why WA’s luxury hotel remains a masterclass in refinement

Let’s put this in simple terms — Como The Treasury is Australia’s best hotel.

Were it perched near a certain harbour or held within the “Parisian end” of a greying east coast CBD — well, the wider world would know its name.

As it stands, The Como (as it’s known locally) is a WA stand-out — a showcase of what can be achieved through a desire to elevate and do things differently.

This is a meticulous heritage restoration by Kerry Hill Architects, proof we can do more than craft and build with our eyes closed when it comes to hotel design and wider preservation (and it’s here we must also point to Sydney’s Capella).

The Como is all light and space and calm — designer touches that never need to shout about their worth or bespoke nature, and a level of staffing (attentive and knowledgeable) rarely found in this country.

Read the special edition of ROAM here.

ROAM recently ran back through the property, and by “ran back” we mean stayed a couple of nights, to check in on things 10 years on, The Como celebrated this anniversary last October.

It’s difficult to maintain and hold attraction a decade on (ask married types), but The Como manages to not skip a single beat across our time. This property, housed in Perth’s glorious State Buildings, never feels like “accommodation”, more like a beautifully orchestrated correction to modern life.

It starts at check-in — the offer of a cooling drink (alcohol, other) and the serene and calming tone of the concierge explaining the layout, how to find the spa, how the flowers across the property are changed every two months based on the Noongar seasons.

The rooms here are vast — genuinely large — because, again, they were built in an era before developers began carving hotel floors into shoeboxes with mood lighting.

To out the sheer size of ROAM’s Treasury King Room (“as large as a Treasury Suite” we’re told by the man of hushed tones) is to out the fact we may have, at one stage, hand-passed a Burley 20m across the main bedroom floor.

Perhaps it wasn’t 20m and maybe this actually never happened (it did — as to why we had a Burley with us, that’s a tale for another day), but the expanse here is confoundingly impressive, aligned to textures and palettes of calm (white, soft timbers, warming marbles) with an equally voluminous bathroom of freestanding bath, sweeping rainwater shower and separate toilet.

The light punches its way in across several windows and various skylights, with views across the lush greenery of the Supreme Court Gardens to the Swan River and whatever that silly Bell Tower is.

With the light comes a unique sense of silence that carries the entirety of the hotel. This is not the dead silence of a business hotel at an airport; rather, a cultivated hush that also has us involuntarily lowering our voices.

Take the one-hour Friday history tour (or don’t).

Opt for the self-guided art tour (yes, be sure to do that). Dine at the downstairs Italian of Post or step up to the rooftop fine-dining Wildflower. Or simply indulge in the calming and unique ways of a property that gifts Perth a sense of confidence.

Como The Treasury: 1 Cathedral Avenue, Perth

PRICE From $995 per night

THE INSIDER Grab a suite and spend the weekend (at least, a few nights). If not dining at Wildflower, then head up for a few drinks on the terrace, knowing there’s a heady snack menu.

While there is no on-site gym — there is a Shambhala spa offering exclusive treatments not found anywhere else globally — the hotel car will transfer guests to Kings Park’s Next Gen members-only health and lifestyle club. Played.

comohotels.com

Keep Things Close

A staycation is, despite certain naysayers yelling “cheap”, one of life’s great loopholes — all the smug serenity of travel without the cattle-yard misery of airports or the spiritual erosion of packing cubes. And might we suggest two more Perth properties to indulge for a restorative, or energised, weekend at home.

Hyde Perth

Avoiding Europe this NH summer? Head for The Hyde, a recently opened offering of cocktails and poolside lounging wrapped in Euro-inspired coastal designs. So too a downstairs diner, Farra, doing decent Med-led things. There’s a sense of fun and, equally, LA cool across the 132 designer rooms, this being a place loud enough to feel alive yet polished enough to avoid any sense of Gold Coast cosplay.

37 Pier Street, Perth; hydehotels.com

Owston Hotel

Fremantle is surely the ultimate staycation given most interstate interlopers hold it as a city separate from Perth.

Enter the recently opened Owston, a wonderfully restored heritage offer that proves the Australian boutique scene is starting to thankfully mature.

Held to the west — that is, Freo’s better side — Owston proves a charming designer offer of 11 tightly held rooms, with Bathers Beach a five-minute stroll and the brilliance of Vin Populi below.

17 High Street, Fremantle; owstonhotel.com