Review: Atura Adelaide Airport (ADL) Hotel

Overall Rating

By James Fordham, May 15 2019
Atura Adelaide Airport (ADL) Hotel
Country

Australia

City

Adelaide

Hotel

Atura Adelaide Airport Hotel

Rating

4-Star

Room

City View King

Notes
The Good
  • Modern, spacious rooms
  • Quality bed
The Bad
  • Shower pressure could be better
  • Lack of pool
X-Factor
  • Connected directly to the airport terminal
Location
Rooms
Meals
Overall

Introduction

The Atura Adelaide Airport hotel offers funky rooms and great service in a location that’s about as close as you can get to Adelaide Airport without sleeping in the terminal.

Location & Impressions

The hotel is directly connected to both the domestic and international terminals at Adelaide Airport, which means you can walk straight off your flight and into the hotel lobby, located near the check-in counters and the arrival hall. The Atura’s public areas, including some dining areas, are accessible to all travelers.

In terms of convenience, it’s difficult to beat the Atura’s location, which makes the Atura Adelaide Airport Hotel handy if you’ve got an early morning flight or you’re getting in late.

The entrance lobby is expansive, with high ceilings and large windows bringing in plenty of natural light. While the décor may be a little too modern for some, I found it a welcome contrast to the blandness of the airport in terms of setting the tone.

The lobby has a number of zones, including quiet zones for relaxing, a sports entertainment area with televisions and a pool table, and the Hangar Bar & Grill.

Check-in is friendly (and most importantly, efficient), and I’m soon on my way to my City View King room.

Room

On first impressions, the décor is not what you’d typically see in a hotel at this price range – the ceiling is bare concrete with a large yellow circle painted on it, and there are flourishes of colour throughout the room. It’s an interesting aesthetic, but we can see why it may be divisive.

My City View King room lives up to its name with a nice view of the sunset over Adelaide.

There are a number of different rooms available, including Runway View rooms, which provide close-up views of planes taking off from the runway if that’s more your thing.

The room itself feels spacious, and has a comfortable king size bed...

...a two-seater sofa...

...a wall-mounted television....

...and a working desk.

There’s also a separate area with a small sink and tea/coffee making facilities.

There’s storage for your clothes and luggage, and an iron + ironing board tucked away in the wardrobe.

The bathroom is basic (don’t expect a Japanese soaking tub here)...

...but has all the amenities you’d require for a short stay, including a shower suite...

...and Australian-made skincare and haircare products. The shower itself could be improved with more water pressure, but it was adequate for my 1-night stay.

Noise levels are good, especially for an airport hotel. I was able to hear very faint noise from turboprops, but not enough to wake me up early in the morning. Generally there are no flights from 10PM – 6AM at Adelaide airport anyway, so you should be able to get a good night’s sleep with minimal distractions.

Work

If you need to get some work done during your stay, the complimentary WiFi has decent speeds for downloading large files or streaming.

With no club lounge at the Atura Adelaide Airport Hotel, your options are to work in the room or the lobby. The lobby does have some quiet areas, and you can stock up on snacks / drinks nearby (but you’ll need to pay for these).

The desk in the room is well-sized and perfectly adequate for knocking out some work if you need to.

Local calls are complimentary, but there’s no business centre on hand if you need to print or fax.

Eat

The breakfast that we had at the Atura Adelaide Airport Hotel was high quality – our only gripe was that the eggs were only available scrambled, with no other options for cooking them available.

Meeting Point Café is open from 4AM on weekdays, making it a great option for grabbing some breakfast before an early morning flight.

There are also ready-meals and snacks available to purchase.

The other onsite dining option is Hangar Bar & Grill, which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and serves up classics like pizzas, steaks and salads.

Relax

The Atura Adelaide offers guests a decently-equipped gym, with free weights and a few cardio machines to get in a workout.

Apart from that, you can watch a sports match and have a cocktail or beer in the lobby.

As an airport hotel, there’s not too many other options in the way of relaxation – but you can rest easy knowing that getting to the check-in counter is only a couple of minutes away.

james_fordham

James has been interested in aviation ever since his first flight. When he’s not travelling, he’s still on the road indulging his motoring hobby, or trying a new whisky.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

11 Oct 2014

Total posts 693

Great comprehensive review James - and good to see Adelaide get some coverage for a change!

From the perspective of the hotel, I'd suggest there are two minor failures judging by the room pics. First, is the abysmal, lack of height-adjustable work seat in each room. These rarely work for all guests, given that we come in all shapes and sizes. I can understand the design aesthetic of a vinyl, translucent chair, but not the lack of catering for a decent adjustable work position. Second, whilst the look of the room is slightly minimalist and Nordic, the lack of a pelmet over the wardrobe door slider just looks plain 'unfinished' and decidedly cheap. Also, ultimately a 'dust' gatherer.

Otherwise, this looks to be a perfectly acceptable 4 Star hotel with interesting public areas, a nod towards the trendy, and perfectly acceptable rooms in a great / convenient location. It would be good to see a review of the Hangar Bar & Grill since the Meeting Point Café looks really welcoming.

20 Jan 2017

Total posts 45

Having stayed at this hotel back in February i can recommend this a good option when flying out first thing in the morning.

It was a really clean and well appointed room along with adequate space to store those wines i sampled in the Barossa 😉

Not to mention price wise was really great for a Sunday night stay.

The main convenience was the direct access straight into the terminal. Im pretty sure i didnt step outside (technically) until Wynyard station in Sydney.

Delta Air Lines - SkyMiles

16 Oct 2017

Total posts 157

The desk and chair look like an afterthought, and the chair definitely looks less than comfortable. The bed up against the window looks like the spare room at my gran's house. As for the ethic "you can have your eggs any way you like as long as they're scrambled", what can I say? Convenient this property may be, but why do they ask us to lower our expectations in areas that would not cost a lot to make better?

24 Aug 2011

Total posts 1208

Given Adelaide Airport is west of the city, wouldn't you have a view of the sunrise over the Adelaide CBD from a city view room not the sunset? Having said that, I 'd definitely take the city view room. The runway view room wouldn't be the most exciting. If you are after plane-spotting, you'd be better off at the Stamford in Sydney or Crowne Plaza at SIN.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

06 Apr 2011

Total posts 106

Correct, you'd have a sunset view over the Gulf St Vincent (to give it's correct name in case anyone thinks I have the words out of order)

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

29 Nov 2013

Total posts 478

I've stayed here twice and that desk/chair arrangement is a pain if you want to put in a few hours of work before bed.

I'm not sure if the cut out is because they have a lot of guests with big beer bellies or they thought it "looks" ergonomic - its not!

Otherwise its a convenient and comfortable hotel - it has a lot of Rydges DNA in it.

05 Nov 2014

Total posts 10

Yes the sunset would be over Gulf of St Vincent but would not be a city view room as the city is the opposite direction from the gulf.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

16 Dec 2011

Total posts 12

Australian-made skincare and haircare products”

You may want to correct this. They’re made in China, but designed/formulated in Australia.
Says so on the labels.
I stayed there last night and can supply a photo if you like.


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