TFE Hotels has introduced its Vibe lifestyle brand in Tasmania this week, with the opening of Vibe Hotel Hobart.

Located just 500 metres from the waterfront, the hotel spans 15 storeys shrouded in floor-to-ceiling windows and colourful feature panels.

Inside, the 142-room hotel offers contemporary accommodation, in a mix of rooms, suites and deluxe suites, alongside meeting and dining facilities.

An intriguing history

While initial planning for the hotel was underway, developers uncovered a series of intriguing stories about the site that they were determined to honour in the build.

“An archaeological survey of the site had to be done and we soon realised it was the location of Hobart’s very earliest homesteads,” explains owner and developer Annalisa Doedens.

The survey also revealed the site started life in the 1820s as the colonial house of Anthony Fenn Kemp, a man dubbed ‘the father of Tasmania’ and famed as a rascal, rebel, monopolist and for his involvement in Australia’s only military coup, the Rum Rebellion of 1808.

The investigation also unearthed a tonne of old bricks that had been handmade by convicts and still featured their thumbprints.

“I genuinely love and feel a connection to those bricks,” said Doedens.

“When you touch them, you feel like you’re transported back to that world, and you know the last person who put their thumb in that brick lived all those years ago. How cool is that?”

Guests can touch the bricks for themselves, as they now take pride of place in Vibe Hobart’s lobby, framing one side of a log fireplace.

Meeting and dining

Ideal for smaller meetings, Vibe Hobart features two versatile meeting rooms, accommodating up to 200 delegates theatre style.

The hotel’s signature restaurant, The Belvedere, pays homage to the beloved Art Deco dance hall of the same name that stood on the site from the late 1930s before it was demolished in the mid-1950s.

Today, the paddock-to-plate restaurant includes artful nods to the past, with a piece of chain art featuring a photo of patrons at the dance hall, as well as more subtle touches, including green marble, brass trimmings and fluted columns.

“Vibe Hobart, by its very design, gives a physical and emotive nod to everything people love about Tasmania’s most exciting city,” said TFE Hotels area general manager Stephen Moore.

“There’s a powerful sense of arrival as soon you walk in. The wow-factor of a full-service hotel that will never leave guests questioning where they are. This is Tasmania at every touch point.”