Harbour View Suites
Forty-two square metres on levels nine to eleven, with a separate sitting room and windows that catch the river light in the afternoon.
Read about the suites
About Kruleni
Kruleni: the hotel that grew out of a tired 1926 office block
Kruleni is a thirty-four room boutique hotel on Ann Street in Brisbane, opened in 2016 by two people who had spent a decade working in larger hotels and wanted to run something smaller and more honest. We bought a tired 1926 office building, kept the timber stair and the wide corridors, added double glazing, and filled the rest with rooms we would actually want to sleep in ourselves.
How it started
Two people, one building and a very long renovation
Marcus Ferraro spent nine years running front desks in Sydney and Melbourne. Elena Marsh was a sommelier who kept getting asked to fix hotel wine lists. They met at a conference in 2013, complained about the same things for two hours, and then spent eighteen months looking for a building nobody else wanted.
The Ann Street block was empty, water damaged on the top two floors and listed with council heritage protections that made the quote from the first builder look like a joke. The second builder was more realistic. The rebuild took twenty-six months, most of it spent on the stair, the street facade and getting a rooftop structure approved that would not upset the neighbours.
We opened in October 2016 with eleven rooms finished and the rest still under plastic. The first guest was a man from Townsville who had booked the wrong hotel and decided to stay anyway. He still comes back every year, which we take as a good sign.
What we decided early
Three rules we have not broken yet
Every hotel says it is different. These are the specific things we agreed on before we opened, and they have survived two renovations and a pandemic.
Rule one
No fake fees
The rate you are quoted includes breakfast, wi-fi, the gym and the pool towels. Parking is the only add-on, it is $28, and we tell you about it before you book rather than at checkout.
Rule two
Real people on the desk
There is no kiosk in the lobby. Someone with a name is standing behind the desk from 7 am to 10 pm, and the after hours number goes to the duty manager's mobile, not a call centre in another time zone.
Rule three
Buy from Brisbane first
The coffee comes from a roaster four blocks away, the bread from a bakery in Woolloongabba and the beer from a brewery in Newstead. It is not a marketing line, it is easier to fix a problem when you can drive to the supplier.
The record so far
Numbers we actually keep track of
None of this is audited and none of it is on a slide. It is what we check every Monday morning before the staff briefing.
2016
the year we opened eleven rooms and a half finished rooftop
34
rooms and suites, after the 2019 addition of the top two floors
9
staff members who have been here since the first year
4.7
average guest rating across the booking platforms we use
The people
Who you will actually meet
Kruleni employs nineteen people full time and a handful more on the rooftop in summer. These five are the ones you are most likely to run into.
Marcus Ferraro
Ran front desks in Sydney and Melbourne for nine years before deciding he could do it better with thirty-four rooms than three hundred. Handles the building, the bank and anything that goes wrong at 2 am.
Elena Marsh
Former sommelier who spent years being asked to rescue wine lists in other people's hotels. Runs the rooftop menu, the cellar and the breakfast, and will happily argue about a chardonnay for an hour.
Nadia Okonkwo
Has been on the desk since the second week we were open. Knows the regulars by room number, keeps the lost property cupboard in order and trains every new starter who touches a booking system.
Tomasz Kowalczyk
Joined during the 2019 renovation and never left. Fixes the lifts, the air conditioning and the rooftop heaters, usually before anyone has a chance to complain about them.
Aroha Ngata
Runs the rooftop bookings, the set menus and the logistics of moving forty guests through a single lift. If you have booked an event with us, you have already exchanged emails with her.
Hiring
We are usually looking
Housekeeping, rooftop bar and front desk shifts come up a few times a year. Send a short note to kruleni@hotmail.com with what you have done before and we will get back to you either way.
Things we have built
Ask us about any of it
Projects that shaped the hotel
Four pieces of work over eight years, each one a response to something guests kept asking for.
2019: the rooftop terrace, built over six months and finished three weeks late.
2021: the four corner suites, knocked through from six old offices.
2023: the ground floor breakfast room, moved out of the lobby.
What we offer now
Two things we do properly
We are not trying to be a resort. There are two parts of this business we have put real money into, and both of them are worth a look if you are planning a stay or a night out.
- Rooms that are quiet at 2 am, even on a Saturday
- A rooftop that hosts one event at a time, not three stacked bookings
- Staff who live in Brisbane and will tell you where to eat
Rooftop Events & Private Dining
Exclusive use of level twelve for up to forty guests, with a staffed bar, a short seasonal menu and heaters for the colder months.
Plan an event
Come by
The desk is staffed and the kettle is on
If you want to see a room before booking, or you are planning something on the roof and need to stand in the space first, ring us and we will find a time. We do not do hard sells and we will tell you if the date you want is a bad one.