Five minutes with…

Craig Hooley, chief operating officer, Minor Hotels

A new era has commenced for Minor Hotels, with rebrands, new brands and new builds set to shake up Australia’s hotel industry, writes Gavin Dennett

It has been a big year for Minor Hotels Australasia, with the company recently launching the 200-apartment Queen’s Wharf Residences in Brisbane’s CBD, and overhauling its Oaks Hotels, Resorts and Suites brand.

Located in the tallest tower of Brisbane’s Queen’s Wharf precinct, the new accommodation offering features one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments for business and leisure travellers.

For Minor Hotels Australasia’s chief operating officer, Craig Hooley, the opening and the brand repositioning of Oaks marks the beginning of an exciting new phase for the company, especially in Brisbane, a city bursting with opportunities ahead of the 2032 Olympic Games.

How exciting is it to have Queen’s Wharf Residences open for business?

When the opportunity came up to launch Queen’s Wharf Residences, we knew it was going to be something special. We want unique destinations for our guests, and this is a great location. There are excellent restaurants here and you’ve got the beautiful Sky Deck – it’s a fun place and there is plenty more to come in this precinct.

As Brisbane’s skyline rises and visitor numbers soar, Queen’s Wharf Residences offers more than just a place to stay – it’s part of a broader vision for how the city is growing. Such developments are designed to bring people together, blending leisure, business and culture in one destination.

Is Queen’s Wharf Residences positioned as a point of difference to the hotels in the precinct?

Yes, that point of difference is paramount to us with it being the only serviced apartment in the Queen’s Wharf precinct. We see that unique characteristic as an advantage. Queen’s Wharf Residences is a big step for us; to bring this operation to life is something we couldn’t have done six or seven years ago. We have delivered it on time and on budget.

It is pretty exciting times in southeast Queensland, with plenty of opportunity to grow during the next five years. Things are moving at pace ahead of the Olympics, although Brisbane is still short of hotel rooms. It needs 50,000 rooms for the Olympics and currently is at 20,000 to 30,000 rooms. So there are plenty of opportunities.

What has changed in those six or seven years for Minor Hotels?

We have learned a lot in that time and grown as a company. The strategic direction given for this business by our board was for us to become a leading hospitality asset management company in Australia.

To do that, we needed to grow the Oaks product and our other hotel brands, our food and beverage experiences and our meetings experiences. We are on the precipice of something quite big because we’re  going from single-brand Oaks apartment products to a Minor Hotels umbrella brand and sub-brands of suites, hotels and resorts.

Queen’s Wharf Residences is a great stepping stone for us as we start growing to the next level, which includes the Minor Hotels umbrella brand launch so guests can see all our brands under one website.

What else can we expect from Minor Hotels’ evolution?

We are repositioning the Oaks brand from serviced apartments to full-service hotels. The market is becoming more educated and more complicated, and it wants more from a brand.

The transformation of Oaks is significant because it is about going from a reasonably static brand to one that is very dynamic. The old Oaks was like home, putting your feet up on the couch and relaxing, whereas the new Oaks is still that but also being more dynamic, with in-room wellness options, or getting out there to experience things and grabbing coffee and snacks from reception as you go.

What is on the horizon beyond the Oaks rebrand?

We are going to start bringing in NH Hotels, Avani Hotels & Resorts and our luxury Anantara Hotels & Resorts. Our Avani Mooloolaba Beach Hotel opens in the first half of 2026 – the first for the brand in Australia – and our NH Collection opens in Sydney, also in the first half of next year.

We are ready to blossom and bring all these brands to life in Australia, which is significant to go from one brand to multiple brands and products, including new builds and property rebrands.

What’s in store for hosting meetings and events?

Repositioning in the conferencing, meetings and events space is one of our key pillars of business development. Minor Hotels has a MICE strategy, and it is critical for bespoke MICE experiences to be part of our destination offerings as we bring more rooms into our portfolio.

NH Hotels and Anantara have events spaces for weddings, product launches and corporate meetings, plus areas for board meetings and private dinners.