What's it like to stay in Australia's best airport hotel? We find out

The international air-transport rating organisation Skytrax ranked the Pullman Brisbane Airport as the Best Airport Hotel in the Australia/Pacific region in 2023, and the 10th Best Airport Hotel in the World. Not bad for a Queensland pub that only opened in October 2017.

The Pullman Brisbane Airport is about 20 minutes' drive from downtown Brisbane and five minutes' walk from the domestic terminal at Brisbane Airport.

Modern and refined, with lots of black. Even one of my bedroom walls is black, which I don't think I've ever seen before.

I stay in a Superior Room, which is the most economical option. At 32 square metres, it is only slightly smaller than the one-bedroom unit I used to own in Sydney. Each time I walk from the bed to the door, I'm surprised by the length of the journey. But the measure of an airport hotel - or any hotel, for that matter - is its bathroom, and my bathroom door opens into a veritable bathroom complex, which includes a toilet with its own door, a shower with its own door, and a lovely, long, deep and comfortable bath. I'm not even jetlagged and yet I almost fall asleep during the first of the three baths I enjoy in my 18 hours at the hotel.

The lobby-level Apron Restaurant & Bar comprises a horseshoe-shaped bar (the best kind) separated from the restaurant by a wall-like wine cabinet. The bar food is a bargain: a rich and succulent skewer of lamb costs only $9. Bar lunches are about $28. The bar looks onto the hotel's outdoor lap pool, which is fringed by loungers and pergolas. The restaurant is restrained but friendly. A predominantly older crowd sits on high-backed dining chairs styled oddly like thrones. There is a seafood-heavy, eight-course degustation dinner for $99, but I choose the hibachi grilled yellowtail kingfish ($52 including one side dish) from the a la carte menu, followed by the deconstructed black forest ($25) for dessert. The food is better than you would expect from a hotel kitchen and served in larger portions than you might find in a fine-dining establishment. My generous helping of deconstructed black forest excites the admiration of a fellow diner, who stops to admire it as if it were a particularly cute baby.

I love airport hotels for the feeling of anticipation and potential. I even enjoy watching families say goodbye in the carpark. There's not much within walking distance of the Pullman Brisbane Airport, except the next-door Ibis Brisbane Airport (home to the cheapish bistro, the Cribb Island Beach Club) and, of course, Brisbane Airport.

But there's one thing that guests can do at an airport hotel better than anywhere else...

I'm puzzled to find a small, flat, cardboard package on the table in my room. At first, I assume it's a sewing kit, then I realise it's something to be assembled. When I fold it together, I figure it must be a holder for the complimentary Lindt chocolates. Which does not seem entirely necessary.

Then I notice it has plastic lenses on either side, like toy field glasses. After a good 10 minutes, I finally identify it as promotional origami for the hotel's Plane Spotter package, which includes a room with breakfast, two pairs of binoculars, a plane-information fact sheet and an hour of watching the skies from the hotel's private function venue, Sky Lounge.

The bath.

Read more on Explore:

Where: Pullman Brisbane Airport, 2B Dryandra Road, Brisbane Airport

How much: Superior rooms start at $329 per night. Day rooms are available for use 9am-5pm from $185.

Explore more: pullmanba.com.au

The writer was a guest of Pullman Brisbane Airport.