2014
The guesthouse refit
Stripped an old corner building back to brick and reopened with six rooms. Paid for itself in eighteen months, mostly on word of mouth from Bridge Road traders who used it for visiting family.
About Claimradar Hotel & Emerald Room, Richmond Victoria
Claimradar is a boutique hotel and private gaming salon at 511 Church Street in Richmond, Victoria, founded in 2014 and built around nine penthouse suites, a members-only salon on level two and a team of locals who live in the same postcode as the property.
Since 2014 on Church Street
We built Claimradar because we were tired of hotels with no memory
Nine penthouse suites, a members-only salon and a team that mostly lives within walking distance. This is a place run by people who actually know the postcode, and it shows in all the small ways that matter over a weekend.
How it started
From a six-room guesthouse to nine penthouses
In 2014 we took over a tired corner building on Church Street and turned it into a six-room guesthouse for people who wanted to be near the city without being inside it. The idea was simple enough: book a room, get looked after properly, and stop pretending the front desk is a concierge desk. We were wrong about quite a lot in year one, but not about that.
By 2017 we had bought the building next door and started planning the top floors. The penthouses opened in 2019 with a planner who told us nobody would pay for a plunge pool above Richmond in winter. They have been booked out every July since.
The Emerald Room came later, in 2021, when we realised the guests who stayed with us most often wanted somewhere quiet to play that wasn't a shouty casino floor. Sixty guests, six tables, one host per evening. That cap has never moved and it never will.
2014
Year we opened the doors
31
People on the payroll
11
Staff who live in Richmond
4.9
Average guest rating
What we believe
Three rules we don't bend on
Every decision we make, from the price of a night to the number of chairs in the salon, comes back to these. When we break them, guests notice, and so do we.
Small on purpose
We capped the salon at sixty guests and the property at nine penthouses because scale turns hospitality into logistics. It is easier to look after twelve people properly than four hundred, and we would rather be boring about that than ambitious.
No surprises at checkout
The rate you are quoted includes the transfer, the breakfast and the service that goes with it. Nothing lands on your bill that you did not already know about, and we would rather lose a booking than hide a fee in the paperwork.
Straight about the risk
The Emerald Room is a gaming salon and gambling carries genuine risk. We say that on every page, we train staff to act on concerns, and we never present play as a way to make money. Marketing that pretends otherwise is dishonest, and we won't do it.
Who you'll meet
A team of people who chose this postcode
Eleven of our thirty-one staff live within a fifteen-minute walk of the building. That is not a recruitment policy, it just happens when you hire from the neighbourhood and pay properly.
Marcus Thornbury
Founder and owner
Bought the building in 2014 after fifteen years in hospitality management. Still reads every complaint email himself, usually before breakfast.
Lena Okonjo
Head of guest services
Runs the front of house and the butler roster. She is the person behind our "nothing arranged twice" line, and she means it literally.
Daniel Fraser
Emerald Room host
Reviews every membership application personally and runs the pre-commitment conversation before anyone sits down. Certified in responsible gaming training twice over.
Amara Deakin
Executive chef
Runs the penthouse kitchen and the salon menu, both until four in the morning. Insists the espresso at three is held to the same standard as the one at breakfast.
What we've built
Four projects that shaped the property
None of these were quick, and two nearly didn't happen. We're proud of all of them anyway.
2019
The penthouse floors
Bought the adjoining site and added three floors above the original building. Nine two-storey suites, each with a heated terrace pool, built with Studio Halcyon over eighteen months of arguments about stone.
2021
The Emerald Room
Converted level two into a members-only salon with six tables, two glass skyboxes and its own door. The sixty-guest cap was written into the design brief, not bolted on afterwards.
2023
In-suite kitchen upgrade
Rebuilt every penthouse kitchen around the private chef service. Longer benches, proper induction, a walk-in pantry. Guests now book the chef more often than they book the transfer.
What we offer
Two things, done properly
If you want to see what this all looks like in practice, these are the two pages worth reading next.
Accommodation
Skyline Penthouse Suites
Our sixteen-storey answer to the question of where to stay in Melbourne. Nine two-storey suites with a heated rooftop plunge pool, a butler assigned for the whole stay and views that don't require a postcard.
Explore the suites
18+ salon
Emerald Room Private Salon
A members-only gaming salon behind its own door on level two. Six tables, two glass skyboxes, a host for the whole evening and pre-commitment limits agreed before the first hand is dealt.
Request access
What we're proud of
Awards we didn't enter and awards we did
We don't chase these, but they do turn up. What actually matters to us is the other column: the guests who keep coming back, and the staff who have stayed on the roster for years.
2020
Best Boutique Hotel, Victoria
Given by a trade association we barely knew existed at the time. Still on the wall in reception.
2022
Responsible Service Commendation
Recognised for pre-commitment practice in the Emerald Room. The one we send to job applicants.
2023
In-Suite Dining, Editor's Pick
For the penthouse chef service. Amara's kitchen, Amara's problem if it slips.
2024
Four point nine guest rating
Not an award, technically. We count it anyway, because it's the one guests can't argue with.
The neighbourhood
We would rather be part of Richmond than above it
We source coffee from two roasters on Bridge Road, bread from a baker on Swan Street and most of the bar list from the Yarra Valley. Our wine list has a whole page of Victorian producers, and the front of house team knows the growers by name because they've actually met them.
We sponsor the Richmond junior football club and we fund a scholarship at the local TAFE hospitality program every second year. Nothing about that is marketing. It just seems fair, given where our revenue comes from.
If you're staying with us, ask any staff member for a recommendation. They will give you a real one, and they will be right. That has been tested across five years of very sporadic score-keeping.
From the journal
If you want to dig any deeper
What Actually Makes a Richmond Weekend Worth It
A local's take on why staying in the postcode beats staying downtown, and how to spend a Saturday here without queuing for anything.
Read the piece
Responsible Gaming in a Private Salon: How It Actually Works
Pre-commitment limits, cool-off periods and staff who act on concerns. What responsible play looks like when it isn't just a page in the brochure.
Read the piece
18+ only
Gambling carries real risk, and we say so out loud
The Emerald Room is strictly for guests aged eighteen and over, checked with photo ID at the door on every visit. If play ever stops being something someone enjoys, our team will stop it the moment they are asked, without discussion and without follow-up questions. Free confidential support is available around the clock through Gambling Help Online.
Come and see it
The building's better in person, but this is a decent start
Have a look at the rates, send us a message, or ring the desk on a weekday morning and ask whatever you like. Someone who actually knows the place will pick up.