Shot fired into Vic hotel courtyard

It's lucky no smokers were in the courtyard of a Melbourne pub when a gunman took a pot shot from a passing car, police say.

He fired from a car that had stopped outside the Glen Waverley hotel about 4.20am on Monday.

No-one was injured but the bullet went through an aluminium fence, into a glass door and finally lodged in an internal pillar of the hotel.

Police suspect the man had been in the pub earlier in the night, along with another man and a woman.

Police say after leaving the hotel the three later returned in a car and stopped outside while a person in the back seat opened the door and fired a single shot into the courtyard.

"Thankfully there wasn't anyone in the smokers' courtyard or this incident could have been a lot worse," police said.

Police have released CCTV security footage and still images of the three people they want to question.