Ahead of the 2025 opening of The Sundays on Hamilton Island, Karryon Luxury spoke to Michael Branagh, GM Sales & Marketing at Hamilton Island to learn more – did somebody say ice-cream turndown service?
As Karryon reported earlier this year, The Sundays has been created with families in mind with a goal to combine luxury with a contemporary design focus. The 59-key hotel is named for its idyllic Whitsundays location.
“It’s really exciting to open up the bookings, which has been the next major step in our milestone towards opening the property,” said Michael Branagh, General Manager Sales & Marketing, Hamilton Island.
“We’re saying it will open in autumn next year – but we’re taking bookings from 1 May 2025 at this time. If we get through a good wet season and we don’t have any disruptions due to poor weather, then there’s also a degree of optimism that we may be able to open a little earlier,” he said.
New style of family-friendly luxury
“The ethos of The Sundays is really based around what we’ve heard so much from guests at our other properties on the island, particularly properties like The Beach Club and qualia, where they have an incredible experience there, but walk away thinking it would have been wonderful if they had that experience but could have had their children with them,” he said.
“That’s really been the inspiration for The Sundays: to create a design-led, contemporary boutique property that is luxury in feel but also welcomes families and children. We’re coining the phrase ‘created with families in mind’ and want to be very clear that it’s not a ‘family resort’, but a boutique luxury hotel.”
“We are being quite considered in terms of the way in which we’ll now go about building out not only the offer within The Sundays, but also the broader experiences which that key segment could participate in across the island and beyond, into places like the Great Barrier Reef and Whitehaven beach.”
“It really has come about through feedback and observing over time that whilst we have an incredibly broad market that visits the island, it was that higher end premium traveller who was seeking a boutique luxury experience with their children, who was the gap that we identified and that we’d like to meet with this new property,” said Branagh.
While there is a kids’ club (Clownfish Club) on the island, there won’t be one at The Sundays itself.
“But The Sundays will have a private pool area, which has a great water’s edge pool overlooking Catseye Beach, and is exclusive to The Sundays’ guests. It will have poolside dining cabanas and more of a contemporary, resort-style feel. It will be a place where the kids will be able to play, but the parents will be able to really relax by and enjoy a cool poolside vibe.“
“We’re replacing the traditional turndown service in the evenings with an ice cream service instead. We’re just being really conscious of who our guests will be and knowing that this sort of premium family traveller has high expectations when they travel. They really want the best for their family when they travel and so we’re making sure that we can meet that need through additional fun services like offering complimentary ice creams in the early evening for the kids,” said Branagh.
Dining
The team is currently working on the dining concepts with further details yet to be announced. Branagh says they’re going to take their time to ensure they get it right for the market but says one definite plan is to make sure “kids will eat well.”
“I think that’s the distinction between a family resort and The Sundays… you can go to a family resort but your kids may eat a lot of fried food and nuggets etc. But we will be making sure that kids will eat well and that there’s a really good, balanced variety of dining and meal options for kids – and the parents won’t have to compromise either,” he said.
The rooms
The Sundays’ 59 rooms will each feature a king bed, a trundle single bed, and space for a cot, making them ideal for small families.
“The rooms have been designed to have a maximum occupancy of two adults, one child and a porta cot if required. Then, there’s a number of interconnecting rooms available throughout the property as well for people who may have slightly older children and want to split the rooms,” he said.
“We’ve tried to keep the room categories really simple so there’s just two core room types: Balcony and Terrace rooms. The Sundays is a three-storey building so the Balcony rooms are those on the second and third floors and all overlook Catseye Beach; and on the ground floor are the Terrace rooms that open out onto our gardens.”
“We did a walk through at one point and discovered that yes, all the rooms do have a varying degree of Coral Sea water views, which is fantastic…. including the Terrace rooms,” he said.
Pricing
“We’re pricing rooms starting from AUD$891 per night as the base rate. For people who may be looking to stay a qualia, but who do want to travel with their kids, it’s a terrific price point. The feedback we’ve received so far is exactly that…it’s certainly an accessible rate for that family traveller,” said Branagh.
“We’re just going to offer a really high end experience for that particular segment. The feedback we’ve received is that there’s not a lot else like the offering we’re creating at The Sundays within the region, or within Australia.”
“We hope that we can really inspire people who potentially stayed at Hamilton Island in the past, but who have not returned for a while to come back, because there’s this wonderful new property opening that might reignite a desire to return and experience the island again,” he said..
For more information, visit hamiltonisland.com.au
