Meet The Roy, Rainbow Beach’s new basecamp for coastal escapes
The Roy has opened in Rainbow Beach, transforming the former Rainbow Sands Resort into a basecamp for sun-soaked adventures. The 24-room coastal stay is designed for doing less and exploring more, with a retro aesthetic and relaxed amenities to match. Consider it a nostalgic nod to the great Queensland holiday, reimagined for a new generation.
While we adore a hotel-based staycation, when we travel, we tend to use hotels as a pit stop – a place to rest our heads between sightseeing excursions.
Sure, we love it when our accommodation has top-flight amenities, a chic design scheme and an element of luxury, but in most cases the best hotel is, at its core, supposed to be nothing more than a comfortable landing point and launchpad for further adventure.
Jack Davis and George Robinson of Blackwood Hotels agree, which is why they describe their newest destination – The Roy in Rainbow Beach – as a basecamp, rather than a hotel. The 24-room coastal property, previously the Rainbow Sands Resort, has recently reopened to the public after a slick revamp, with the Blackwood team reinvigorating the site from foundation to facade.
This is par for the course when it comes to Blackwood’s expansion strategy. The Roy forms the nucleus of a portfolio built around rejuvenation, rather than from-scratch development. Alongside fellow Blackwood properties the Surf Hotel in Torquay and soon-to-open Yarra Valley destination The Warby, The Roy’s mixture of nostalgia-inducing character and local prominence made it a no-brainer acquisition for the crew when they took over in late 2023.
“There’s three things we look for,” says Jack of the group’s acquisition approach. “One is the town – ultimately we’re looking for a town with an increasing tourism trade or a burgeoning tourism environment.
We also look for towns that have immediate access to fantastic outdoor experiences. And thirdly, we search for existing, ideally iconic, architecture.”
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If there’s any town that ticks all three boxes, it’s Rainbow Beach. Located in close proximity to K’gari and Double Island Point – and halfway between Hervey Bay and Noosa – the beachside township is an idyllic summer destination.
When it came to revamping the Rainbow Sands Resort, maximising this coastal identity while retaining the property’s own throwback aesthetic was of paramount importance.
“We’ve grown a love for refurbishing existing buildings,” says Jack. “Not only because we think it’s the most sustainable way of developing, but there’s just something really meaningful about giving a new life to something that the community and its visitors have loved and cherished previously and giving that a new brand and a new life and a new kind of generation.”
Blackwood Hotels engaged the services of Sophie Di Pasquale and Sally Cook of architecture firm Pasquale Cook to shape The Roy’s design and interiors. The Roy’s two dozen rooms (which feature king rooms, holiday units and family units – all with breathable mattresses and air-conditioning) have been updated with sun-washed tones, white finishes and pops of colour. The aesthetic is tastefully retro, evoking the feeling of childhood holidays in which time seems to stop.
Behind the retro aesthetic is an imagined character who helped shape The Roy’s personality: a quintessential Queensland uncle, equally at home in the local pub, on the beach or chatting to neighbours.
“Internally, we referred to him as this Uncle Roy character that was everyone’s older, single uncle that had lived or moved to Queensland and understood the weather and was friends with everyone in town,” says Jack.
“This character of Roy started to guide all of our decisions. So if we’re choosing between A or B, we’d always ask ourselves, what would Roy pick or what would Roy do.”
That thinking extended to the physical space, too.
“Understanding what to keep is normally our starting point rather than figuring out what to replace,” says Jack. “We really tried to harness the kind of energy and the soul of the building as it was designed and constructed originally.”
A new resort-style pool with lounges, a garden with lawn games, barbecue facilities and a traditional sauna have been added, giving guests plenty to do when not kayaking with dolphins, wandering the dunes and catching the sunset from Carlo Sand Blow.
“It’s about how do we host our guests who, ideally, are going to spend a lot of their time outside of The Roy doing these activities, but then also how can we make their stay as comfortable as possible?” says Jack.
In the end, The Roy doesn’t seek to compete with Rainbow Beach’s natural attractions – rather, it aims to complement them.
Instead of encouraging guests to spend their entire stay within its walls, Blackwood has designed the property as a comfortable launchpad for exploring the surrounding landscape, and a place to return to afterwards and decompress. In that sense, the hotel is less about filling your itinerary and more about helping you settle into the slower rhythm of a coastal escape.
“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is accelerate the feeling that you’re on holiday from the moment you arrive,” says Jack. “It means disconnecting from your phone, from your workplace and from the stresses of life, and that you’re connected to a place.”
Looking to plan a beachside vacation? Head to The Roy’s website to make a booking.
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