sip. steam. soak.

Indie Spa is the place to go on the Great Ocean Road to sip, soak, and steam. This Day Spa and Bathhouse is located at Sunnymead Hotel in Aireys Inlet.

Indie is delightfully different. You’ll still find everything you expect from a Day Spa – beautiful lounge areas, massages, facials, and delicious teas. But also, the unexpected in their signature sunny style. Indie has three private treatment rooms including a dual room with Vichy shower as well as a Rasul and Bathhouse.

Damien Cerantonio is the co-owner of Sunnymead Hotel in Aireys Inlet. Damien also owns Great Ocean Road Resort in Anglesea and the team behind its day spa, Lux Spa & Wellness, looked to create another spa with a different offering for a growing wellness market on the Great Ocean Road. Indie Spa sits in the space of what was a three-bedroom manager’s residence of the former Lightkeepers Inn Motel.

The size of this apartment posed a challenge for the new-look boutique hotel but didn’t match the core markets post-renovation. The corridors and bedrooms were perfectly suited to a Day Spa and provided something that not only adds to the hotel guests' experience, but also to the town. We wanted to create a spa that welcomes every individual, says Damien…

While encouraging socialising and shared experiences. “Indie” stems from “individuality” which reflects a spa that challenges the norm of a calming clinic aesthetic.

We chat with Damien to find out more about the vibrant and unique Indie Spa.

Could you elaborate on the specific inspirations or influences that led to the unique and vibrant aesthetic.

Sunnymead Hotel was designed for fun, with a colourful palette and retro theme throughout. The spa’s design was chosen to fit within the vibrant Sunnymead brand, so this brief was given to the interior design team at award-winning architects CeraStribley. The fit-out of the spa leans into the curved profile of the rammed Earth walls, one of the property’s unique existing features.

How did you envision these spaces to align with your spa’s ethos of inclusivity and fun while still providing a luxurious and pampering atmosphere?

The bathhouse and Rasul aligned with the target markets of the hotel. The property is marketed towards couples and groups of friends, while appealing to special occasion parties such as birthdays and hen’s days. With quite a bit of space to play with, a steam room big enough to experience group treatments in worked from operational and marketing perspectives.

Both communal spaces can be booked out by a group, making the group experience feel more “exclusive”, and not requiring additional therapists to operate. Indie still offers traditional massage and facials, with all therapists trained by the highly experienced spa managers at Lux Spa & Wellness, renowned for their luxurious treatments.

Your spa caters to both individuals and groups. How did you balance the need for relaxation with the demand for a more communal and lively setting within the spa’s design?

A day spa should still provide relaxation, so breaking up the colour with polished concrete flooring and fresh white walls in the hallways, and skylights in the bathhouse brings a sense of calm to an overall colourful design.

The curves and arches of the doorways add softness, while the post-treatment lounge has a relaxing ambience with a gas fireplace and an outlook onto a landscaped garden and water feature. The lounge can easily become a vibrant space to finish a “Party Spa Sesh”, or any treatment, by adding on a signature Indie cocktail and spa cuisine platter.

The decision to incorporate the Rasul experience as a standout feature at Indie Spa is intriguing. What led to the choice of offering this particular treatment?

Steam rooms appeal to wellness-seekers beyond the typical spa-goer. Our steam-only option appeals to locals and the non-spa customer. Our DIY option with body exfoliation products and hair mask is a great entry-level spa treatment for people who may not normally love spas or don’t want a therapist treatment.

Hot and cold therapy is extremely popular, so our Rasul experience includes the ability to go between the 40-degree steam room and our snowflake shower. It’s an easy add-on treatment for massages and those staying on a package to start or end their day of exploring.

Can you share more about the role of branding and identity in the design process?

Sunnymead Hotel is marketed as being for fun-seekers and sunseekers. Indie Spa needed to tie in with the Sunnymead brand as it’s incorporated into hotel packages and connected to reception.

To encourage year-round bookings and fill the spa during the accommodation’s low season, it was important that Indie had its own identity that could standalone from the hotel as well, appealing to the local and day trip markets.

Burnt orange connects Indie Spa to the overall brand identity, drawing on the same spice-inspired colour palette of the onsite Indian-fusion restaurant. A secondary colour in the Sunnymead palette became the primary colour for Indie Spa and Santara Restaurant.

How did you balance this unique approach with maintaining a sense of sophistication and luxury in the spa’s overall ambience?

The treatment names help bring the friendly Sunnymead personality into a spa setting without taking away from a high-quality look and feel in treatments or skincare products. For a first-time spa-goer, something like a ginkgo de-stress eye treatment is probably a little unfamiliar.

We incorporated our conversational tone which also helps to simplify the treatment as “Goodbye Bags”. The style also appeals to the funseeking customer we want to attract Our facial sheet mask by Good Living Co. is playfully named “Extra Sparkle Please”.

Establishing a new spa in a competitive market can be challenging. How did Indie Spa tackle the task of building awareness and attracting customers?

A strong client base at Lux Spa & Wellness allowed us to initially share Indie Spa with regular clients who know and love our service, while providing a completely unique experience. The vibrant aesthetic of Indie Spa and Sunnymead Hotel is very much tailored for Instagram.

It’s the biggest source of awareness for Indie, particularly on the back of the hotel’s media launch in February 2023. Our marketing has been focused on creating PR opportunities and the hotel has received an overwhelming number of media features that all generate bookings, with a flow-on effect for the spa.

Building awareness of the hotel is our main priority and packaging up with Indie Spa provides an all-inclusive experience that our customers love. Recognition from winning the 2023 ABIA Best Spa Design award generated awareness to a larger audience.

How has Indie Spa navigated the seasonal variations in traffic on the Great Ocean Road, and what steps have been taken to sustain and grow the client base during periods of lower tourism?

We developed seasonal specials to drive visitation in quieter periods and continuing to promote our packages with the hotel to encourage multi-night stays with spa treatments. We designed our packages to ensure every traveller type is catered for, with ample package choices for solos, couples, and groups.

Introducing our Indie “Steam Club” Memberships provided another avenue for return clients and revenue in off-peak. The memberships offer incredible value with complimentary steam sessions, spa credit and discounted treatments.

The thoughtful use of directional signage is an interesting aspect of Indie Spa’s design. How did you approach the creation of these signs to ensure they complemented the spa’s design while remaining functional and aesthetically pleasing?

The curved profile of the walls is such a unique feature so without detracting from this, we have kept the design quite simple. The brushed bronze lettering throughout the property adds a highquality touch and sense of playfulness to match the brand identity. Our treatment room names pop against the white walls and tie into the toneon-tone themed treatment rooms “spice”, “sugar” and “honey”.

The names are a subtle link to Santara Restaurant and have a connection to our cocktail menu. Not to mention “sugar” and “honey” being colloquial terms of affection, a cheeky element for our single treatment rooms. “Spice” was the obvious choice for our couples’ room with its burnt orange palette.

Finally, how do you foresee the design of Indie Spa influencing future trends or developments within the beauty and spa industry, especially regarding creating more engaging and social spa experiences?

I think Indie bridges the gap between luxury and fun, encouraging newbies to try spa treatments with friends, without feeling overwhelmed. We still offer high-end clientele the indulgent experience they expect from a day spa.

The ideas behind Indie’s branding were not to follow any particular trend but focus on what makes us unique, with the hope it’s a more sustainable brand into the future. We’d love to see other businesses embracing their differences, not jumping on an aesthetic because it’s popular at the time.

@indie_spa

@sunnymeadhotel

@cerastribley

*Indie Spa was brought to life through the creative interior design team at award-winning architects Cera Stribley