Andaz Gold Coast, the first Australian outpost of Hyatt's luxury lifestyle brand, opens within the next month — and general manager Saraid Carey has some clear ideas about what modern luxury should feel like.
For Carey, who grew up in Port Fairy in regional Victoria, running the hotel is a homecoming. She started work at Grand Hyatt Melbourne in the 90s at just shy of 15, then spent years in hotels across Thailand, Vietnam and China, finishing up at Hyatt Regency Koh Samui when the pandemic hit. Stranded abroad while borders closed, she overhauled cleaning protocols, handled visa chaos and learned crisis management the hard way. That experience shaped how she leads now: staff get three meals a day, social spaces and an open-door boss.
Her vision for the hotel leans heavily on its setting. The design theme is 'chasing the sun', built around the Gold Coast's big golden sunsets, with a bright, wellbeing-focused feel. The hotel commissioned artworks and sculptures from local artists, and has worked with a local maker on a candle, diffuser and bath salts designed to smell like the hinterland — in rooms and available to buy.
Carey is also banking on food and drink. Her take: hotel dining went through an uncool phase but has flipped back, provided the stuffiness goes. Expect local wines, casual events like classic Australian barbecue nights open to locals, and regular sessions where guests meet the artisans, producers and artists behind what's in the hotel. "Luxury is so far beyond a great bed and Wi-Fi," she told Karryon — today's luxury travellers want a story and the person behind the product.
Why does this matter to travellers? The Gold Coast has spent two decades building a cultural arts precinct and a serious food scene beyond the surf-strip clichés, and this opening gives it a genuinely high-end lifestyle hotel to match. Carey's stated goal is for guests to leave knowing the version of the region locals know, and she wants locals filling the place too — which should keep it relaxed rather than glacial. If you like design-forward hotels with a sense of place, accessible pricing philosophy (she's openly against unattainably high rates) and F&B that connects you to local makers, this is one to watch for your next Queensland trip.
