When Aaron Suine and Nick Stead opened Australia’s newest luxury lodge back in October last year, they were prepared to take things slowly. They had no doubt that Kittawa Lodge – set on 40 hectares of rolling King Island waterfront, with bathtubs perfectly positioned so guests can soak while watching the sun sink into the ocean – was exactly the sort of break stressed-out mainlanders needed. But they figured that getting the word out on a lodge tucked on an island off the Tasmanian coast might be a slow process.

They were wrong. “We had far more bookings and inquiries than we expected,” says Suine. “We were so busy with our guests that we had no time to start our marketing.”