Sydney's first-ever sex hotel takes pleasure to new heights

Welcome to Wonderland

There’s a new wellness trend that’s enticing couples across the country to seek out alternative accommodation that’ll help them to prioritise self-discovery and sexual exploration. 

Slip down a sleepy side street in Sydney’s south and you’ll find yourself in front of an elegant Edwardian terrace house lashed with bright white paint and a lattice balcony. 

With a lockbox by the front door and emailed instructions on how to get in, the property appears as any other Airbnb. But opening up the front door is like plummeting face-first down the rabbit hole into an erotic wonderland of sex, pain and pleasure. 

Adorned with the largest collection of sex toys I’ve ever seen outside of a sex store, including crops and canes, cuffs and collars, clips and clamps, Hedon House is more than just a self-described BDSM and kink dungeon. 

It’s a private boutique accommodation – the only one of its kind in Sydney – “designed for rest, exploration and self-discovery”, giving guests the chance to try out their wildest fantasies and deepest desires for a night, or even just an hour. That is, if they make it off the three-month waitlist. 

A place for shifting your headspace

After more than 20 years in the sex industry, founder and director of Hedon House, Gala Vanting, says the “seal has been broken” on stigmas around kink and interest in BDSM is growing. Particularly as more people turn away from the grind and hustle to slow down and focus on holistic well-being and self-discovery. 

“I think one of the beautiful things that BDSM offers us is the opportunity to get out of our everyday selves or to reinvent our everyday selves,” Vanting, who’s also a professional dominatrix, tells Body+Soul. “But the exploration of kink can come with a lot of questions that we have to ask ourselves and changes in our self-perception, such as what we thought we liked.”

Which is why having somewhere like the uniquely-equipped Hedon House can be so life changing.

Hedon House describes itself as a BDSM and kink dungeon without the dungeon vibes. Image: Hedon House

“I think having a space where you can actually sit down or lie down and integrate some of that self-questioning is really helpful for people who are coming to this for the first time,” explains Vanting. “A space where you don’t have the noise of other people around you and you’re not watching them and you’re not comparing yourself and you don’t feel like you’re being watched or judged. And that’s kind of priceless for having a successful experience with self-exploration.”

At $450 a night, a Hedon House escape doesn’t come cheap. But it turns out, people are more than willing to pay for it. 

“We ask people to tell us a little bit about why they’re visiting and we hear a lot of, ‘I just need to be in another space’, or, ‘I just need to get away from the things I feel pressured by’. And I think being in another space just kind of shifts your head space,” Vanting says. “And I definitely see people using travel as that opportunity.” 

People travel from all over the country to play at Hedon House. Image: Hedon House

Sydney isn’t the only host of hedonism in Australia – another Hedon House can be found in Melbourne’s cosy suburbs, so interstate exploration is common and encouraged. 

“Sometimes people come from Melbourne to go to the Sydney house or they go from Sydney to the Melbourne house," says Vanting. "Even getting out of their city is what they feel like is necessary for them to really just let go and isolate that time and space and protect it from things that are outside of themselves."

The property has everything you could need, and then things you didn't even know about. Image: Hedon House

Through the Looking Glass

While Sydney’s Hedon House began its humble beginnings as a workspace for Vanting, who’s also a former porn performer and producer among her many hats, it’s been operating as a sexy Airbnb-style accommodation for the past four years. And since opening to the public in 2019, Vanting has not held back on equipping the home’s indulgent custom-designed play spaces “with everything you need to create a scene”. As well as “some things you didn’t know you needed”. 

From dildos and vibrators to paddles and plugs, blindfolds and sensory deprivation hoods to a spanking horse, bondage chair and suspension ring, and of course a floor-to-ceiling mirror to reflect all the action. The property, which has been tastefully decorated in an eclectic art-deco, mid-century style and also comes with a working fireplace, four poster ‘Princess bed’ and double shower, is more than anyone could ask for.  

“There is nothing else like it,” Vanting says, and it’s drawing attention from a “very diverse” clientele. “We hear from people who are in very long-term relationships and wanting to try something that is out of the ordinary but in a space that they feel like they can still be themselves,” the founder says. 

“Or we hear from people who are recently divorced or coming out of something really challenging and wanting to find themselves again or explore their body again. Or people come to us when their kids are old enough to leave them for the first time and they want to go on a spicy date. And the age range is really wide. People in their early 20s up to their 80s have visited the space.”

Hedon House is as much about sex as it is about rest. Image: Hedon House

An introduction to kink 

Beyond the myriad mysteries to be uncovered at Hedon House, the same message seeps through its thick, private walls: the experience is entirely what you want to make of it. 

If you’d rather sweet lovemaking or creamy vanilla sex, lose yourself in the sheets upstairs or embrace under the steamy shower streams. Alternatively, if you’d like to peek into the realm of BDSM, Hedon House provides that too through the support of educators. 

“Sometimes, it’s just about showing guests through the House and introducing them to the collection, especially if they’re totally new to kink and are going to end up not being able to use anything because they don’t know what it does,” Vanting says. 

“Other times, it might be more skills-based, like they want to spend an hour or two with someone who can teach them some hard skills like impact play or rope bondage. I generally just take the guest through some questions that help them figure out what they’re looking for.”

Big baths, big deal. Image: Hedon House

Soaking in aftercare

Whether you live the BDSM life, or you partake in it for the night at Hedon House, one of the best ways to close out the experience is in one (or both!) of the home’s completely private outdoor bathtubs. 

“Our hot, deep outdoor baths are a big focal point for a lot of our guests,” Vanting says. “The neighbourhood is surprisingly quiet for how urban it is and it can just be really peaceful to either start or end a stay with a bath. You can see the sky. You can see the Jacaranda. You can hear the birds. 

“The baths also offer a soothing space to come down from whatever state your body and nervous system have gone into, and kind of regulate to the degree where you feel like you can go out and be whatever you are in the world again.”

There’s only one problem, you’ll realise as you lock the home back up and re-enter the sleepy Sydney street in your return to reality. 

You’re going to want to stay more than just one night.

Originally published as Sydney's first-ever sex hotel takes pleasure to new heights