An Australian hotel is giving people discounts off their final bill just for having a good night’s sleep, as a means to combat the tiredness many Aussies are feeling.
In research undertaken by luxury Tasmanian hotel MACq01, more than two thirds of Aussies get less than the ideal eight hours of sleep a night. On top of that, a further 38% of Aussies average just six hours or less sleep a night. That’s more than a third of the entire country left feeling tired, and an alarming 1.2 million only getting four hours or less each night.
After MACq01’s research showed that just 8% of people are consistently getting a good, fulfilling snooze, the team at MACq01 endeavoured to encourage Aussies to actually use their travel time to help relax and recover with their Slumber Suite — where you can actually get hundreds of dollars taken from your final bill if you enjoy a good night’s sleep.
But how does it work?
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Well, the Slumber Suite — available to book now — is decked out with various goodies to encourage and promote a good night’s sleep. We’re talking sleepytime tea, bath salts and even a pillow menu to ensure you’re working with what’s best for you. Then, of course, there's the bed, fitted with a completely non-invasive sleep analyser.
If you book between now and September 30th, you’ll actually get $100 off for each hour you get over six hours of sleep on your first night’s stay. If you clock up a perfect nine hours of sleep, your first night is completely free.
Seems too good to be true, right? Well, MACq01 invited LadBible Australia down to Hobart to try it out for ourselves.
Located smack bang in the middle of Hobart’s iconic port, the MACq01 building itself feels like a well-earned hug. Stepping into the hotel, you instantly learn this is a hotel that is steeped in, and celebrates, local history. In fact, the entire ground floor of the hotel is a journey through time. Starting at the award-winning Evolve Bar, with its 400-page Plus drinks menu, you find yourself immersed in pre-history. A collection of fossils from around the world are on display here, the centrepiece being a colossal, complete skeleton of a Russian Cave Bear, which went extinct 24,000 years ago.
While you check-in in the lounge, you’ll see an ode to tools, weapons and other artefacts used by the First Nations people of Lutruwita (so-called Tasmania) throughout history. On display, you can see artefacts representative of a traditional ‘Tasmanian Aboriginal toolkit’ that were all made by First Nations people today. Cut to the lounge’s centrepiece — a stunning, toasty, open fireplace crafted by a local stonemason, with lounges and tables encircling it. Feels like the perfect place to cosy up with a bev, and just chat while the fire crackles away. It’s also a great spot to wait for dinner at the Old Wharf restaurant, led by Chef Alvin Sim. The restaurant is a celebration of local, modern agriculture and industry, and has an incredible locally-sourced menu to match (we cannot recommend the Tassie lamb enough).
If you really want to boost your knowledge of Tassie history, book one of the hotel’s complimentary storytelling tours. Our tour guide, Jessica, took us all through the hotel and surrounds — complete with old-school viewfinder — and taught histories that might have otherwise been lost and help world-build the history the hotel itself celebrates. Pro-tip: be sure to ask the reason why IXL Jams is called IXL Jams.
Even as you make it to your room, every door celebrates Tasmanian history. With 114 rooms in the hotel, each door has the face and bio of an icon in Tassie history plastered on the front of it. As you walk into your room, you’ll even see memorabilia associated with the person on your door. This means that every person staying at MACq01 has a personalised experience, from the moment they step into their hotel room door.
Now, the Slumber Suite is really, truly all about wanting you to have a good night's sleep, and that takes some preparation. This probably isn’t the room to book if you’re jumping from one thing to the next while you’re in Hobart (though you’ll still probably have a cracking snooze). This is a room for people who are here to relax. On top of the bed, you’ll find a weighted blanket, which we already know can invite a sense of calm. You’ll also find lamps with red bulbs, which is linked to relaxation.
Speaking of relaxation, the first thing you’ll likely notice is the waft of lavender hitting your nose thanks to a vase on the coffee table. You probably know that this has also been thought to promote sleep, which is why the room is also stocked with lavender-scented sleeping mist and even sleep drops for you to put under your tongue right before you nod off.
But a good night’s sleep isn’t confined to the bedroom — the minibar and bathroom are all about it as well. In the bath, you’ll find bath salt — pop a tube into your bath and feel relaxation waft over you. Then, once you’re refreshed, brew yourself some sleepytime tea. Coming in two different flavours, it feels like a soothing antidote to the Tasmanian cold — if you’ve been before, you know exactly what type of cold it feels like.
Of course, the bed is incredibly comfortable. But before you truly conk out, have a browse of the pillow menu (ie. get a body pillow delivered if you’re a side sleeper) and even the bedtime stories available. Nope, they’re not just for kids. Finally, sleep expert Shea Morrison, who MACq01 collaborated with curating the entire Slumber Suite concept, offers some tips to help decompress and set your body up for sleep.
But, the moment of truth — how good is the sleep in MACq01’s Slumber Suite?
TL;DR — really bloody good. It can be easy to be sceptical about this type of stuff, and not everyone is going to have the same experience. But, a good night’s sleep was had.
We got around a full eight hours on my first night there, and it’s been years since the last time that happened. Of course, being by the water helped, as well as the huge dinner we indulged in at Old Wharf Restaurant. It might have been some sort of mental tricks, and it might even be a placebo, but taking in each of the goodies the Slumber Suite is stocked with really felt like it made a difference. The stressors and anxieties of life don’t go away, but having the mindset of “I’m going to have a great night’s sleep tonight and this room is going to help” really paid off.
Everyone’s different, and everyone has a different relationship with sleep. So, the only way to really see if MACq01’s Slumber Suite works for you is to try it out for yourself. You can head to the hotel’s website to learn more.
Jackson Langford