The Bonobo by Raes captures an open, architecturally driven extension of the town itself, balancing Brazilian modernist influences with the languid ease of coastal living.
There’s a shift underway on Jonson Street, and The Bonobo by Raes has plenty to do with it. Set in the centre of town, the newly opened hotel reads less like a destination and more like an extension of the street itself; somewhere to settle into, not just pass through.
Where Raes on Wategos trades on seclusion a few bays around, The Bonobo is built for openness, indoors and out. Richards & Spence’s three-level building wears a perforated brick facade, its surface broken and pulled apart so that light falls through in patterns that shift across the day. At its core sits an open courtyard drawing air and greenery up through the floors, so that even the most interior rooms feel anchored to the outside. It’s an architectural move that does a lot of quiet work: 74 rooms and residences look onto gardens, courtyard or street, rather than into each other, and the whole building breathes easier because of it.
Upstairs, a rooftop pool runs the length of the terrace, daybeds and lounge chairs arranged with the kind of precision that looks accidental, catching the view as it slides from the Byron lighthouse out to the hinterland. It’s the part of the hotel built for stillness for the long, unhurried hour between a swim and a sundowner.
The low-profile sectional banquette sofa, designed by Manifold, is upholstered in a custom earthy tan and cream striped linen fabric specifically chosen to complement the hotel’s warm, coastal modernist aesthetic.
Amy Vidler’s Moon pendant casts a warm ambient glow over the lobby, where its sculptural raw fibreglass form sits comfortably alongside four vintage leather B&B Italia Amanta lounge chairs by Mario Bellini, reinforcing the hotel’s thoughtful balance of contemporary Australian design and twentieth-century classics.
Inside, Melbourne and Sydney-based practice Manifold has resisted the temptation to over-style. The material palette is warm and tactile, washed plaster, terrazzo, timber joinery, built to age well in the coastal humidity rather than perform for a camera. Birdy Catalano Interiors worked closely with Jardan to design and curate the furniture pieces for all of the residences, sitting alongside vintage and one-off collected pieces to give the rooms a sense of accumulation rather than installation. An Italian and Brazilian sensibility runs through the shared spaces, echoing the raw concrete formwork of the architecture. Original works by Doris Bush Nungarrayi, produced in collaboration with 8 Hele Gallery, hang near prints by Sydney photographer Traianos Pakioufakis, while custom outdoor furniture by MCM House carries the timber-toned material story onto the balconies.
The residence layouts are generous by hotel standards: one-, two- and three-bedroom residences with the option to connect rooms into four-bed configurations, full kitchens, and in select residences, private plunge pools that make a quiet case for staying put.
Downstairs, the Lobby Lounge earns its place across every hour of the day, morning coffee through long lunches and into late-night cocktails, spilling across the terrace and into the courtyard. Jason Saxby, the chef behind the two-hatted Raes Dining Room, has shaped a menu with head chef Callum Gray that leans into the satisfaction of a good diner, locally grounded and unhurried. Come later in 2026, Reset will bring its bathhouse rituals; cedar saunas, ice baths, contrast therapy, to Byron for the first time, and Atlas Homme will open a tightly edited menswear offering on the ground floor.
The Bonobo by Raes sets a new rhythm for Byron Bay: a hotel where the design is rigorous without being precious, and where the welcome extends as warmly to a local dropping in for the evening as it does to a guest staying the week.
