Bathhouse boom as saunas across Australia become the new date night and wellness’ hottest business

Forget crowded restaurants and loud bars — the new date night spot is much hotter.

Bathhouses and saunas are enjoying a massive revival, in Australia and around the world, as a ritual that was once the fringe obsession of elite athletes becomes part of the weekly wellness routine.

Experts say the boom is being driven by the post-pandemic focus on health and wellness — and by a craving for offline community.

Wellness expert Lisa Spencer says the benefits are real and well-documented.

“The research on regular sauna use points to genuine cardiovascular and mental-health upside, and that’s why this has legs rather than being pure hype,” Spencer says.

But for Spencer, founder of WA Wellness — an online directory connecting people with local health and fitness providers — the most underrated ingredient in a bathhouse isn’t the heat. It’s the connection.

“These are now a genuine third place people want to visit — not home, not work, phones down, sharing a bench with people,” she says.

“At a time when loneliness is being taken seriously as a health issue, that’s a big part of why people leave feeling better.

“Anyone who thinks they’re only selling heat and cold water is missing the point.”

James Browne, managing director of WA-founded Alchemy Saunas, agrees.

“The way I describe it is that essentially, what we sell is endorphins,” Browne says.

“If you break a sweat, elevate your heart rate, have a meaningful conversation in a social environment, get extremely hot, extremely cold, get the endorphins flowing, the byproduct of all those things is that you feel incredible.

“Then as an added bonus, you go home and you have a great sleep that night.”

Alchemy opened its latest centre in June in the heart of East Fremantle — a three-year transformation of the heritage-listed Royal George Hotel, which has variously been a horse stable, a hotel, a pub and, most recently, a restaurant, into the company’s most impressive site yet. It joins eight other locations across Perth: East Perth, Karrinyup, West Leederville, City Beach, Fremantle, Port Beach, Point Walter and Scarborough.

“I don’t actually know how big or small this industry is going to be, but I don’t think it’s going anywhere,” Browne says. He plans 30 sites across greater Perth within the next two years.

“Our client base ranges from 18 to 85. There’s no more of any demographic than the other. It’s a huge range of people that can come and do this all throughout their life.”

For Browne, saunas and bathhouses have become the new date-night hotspot for couples.

“From that date night, it becomes a daily ritual,” he says.

Freya Berwick is seeing the same thing at Sense of Self, the bathhouse she founded in Melbourne.

“People are trying to take better care of themselves and not drink, and also actually connect,” she says.

“Our time is so juiced. We’re so squeezed for time and so the time that we have for ourselves, be it alone or connecting with the people that we love, really needs to be impactful.

“And it’s pretty good value. If you compare it to going to a restaurant, a bar . . . you can’t really get away with anything under the $20, $25 for just a drink these days.”

Berwick opened Sense of Self’s first location in Collingwood in late 2020, mid-pandemic — “kind of a terrible time to launch operationally,” she admits.

“But I’d say (it worked) in our favour because people had been literally locked down, couldn’t travel,” she says.

“They’d saved up money and everyone’s regard for their wellbeing and their connections had been really escalated because of the lockdowns.”

Sense of Self’s second site opens in Surry Hills, Sydney, in September.

“The intention was always to have multiple (sites), but never to be like a cookie-cutter rollout model,” Berwick says.

“Sydney was always, in my mind, the next city. We like to be in dense urban areas and part of the neighbourhood . . . and Sydney is just such a lifestyle-oriented city.”

While gen Z consumers are driving the trend, consumer expert Trent Rigby says it’s baby boomers who will help bankroll it.

“(Baby boomers are) currently the wealthiest generation in Australia’s history,” says Rigby, director at Retail Customer Advisory.

“The latest census found more than half of them are already living with at least one long-term health condition and account for over a third of all Australians who have one.

“That’s a big, cashed-up cohort with every reason to spend on their health and it’s only going to grow as the population ages.”

For younger consumers, Rigby says, wellness has shifted from discretionary to essential spend.

“We’re seeing growing evidence, particularly in the US, that gen Z increasingly views gym classes and fitness spending as a necessity rather than a luxury,” he says.

“I think there’s a very large micro-luxury element too. When a house deposit feels out of reach, a $50 session that makes you feel great is an affordable indulgence.”

Rigby believes there is no ceiling to the nation’s bathhouse boom.

“Or at least, we’re nowhere near it yet,” he says.

“Australia is generally one of the healthiest and most active countries in the world and has one of the highest fitness and wellness spending per head.

“What I’d watch is the category bleeding into everything else. Gyms are already converting under-used studio space into saunas and recovery zones because they’re outperforming traditional offerings.”

For Spencer, “the opportunity isn’t another bathhouse on another corner”.

“It’s building the kind of place that understands where the market is going,” she says.

“If the space is distinctive, disciplined and genuinely restorative, that will become somewhere people seek out. That’s what will define the next generation of wellness spaces.”