Kim Amos and Steve Eakin run The Atlantic Byron Bay, three guest houses offering stylish Byron Bay accommodation in the centre of town. They have three wonderful boys, love the active lifestyle, and call Byron Bay home. We thought we would ask Kim and Steve a few questions about their business.
Kim/Steve, what inspired you and the family to move to Byron Bay and setup the Atlantic?
Personally working hectic hours in Sydney, with long commute times was not how I wanted to spend the years of our boys growing up. The Atlantic combined our appreciation for restoring old houses, whilst providing guests with a great experience, plus it gave us the lifestyle we wanted, so we up and moved to Byron!
For those who don’t know about you, tell us a bit more about the hotel and how it all began?
We had looked at some existing B&B’s during our first year in Byron but nothing really grabbed us. There was also minimal opportunity to expand. We were lucky in the location that we found. It gave us the size that we were looking for Atlantic to become. We initially thought of completing the renovations of all four houses in one go but what started out as a 12 month plan to complete our end product has blown out to 5 years with the final renovation still planned for next winter.
Any crazy stories on creating the Guest Houses?
I think it was 7 days after settling on the premises that it seemed to rain for days. After one particularly heavy night of rain we awoke to find half of Byron town centre underwater including our dream property. We got through that thinking it must happen every 10 years. Three months on Byron flooded again. This prompted us to design our houses with ample deck areas, covered verandahs and raised timber walkways. However, to this day, we haven’t had any flooding that has affected the houses the way it did those first 3 months.
Is Byron a great spot for you both raising the family?

Byron is a wonderful environment for young children. We have three boys, Noah (11), Hunter (10) and Arlo (6). They enjoy a sense of freedom and safety within a small community. We often spend Thursday morning at the Farmers Market before school where they catch up with their friends whose parents are selling local produce. The fact that they screw their noses up if they eat a banana from Woolies is very rewarding as a parent.
The Atlantic is involved in the Artist Residency Program with ART PARK, can you tell us more about that?
The Art Park Atlantic Artist Residency Program commenced in January 2011. There are 2 residencies a year, February/March and August/September. Each running for 4-6 weeks. It’s open to artists from all over the world covering photography to sculpture. Atlantic provide the artist with accommodation and studio space, and have housed artists Joni Sternbach and Nathaniel Russell so far in the residency program.
To find out more about The Atlantic Byron Bay visit their website, or checkout their Common Ground Directory listing.