Larry Ellison’s Hawaiian Four Seasons island resort – would you pay US$1,700 a night to stay at Sensei Lanai, the Oracle co-founder’s wellness retreat and luxury spa?
- Tech billionaire Ellison bought most of the island for US$300 million in 2012 and now lives and works there over Zoom
- He also owns Island Air and a hydroponic farm using Tesla solar panels that supplies the resort’s Nobu restaurant
A wellness and spa resort driven by data (no surprise there!), it is called Sensei Lanai, a Four Seasons resort. This month, Sensei unveiled a new partnership with fitness-tracking company Whoop to track health metrics and work with guests to keep tabs on their long-term wellness.
Sensei CEO Kevin Kelly said the resort’s goal is to help people “live longer, healthier lives” by improving sleep, movement and nutrition. Sensei is guided by health science, data and research, the company says.
While Ellison previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, the resort is now in his backyard: Ellison revealed late last year that he had moved to Lanai amid the coronavirus pandemic. He plans to use “the power of Zoom to work from the island”, he wrote in an email to Oracle employees, who had been asking about Ellison’s plans in the wake of Oracle moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas.
Lanai, which is home to about 3,200 people, is the smallest inhabited island in Hawaii. Its serene beaches and rugged terrain are studded with high-end resorts, and also host Ellison’s development company, Pulama Lanai, which aims at encouraging sustainable land use and management.
Read on for a look inside Ellison’s eco-friendly, data-powered resort.
In 2012, Ellison bought 98 per cent of the island of Lanai for an estimated US$300 million