SEVEN Hotel, Villas & Spa, part of The Capital Hotels Group, has completed a refurbishment of more than R18 million across all 61 of its rooms and villa suites, from the Grand Luxe rooms to the Presidential Villa Suite. The investment marks the relaunch of the property around a single idea: that a great hotel stay is something you experience through every sense, and that the best ones return you to yourself.
Set in a secret oasis on Helen Road, Strathavon, seven minutes from Grayston Drive and two kilometres from the Gautrain, SEVEN offers a leafy, tranquil setting for a breakfast meeting, while remaining close enough to Sandton’s business hub that the city’s energy is never far. Sandton has never been short of places to be seen. SEVEN has become a place to be felt.
Five senses, designed with intent
The first five senses work quietly, mostly before you notice them. Private gardens, trickling water and a curated art and sculpture collection. Villa suites are designed to be properly dark when you want them to be, and genuinely quiet at six in the morning in Sandton, which is harder than it sounds. Staff know when to be present and, just as importantly, when to leave you alone.
Sight. Step through the gates and Johannesburg seems to fall away. Secluded greenery, mature trees and a curated art and sculpture collection frame every view, so the eye settles on green and stone, where it would usually find glass towers and traffic. It feels like a world removed.
Sound. Trickling water in the gardens by day. By night and at six in the morning, a quiet that is rare anywhere in Sandton, and hard-won in the villa suites.
Smell. At SEVEN, even the air feels private. Morning air drifts in, carrying the scent of cut grass and whatever happens to be in bloom. Evenings bring the warmth of the Poison Ivy lounge and the quiet stillness of Spa by Camelot, where the city’s pace is left at the door.
Taste and touch. These two meet at Textures, SEVEN’s restaurant, named for the quality both senses share. The kitchen works with fresh ingredients and uncomplicated, exquisite dishes, served from 06:30 until 22:30, with tables beneath the stars. Private dining is available for guests who want the space to themselves. For many visitors, Textures is their first encounter with SEVEN: they come for a table and return for a room.
Touch carries through the rest of the stay too, from the redesigned villas and Jacuzzi Villa Suites to the leather and low light of Poison Ivy, the lounge for champagne, cognac and cigars on evenings that run longer than planned.
The sixth and seventh
Instinct, the sixth sense, is the one no hotel can design directly. SEVEN earns it by getting the first five right, consistently enough that guests stop assessing their surroundings and start relaxing into them. It tends to happen on the first evening, the moment the bag goes down.
The seventh is the sense the hotel is built for: a sense of self. Feeling composed and completely yourself, in a city that usually wants a version of you instead.
“Sandton asks a great deal of the people who move through it,” says Marc Wachsberger, founder and CEO of The Capital Hotels. “We reimagined SEVEN so that it gives something back. Whether you’re an executive in for two nights who needs to stay sharp, or a couple from down the road booking a villa suite twenty minutes from home, we want you to leave feeling composed and more like yourself than when you arrived. Composure is the new premium.”
SEVEN Hotel, Villas & Spa is pet friendly, offers conference and event facilities, and hosts weddings. Room service runs 24 hours from Tuesday to Saturday. Service without theatre. Business without blandness. Sandton asks a great deal of you. SEVEN gives something back. Come to your senses at SEVEN. Luxury with nothing to prove.