The resort originally opened as Ocean Blue in November 1981 with 409 rooms and featured an onsite bakery, hairdressing salon and nightclub. It was popular for sporting groups, families and romantic getaways and regularly featured as the major prize given to contestants on the popular 80's Television series 'The Perfect Match' hosted by Cameron Daddo.

In the late 90's Hotel Management chain Accor signed a 10-year management agreement where it was known as the 'Mercure Resort' and commenced it's transition to a family resort installing the first Gecko Kids Club in Australia under the Accor brand.

By the mid 2000's the 10 year agreement with Accor had come to an end after which the owners at the time decided to operate as an independent and re-branded to 'Paradise Resort Gold Coast'.

In November 2019, Paradise Resort was given another life after being purchased by Australia's largest private hotel owner Dr Jerry Schwartz with final settlement on 29 February 2020.  The resort re-launched with a major charity event, a renewed vision and a $12 million plan to bounce back and retain the title of Australia's favourite family resort. 

By March 27 2020, the global pandemic known as COVID-19 saw the resort close its doors for the first time in 40 years. True to his word Dr Schwartz injected over $3 million to commence a much needed and long overdue makeover and General Manager David Brook engaged the team with an opportunity to be re-purposed throughout the resort. Turning a terrible situation into something positive we saw chefs on paintbrushes, housekeepers working in gardens and kids club attendants cleaning out the waterpark all pitching into work on everything from maintenance and cleaning, to engaging with local trades to commence larger renovation projects ready to re-open with a new vision and inspired team on 1 September 2020.