The Jamaican government built the resort for $10 million and opened it in 1976 as Negril Beach Village, a name so generic it could have belonged to any Caribbean property. The renaming to Hedonism II in 1981 marked a sharper identity. Two-story buildings house 280 rooms across grounds that divide into "prude" and "nude" sections, a binary that captures the resort's central tension. In 1989, local resort magnate John Issa and his family company SuperClubs acquired a 50% stake for $12.25 million. Issa ran the property for over two decades before selling to Marshmallow Ltd. in February 2013, a company headed by financier Harry Lange, though the Issa family retained a minority stake alongside longtime employee Kevin Levee.

A sibling resort opened in 1999 at Runaway Bay on Jamaica's north coast. Hedonism III occupied 10 acres with 225 rooms in three-story buildings, but it never achieved its predecessor's cultural footprint. By August 2010 it closed for remodeling and reopened that October as SuperFun Beach Resort and Spa, a rebranding that eliminated both topless and nude sunbathing in an attempt to attract mainstream tourists. The pivot failed. SuperFun entered receivership by March 2011 and shut its doors permanently in June. The property's lenders, including the Caribbean Development Bank and the Development Bank of Jamaica, were left sorting through the wreckage. Meanwhile, back in Negril, the original carried on unbothered.

Public nudity is technically illegal in Jamaica, though the law's reach into a private resort remains legally ambiguous. A nude wedding involving eight couples at Hedonism III in 2001 drew protests from the Jamaica Tourist Board and radio hosts who called the ceremony "improper and offensive." Two years later, 29 couples participated in a similar event at the same venue. John Issa navigated these controversies with a particular brand of candor. He told reporters he was "not running a whorehouse" while simultaneously declaring himself satisfied with Hedonism's image of "decadence and debauchery." The resort's own marketing leaned into the contradiction, boasting on its website that "when it's bad it's even better and yes, everything you ever heard is true."

In July 2020, as Jamaica's tourism industry clawed its way back from the COVID-19 shutdown, Hedonism II opened what became known as the country's first legal and regulated cannabis dispensary. Called Hedo Weedo, the on-site shop was the brainchild of Kevin Levee and Harry Lange, who had spent five years navigating Jamaica's licensing process. The dispensary added another layer to a resort that has always been about pushing the boundaries of what a vacation destination can openly offer. Meanwhile, Hedonism II has embedded itself in popular culture. A character on The Office described it as "like Club Med, but everything is naked." Comedian Daniel Tosh featured a patron known as "Hedo Rick" in a viral 2010 segment. Books and films have followed, cementing the resort's place in the public imagination.

From the air, Hedonism II is just another cluster of low-rise buildings hugging a crescent of white sand at the top of Negril's beach. Nothing about the architecture announces what happens inside. The two-story buildings could belong to any mid-range Caribbean resort, and the 22 acres of tropical landscaping look as manicured and inoffensive as a Sandals brochure. But the resort has never traded on architecture or landscaping. It trades on permission, on the idea that a vacation can be a temporary suspension of ordinary social rules. Whether that idea is liberating or merely libertine has been debated for nearly five decades. The debate, of course, is excellent marketing.