Hotel Bel-Air is the closest Beverly Hills Hotel alternative. Same Dorchester Collection ownership, 103 rooms against 210, twelve acres of gardens instead of a scene. The Maybourne adds a 20,000 square foot spa, the Peninsula holds Forbes five stars since 1994, and the Waldorf Astoria is the one you can book on points.
One building defines the brief here. The Beverly Hills Hotel opened in May 1912, went pink in 1948, and has run the same act ever since: 210 rooms and suites, 23 bungalows, the Polo Lounge. It books out. It also charges accordingly. Four hotels within a short drive do most of what it does, and each does one thing better. All four were verified against their own published material in July 2026.
Strip the mythology and the offer is specific. A Dorchester Collection house on Sunset Boulevard with 210 rooms and suites plus 23 garden bungalows, some with private pools and outdoor showers. A restaurant, the Polo Lounge, that has anchored the industry's breakfast since 1941. A pool with named history. This fall the hotel adds five new public dining and entertainment spaces, its first expansion of that kind in decades; the Polo Lounge, Fountain Coffee Room and Cabana Cafe stay as they are. The hotel remains open throughout. What no substitute replicates is the bungalow lore. What several replicate, and improve on, is everything else.
| Hotel | Opened | Keys | The one defining feature | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel Bel-Air | 1946 | 103, incl. 45 suites | 12 acres of gardens, same owner | The quiet version |
| The Maybourne Beverly Hills | 2008 (as Montage) | 201, incl. 55 suites | 20,000 sq ft bi-level spa | Wellness and space |
| The Peninsula Beverly Hills | 1991 | 195, incl. 38 suites | Forbes five stars since 1994 | Service consistency |
| Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills | 2017 | 170, incl. 51 suites | Rooftop by JG, Hilton points | Modern build, points |
Room counts and facts come from each hotel or its operating group, checked July 2026. A note on scoring: our Los Angeles profiles carry star classifications rather than HFK decimal scores, so this page ranks on verified structure, not on a score column we will not invent. Read our methodology.
The sister house. Dorchester Collection runs both, so the service culture transfers intact. The setting does not, and that is the point of switching.
The essentials: One number explains this hotel: 12. That is the acreage of garden around 103 rooms, planted with 483 specimen trees and more than 4,000 plants by the hotel's own count, in the residential Bel-Air Estates north of Sunset. Nearly half the keys are suites, 45 of 103, the highest suite ratio on this page. Same owner as the Pink Palace, same standards, none of the theater.
The trade: Seclusion is the product, so there is no scene to walk into. No Polo Lounge equivalent, no people-watching, and you will drive to dinner unless you eat at the hotel. Travelers who want Beverly Hills at the door should stay in Beverly Hills.
The read: This is where Pink Palace regulars go when they stop wanting to be seen. Booking within the same group means the switch costs you nothing in service and gains you a canyon. The swan pond is not a metaphor. It is a pond, with swans, and it sets the tempo of the whole property.
Take it when: privacy outranks scene. Our Bel-Air vs Beverly Hills Hotel comparison settles the head-to-head in detail.
Read our Hotel Bel-Air review →The essentials: The building went up in 2008 as Montage Beverly Hills. Maybourne, the London group behind Claridge's and The Connaught, bought it in December 2019 for a reported 415 million dollars, then a record per-room price for a California hotel, and put its name on the door. What the money bought: 201 rooms including 55 suites, a bi-level spa of 20,000 square feet, and a rooftop pool facing the Hollywood Hills. The spa is the largest on this page by a wide margin.
The trade: History is the one thing a 2008 building cannot buy. The house has London pedigree and Beverly Hills polish but no lore of its own yet, and guests chasing the 1912 patina will notice the difference in the walls.
The read: Newer bones matter more than the marketing admits. Rooms are larger and quieter than in converted older stock, balconies are real, and the spa is a destination rather than an amenity. As a pure hardware proposition this is the strongest hotel on the page.
Take it when: the spa is half the reason for the trip, or you want current construction standards under classical styling.
Read our Maybourne Beverly Hills review →Then the data points one way. One Beverly Hills hotel has held the Forbes Travel Guide's top rating for more than three decades without a break.
The essentials: Forbes Travel Guide has rated this hotel five stars every year since 1994, and it is the only Beverly Hills hotel to hold top ratings from both Forbes and AAA for more than 25 consecutive years. The inventory: 195 rooms including 38 suites plus a set of private garden villas with their own entrances, tucked behind the main house. A renovation refreshed the rooms ahead of the hotel's 35th anniversary in 2026, in pale palettes with marble quartz surfaces.
The trade: The address is the working end of Santa Monica Boulevard rather than a garden estate, and the hotel's footprint is compact. If sprawling grounds are the draw, the Bel-Air wins without trying. We omit the villa count deliberately; the hotel's own materials state it inconsistently.
The read: Thirty-plus unbroken years at the top of the two American rating systems is not luck. It is process. The rooftop pool deck and the garden villas give it two quiet zones the rating inspectors never needed to inflate. This is the pick for travelers who define luxury as nothing going wrong.
Take it when: consistency beats character. Our Peninsula vs Waldorf Astoria comparison is the natural next read.
Read our Peninsula Beverly Hills review →The essentials: The youngest hotel here, opened in 2017, with 119 rooms and 51 suites in an Art Deco-inflected design by Pierre-Yves Rochon. The roof carries the hotel's defining feature: a pool deck with 360-degree views and The Rooftop by JG, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's open-air restaurant. Because it is a Hilton brand, it is the only hotel on this page bookable with a mainstream points currency.
The trade: The corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica is a traffic junction, not a garden. Rooms buffer the noise well; the arrival experience does not. And at nine years old the hotel is still accumulating the history its name implies.
The read: For a certain traveler the math ends the debate: Hilton Honors points and fifth-night-free redemptions put a Beverly Hills flagship within reach of an award booking, something no Dorchester, Maybourne or Peninsula property offers. The rooftop at sunset is the best free upgrade in the neighborhood.
Take it when: you hold Hilton points, or the rooftop matters more than the address.
Read our Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills review →Reduced to one line each. Anniversary or proposal: Hotel Bel-Air, the gardens do the work. Spa-led long weekend: the Maybourne, nothing else is close on square footage. Business trip where everything must simply function: the Peninsula. Award redemption or a first look at Beverly Hills: the Waldorf Astoria. A milestone birthday where the room is the point: back to the Bel-Air, and ask for a suite; 45 of its 103 keys qualify.
First, this page compares structure, not rates. Beverly Hills pricing moves with awards season, and any nightly figure we printed today would mislead you in October, so we name what is fixed and let the booking engines argue about the rest. Second, our Los Angeles profiles do not carry HFK decimal scores, so the ranking above rests on verified facts and stated criteria rather than a score column; where a number could not be confirmed, the Peninsula's villa count for one, we left it out. Third, if the bungalows are why you want the Beverly Hills Hotel, stop reading and book the Beverly Hills Hotel. Twenty-three detached rooms with that specific history exist at one address, and no alternative on this page pretends otherwise.
Hotel Bel-Air. It is the Beverly Hills Hotel's own sister property, run by the same Dorchester Collection, and it delivers the same garden-estate idea at half the scale: 103 rooms, 45 of them suites, set in 12 acres of gardens in Bel-Air. You trade the Polo Lounge scene for quiet. That is the whole decision.
Yes. Both are operated by Dorchester Collection, the luxury group whose portfolio also includes The Dorchester in London and Hotel Plaza Athenee in Paris. In Los Angeles the two houses are managed as siblings, which is why service culture and pricing feel related even though the settings differ sharply.
The Maybourne Beverly Hills. Its bi-level spa measures 20,000 square feet, the largest dedicated spa footprint among the five hotels on this page, and the hotel adds a rooftop pool with views over Los Angeles toward the Hollywood Hills. The Beverly Hills Hotel's wellness offer centers on its historic pool and cabanas rather than spa scale.
One of them. Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is a Hilton brand, so standard Hilton Honors earning and award redemption apply. The Beverly Hills Hotel, Hotel Bel-Air, the Maybourne and the Peninsula all sit outside the major hotel loyalty currencies, though several participate in card programs such as Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts through travel advisors.
Yes. The hotel remains open and bookable. Dorchester Collection has announced five new public dining and entertainment spaces arriving in fall 2026, the first additions of their kind in decades, while the Polo Lounge, Fountain Coffee Room and Cabana Cafe stay unchanged. If construction activity bothers you, ask the hotel what is underway for your exact dates.
Hotel Bel-Air. It sits in the residential Bel-Air Estates north of Sunset, wrapped in 12 acres of gardens with 483 specimen trees by the hotel's own count. There is no busy lobby scene and no paparazzi corridor. The Peninsula is the runner-up: its garden villas behind the main building have private entrances and a residential feel.
It is the newest large luxury build in Beverly Hills after the Waldorf Astoria. The building opened in 2008 as Montage Beverly Hills. Maybourne, the London group behind Claridge's, acquired it in December 2019 for a reported 415 million dollars, then a record per-room price for a California hotel, and renamed it. The bones are modern even if the styling is classical.
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