Two Forbes Five-Star hotels, a few blocks apart, at the top of Beverly Hills. The Peninsula is the low-rise garden classic built on service. The Waldorf Astoria is the newer, glossier tower with a destination spa. The split is era, not quality.
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Both are at the very top of the Beverly Hills market, both hold Forbes Five Stars, and both sit within a few blocks of each other. They feel like different decades.
The Peninsula is the low-rise garden hotel: discreet, residential, almost villa-like, with the old-Hollywood hush of a place that has been the quiet benchmark for service in Los Angeles for decades. Its rooftop Roof Garden holds a pool and cabanas, and its spa is long-celebrated. You come here to be looked after and left alone in equal measure.
The Waldorf Astoria is the contemporary statement. Opened in 2017 and designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon, it is a sleek tower on the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica, with a glamorous rooftop pool and, at its core, a Forbes Five-Star La Prairie Spa of around 5,000 square feet. It trades the Peninsula's garden calm for sparkle, height and a focused destination spa.
The short version: the Peninsula for classic, residential calm and legendary service; the Waldorf for new design and a product-led spa. The full case for each is below, honest trade-offs included.
| The Peninsula Beverly Hills | Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Classic calm, service, residential privacy | Contemporary design, a destination spa, glamour |
| Opened / style | Low-rise garden hotel with villas | 2017 tower, Pierre-Yves Rochon design |
| Signature spa | Long-celebrated Peninsula Spa + Roof Garden | Forbes Five-Star La Prairie Spa, ~5,000 sq ft |
| Pool | Rooftop Roof Garden pool with cabanas | Glamorous rooftop pool with cabanas |
| Setting | Quiet, residential pocket off the main roads | Prominent Wilshire & Santa Monica corner |
| Rating | Forbes Five-Star | Forbes Five-Star (spa Five-Star too) |
| Rate tier | $$$$ | $$$$ |
The restorative offer: An open-air Roof Garden with a pool and cabanas, a long-celebrated spa, and the deep, anticipatory calm of a low-rise garden hotel, the kind of quiet that does as much for a guest as any treatment.
The Peninsula has been the quiet standard for service in Los Angeles for a generation, a perennial Forbes Five-Star hotel that wears its status lightly. It is low-rise and residential, built around gardens and villas rather than a tower, so the mood is private and unhurried. The rooftop Roof Garden gives the hotel its open-air heart, a pool, cabanas and a place to slow down above the city, and the Peninsula Spa pairs treatment rooms with that same calm. Rooms are classically luxurious rather than fashion-forward, and the service, attentive without theatre, is the reason regulars return.
For wellness, the appeal is atmosphere as much as facilities: a hotel engineered for rest, where a spa day flows into a quiet garden afternoon.
Honest trade-off: The classic styling that loyalists love can read as traditional next to the Waldorf's contemporary polish, and the spa, while celebrated, is not the single product-led destination that La Prairie is. It is every bit as expensive as its rival. Who it isn't for: travellers who want of-the-moment design, a buzzy rooftop scene and a focused, brand-name destination spa.
We score the hotel, not Beverly Hills in the abstract: Service, Design and Food reflect the standard on property; Wellness reflects the spa and rooftop offer; Location reflects setting and access. Weighted Service 25%, Design 20%, Wellness / Value / Food 15% each, Location 10%. HotelsForKings editorial judgments, not guest-review averages.
The restorative offer: A Forbes Five-Star La Prairie Spa of roughly 5,000 square feet, built around the exclusive Swiss skincare house, capped by a glamorous rooftop pool, a focused, product-led wellness day rather than an incidental amenity.
The Waldorf Astoria is Beverly Hills's contemporary heavyweight. Opened in 2017 and designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon, it brings lustrous, of-the-moment interiors and a real sense of arrival to a prominent corner of Wilshire. Its wellness centrepiece is the La Prairie Spa, one of very few spas to carry its own Forbes Five-Star rating, around 5,000 square feet built around the Swiss skincare brand, with a comprehensive fitness offer alongside. The rooftop pool, refreshed for 2026, supplies the glamour, cabanas, city views and a polished scene.
The look is sleeker and the spa more of a destination than the Peninsula's; this is the choice when design and a focused treatment programme matter most.
Honest trade-off: The corner setting is central but busier than the Peninsula's quiet pocket, and a contemporary tower, however polished, lacks the garden-villa intimacy and decades-deep service legend of its rival. It is priced at the very top. Who it isn't for: travellers who want a low-rise, residential hush and the most established service pedigree in town over newer design.
We score the hotel, not Beverly Hills in the abstract: Service, Design and Food reflect the standard on property; Wellness reflects the spa and rooftop offer; Location reflects setting and access. Weighted Service 25%, Design 20%, Wellness / Value / Food 15% each, Location 10%. HotelsForKings editorial judgments, not guest-review averages.
The gap between a great Beverly Hills weekend and an overpriced one is mostly the details: which room category is worth the jump, whether the Peninsula villa or the Waldorf tower suits your trip, and which spa, the celebrated Roof Garden or the Forbes Five-Star La Prairie, should decide it. We track both and send the honest version, one email at a time.
Book the Peninsula when you want classic calm and the most established service in Los Angeles: a low-rise garden hotel, villas, a rooftop Roof Garden pool and a celebrated spa, all in a quiet, residential pocket of Beverly Hills. It is the more private, more timeless of the two.
Book the Waldorf Astoria when design and the spa lead: Rochon interiors, a glamorous rooftop pool, and a Forbes Five-Star La Prairie Spa that is a destination in its own right. Accept a busier corner and a newer, glossier feel as the trade for that sparkle. A few blocks apart, they are the same league in two different keys.
A ranked shortlist, a special offer worth booking, and the overpriced stay to skip. Straight from the editors.
Both are Forbes Five-Star hotels at the top of the Beverly Hills market, and the choice is about era and mood. The Peninsula is the low-rise garden classic, residential and service-first, with villas, a Roof Garden pool and a long-celebrated spa. The Waldorf Astoria, opened in 2017 and designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon, is the sleeker, more contemporary tower, with a glamorous rooftop pool and a Forbes Five-Star La Prairie Spa. Choose the Peninsula for classic calm and legendary service; choose the Waldorf for newer design and a destination spa.
They are close, and they differ in character. The Waldorf Astoria's La Prairie Spa is itself Forbes Five-Star rated, spans about 5,000 square feet, and is built around the exclusive Swiss skincare house, making it a genuine destination spa. The Peninsula Spa is long-celebrated and pairs treatment rooms with the rooftop Roof Garden and its pool, a more resort-like, open-air calm. For a focused, product-led spa day, the Waldorf leads; for spa-plus-rooftop relaxation woven into the whole stay, the Peninsula is hard to beat.
Yes. Both The Peninsula Beverly Hills and the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills are open and operating in 2026, and both retain Forbes Five-Star status. The Waldorf Astoria's rooftop pool reopened in spring 2026 with a refreshed identity, so confirm rooftop and spa access dates if those are central to your stay. As always, verify room category and current rates directly before booking.
The Peninsula is the more residential and quiet of the two. It is a low-rise property with garden villas, a discreet, old-Hollywood hush and service that anticipates rather than performs. The Waldorf Astoria is the more overtly glamorous: a contemporary tower on a prominent Wilshire and Santa Monica corner, with a polished rooftop scene and Rochon's lustrous interiors. If you want privacy and calm, lean Peninsula; if you want sparkle and a sense of arrival, the Waldorf delivers it.
Both are excellent and close to one another near the western edge of Beverly Hills, within easy reach of Rodeo Drive and the Golden Triangle. The Waldorf Astoria sits on the busy corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards, which is central and visible but less hushed. The Peninsula is set just off the main arteries in a quieter, more residential pocket, which suits its garden calm. For walkable buzz, the Waldorf has a slight edge; for a peaceful base, the Peninsula does.
Both work well, and the spa you prefer often decides it. The Waldorf Astoria suits couples who want a product-led, Forbes Five-Star La Prairie spa day and a glamorous rooftop to round it off. The Peninsula suits those who want a quieter, more residential retreat, with the Roof Garden pool, a celebrated spa and the privacy of a garden villa. For a focused wellness weekend, the Waldorf's spa is the draw; for restful seclusion across the whole stay, the Peninsula leads.