The Beverly Hills Hotel

The Hotel

The Beverly Hills Hotel opened in 1912 — two years before Beverly Hills was incorporated as a city, which establishes the order of priority correctly. The distinctive California Mission Revival building in its particular shade of pink, draped in banana leaf and bougainvillea, sits on twelve acres of Sunset Boulevard and has been the most photographed hotel in California for most of its existence. It is owned by the Dorchester Collection, like Hotel Bel-Air, but the atmosphere here is entirely its own: louder, more social, more conscious of being observed.

The 210 rooms, suites, bungalows, and villas span the main building and the gardens, and the categories represent genuinely different experiences. The main building rooms are handsome and well-appointed — Dorchester's standard of comfort applied to a building that knows its own history. But the 23 bungalows are the hotel's central argument. Set in the gardens, connected by pathways through the landscaping, with private outdoor space, some with private pools, they function as a separate residential proposition within the larger property. Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Howard Hughes all kept extended residences here. This is not ambient history; it is still visible in the scale and layout of the bungalows themselves.

The Polo Lounge is one of the most consequential restaurant tables in California. Breakfast at the Polo Lounge on a weekday morning assembles a cross-section of the entertainment industry that no invitation list could replicate — agents and actors, directors and dealmakers, and the specific category of Los Angeles powerful that has no title. The Cabana Cafe and the pool — one of the best hotel pool environments in Beverly Hills — handle the afternoon. The Dorchester Bar provides the evening's first note.

The Spa at The Beverly Hills Hotel is full-service with a menu of treatments calibrated to the clientele: long massages, facial protocols, and the kind of nail appointments that Beverly Hills women genuinely judge hotels by. The fitness centre is competent without being exceptional, which reflects the correct assessment that guests at this hotel exercise primarily outdoors or elsewhere. The pool is a different matter — the cabanas at poolside are a social institution, and the pool staff, who have been managing the particular theatre of a Beverly Hills hotel pool for generations, perform the function with correct ceremony.

Best for Anniversary

The Beverly Hills Hotel's anniversary proposition is cultural as much as physical. To stay here for an anniversary is to participate in a tradition — the same rooms, the same pink tablecloths at the Polo Lounge, the same banana leaf wallpaper — that has been held in high esteem by one of the most sophisticated hospitality markets in the world for over a century. The bungalows, in particular, deliver the private garden environment that transforms a hotel stay into a genuine retreat. A bungalow with a private pool, Polo Lounge breakfast service in the garden, and an anniversary dinner at the Cabana Cafe by the pool produces an experience that is specific to this hotel and available nowhere else.

The Dorchester romance team is practised at this. They know the hotel's best tables, the rooms with the most light, and the timing of the pool that minimises other guests. Call ahead and describe what you want — they will either deliver it or tell you honestly what they cannot.

Best for Bachelor / Bachelorette

The Beverly Hills Hotel is the correct answer for a bachelorette with a budget, a group who wants to feel like they are genuinely in Beverly Hills rather than adjacent to it, and an itinerary that begins at the pool cabanas and ends somewhere on Sunset. The hotel's social architecture — multiple bars, a legendary pool scene, the Polo Lounge for Sunday brunch — supports a group stay without requiring everyone to be in the same room at the same time. The banana leaf wallpaper photographs exceptionally well, which has become a relevant consideration for this category of stay.

Rates from $795/night. Check availability at dorchestercollection.com.