The Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air are both storied locales set in prime zip codes in Los Angeles. Both are outfitted with the modern stylings of a celebrity crash pad and gilded with Old Hollywood charm. Both are members of the Dorchester Collection, the elegant London-based group.
And both so impressed our Inspectors that they’re the only two properties in the city to earn the top ranking for hotels in the MICHELIN Guide, Three Keys.
But from there, the properties distinguish themselves as one-of-a-kind institutions. In Beverly Hills, find a mecca of see-and-be-seen, with branding so iconic it’s become a fashion statement. In Bel-Air, a fairytale retreat, with actual royalty on the regulars list. Both – for their own different reasons – are absolutely worth a stay.
Read on for our side-by-side overview of LA’s two best hotels.
The Arrivals
The Beverly Hills Hotel
The sloping pull-up to The Beverly Hills Hotel off Sunset Boulevard is heralded by a palm tree-green sign with the signature, looping font of the property. At the top of the driveway, a porte-cochere manned by veteran valets gives way to a sea of red carpet, where studio stars and wide-eyed visitors have paraded for decades. This is a Hollywood entrance, a flashy arrival that signals the kind of stay guests are in for.
Hotel Bel-Air
Through the neoclassical gates that welcome visitors to this most exclusive of LA neighborhoods, down winding roads lined with megamansions, the Hotel Bel-Air spreads out like a storybook estate, complete with a small lake and its swans. In June, a guest’s first steps into the hotel, over a covered stone footbridge, is scented by jasmines in bloom. Natural beauty, in the secret courtyards and towering redwoods, is prized here.
The Rooms
The Beverly Hills Hotel
There are 210 rooms and suites across the hotel, including 23 bungalows set on paths that wind through an especially green part of the property. The freestanding pads, renovated between 2016 and 2019, are the lodgings that The Beverly Hills Hotel is most known for, with a list of tenants that reads like an Academy Awards Wikipedia page. There’s Bungalow 22, inspired by Frank Sinatra, with handsome woodwork and a grand piano, and Bungalow 1, Marilyn Monroe’s favorite, decked out in plush carpeting and with a walk-in wardrobe.
Hotel Bel-Air
Many of the 58 rooms and 45 suites spread throughout the Hotel Bel-Air front gardens. The Presidential Suite, at over 2,200 square feet the self-styled largest suite in Los Angeles, is the pièce de résistance. Often booked out for weeks at a time, the Spanish-tiled space has a dining table with room for 10 and a private pool bigger than that of many other entire hotels. Other suites come with their own built-in legacies, like the luxe one named for Grace Kelly, which holds an electronic archive of letters that she penned there.
The Restaurants
The Beverly Hills Hotel
The Polo Lounge, the venerated restaurant at The Beverly Hills Hotel, has been a central force behind the hotel’s vaunted reputation. This is the “Hollywood commissary,” where Golden Age stars had regular tables and deals are inked at power lunch on the patio today. The go-to order here is the McCarthy Salad, a chopped cobb variation dressed in a brown sugar vinaigrette that’s been on the menu since the 1940s.
The hotel also counts the Fountain Coffee Room, a no-frills diner perfect for a morning-after recovery meal, and the poolside Cabana Café, with a menu recently refreshed with beachy Mexican classics. A very hush-hush food and beverage offering – the hotel’s first major addition in years – is set to arrive in 2026.
Hotel Bel-Air
The hotel’s main restaurant is an al fresco oasis, set beneath a pergola and crowded with bougainvillea. Spacious alcoves around the perimeter are highly sought after for private affairs. The menu here is California cuisine inspired by Culinary Director Joe Garcia’s twice-a-week trips to the farmers market, with cocktails that pull from the fragrant fruit trees around the acreage.
The Bar & Lounge is a dapper after-hours with live music nightly and an impressive collection of Japanese whiskey. And the newly opened Pâtisserie has become a fast favorite of Bel Air neighbors, who stop in for a croissant and an espresso at the European-styled café.
The Public Spaces
The Beverly Hills Hotel
The pool at The Beverly Hills Hotel, a 68-foot stunner only open to guests, is the centerpiece of public living at the property, with candy stripe loungers and cabanas ideal for a tan session. It was here that Faye Dunaway splayed out with her Oscar after her 1977 win in the memorable photo. Historical information and anecdotes along with a collection of throwback photography is displayed on the walls throughout the hotel. A small spa area includes the Duet Suite, where couple’s treatments can come with chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne.
Hotel Bel-Air
The grounds of the Hotel Bel-Air are positively lush, with over 1,200 different types of plants that crawl along footpaths and scatter flower petals on patios. Throughout the year, a series of sculpture exhibitions will see contemporary pieces stationed throughout the greenery.Follow a main pathway to the pool, in the space of an old riding circle by the estate’s former stable (since converted into rooms). The oval-shaped pool is, according to the hotel, the city’s deepest at 10 feet, having been grandfathered in to local building regulations. The Living Room, the hotel’s recently redone lavish gathering place, is centered around an oversized fireplace, with cozy couches and armchairs perfect for playing a board game or enjoying weekend afternoon tea service. The spa area is unique, with treatment rooms that open into private patios.
The Locations
The Beverly Hills Hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel is the bedrock of 90210, built in 1912 to draw a population to the area that would only later become incorporated as Beverly Hills. Its surroundings now are residential and central, just a few blocks from the shopping and dining that have made the zip code famous.
Hotel Bel-Air
The Hotel Bel-Air is in the heart of the Bel Air neighborhood and operates like a club for the homeowners of this all-residential community, who dine outdoors at its restaurants and take nightcaps at the bar. Fittingly, the actual Bel-Air country club and golf course is just a mile away.
The Deals
The Beverly Hills Hotel
Rooms start at $1,045 per night in the low season and $1,295 in the high season.
Book The Beverly Hills Hotel with The MICHELIN Guide →
Hotel Bel-Air
Rooms start at $995 per night in the low season and $1,245 in the high season.
Hero image: Collage of The Beverly Hills Hotel, Dorchester Collection & Hotel Bel-Air, Dorchester Collection
