The Best Luxury Hotels in Los Angeles Right Now

From the hedge-lined driveways of Beverly Hills to the bluffs above Malibu, Los Angeles is home to some of the most consequential luxury hotels in the world — properties that have hosted a century of premieres, deals, and quiet reinventions. But “five-star” gets used loosely in this city, often interchangeably with “expensive” or “famous.” It isn’t the same thing. This guide draws a hard line between the two: LA’s actual AAA Five Diamond properties, and separately, the legendary institutions that define the city’s luxury identity by reputation rather than formal rating. For the fuller context on where to stay across Los Angeles, see our complete guide to Haute Living Los Angeles.

Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

The newest of Beverly Hills’s top-tier hotels is also its most architecturally deliberate. Built on the former site of Trader Vic’s and completed in 2017, the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills was designed in a Streamline Moderne style that nods to old Hollywood glamour without imitating it, with interiors by Pierre-Yves Rochon that favor warm materials over polish for its own sake. Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Jean-Georges Beverly Hills anchors the ground floor, while La Prairie Spa occupies the upper levels — a pairing of French culinary pedigree and Swiss skincare pedigree that suits a hotel holding AAA Five Diamond status. At roughly 170 rooms and suites, it stays intimate by design, never chasing the scale of its Sunset Boulevard neighbors. It’s the rare Beverly Hills hotel with no history to lean on, and it has built its reputation entirely on execution instead.

Photo Credit: Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau

The Beverly Hills Hotel

Nothing in Los Angeles carries quite the symbolic weight of the Pink Palace. Opened in 1912 — a full six years before the city of Beverly Hills was formally incorporated — The Beverly Hills Hotel has spent over a century as the address against which every other hotel in the city is measured. Its 23 private bungalows and the Polo Lounge have hosted everything from Old Hollywood contract negotiations to modern-day awards-season breakfasts, and the Dorchester Collection’s stewardship has kept the property in AAA Five Diamond territory without sanding down its personality. The pink-and-green banana-leaf motif is now one of the most recognizable visual signatures in American hospitality, but the hotel’s real accomplishment is staying genuinely relevant rather than becoming a museum piece. Its holiday programming alone draws a crowd that spans three generations of regulars.

Photo Credit: The Maybourne Beverly Hills

The Maybourne Beverly Hills

Formerly Montage Beverly Hills until the Maybourne Hotel Group’s 2019 acquisition, this Canon Drive property has used its rebrand to push further upmarket rather than simply changing signage. It has held AAA Five Diamond status since 2023, one of six Beverly Hills hotels to currently carry the distinction. Recent additions like its rooftop caviar and oyster bar and Dante’s Italian aperitivo concept show a property still actively building its identity rather than resting on a legacy name. Spa Maybourne and a rooftop pool and terrace round out an experience built for a guest who wants top-tier polish with a slightly younger, more design-forward sensibility than its older neighbors. At roughly 200 rooms across 256 keys, it sits at a genuinely competitive scale within the city’s top tier.

The Peninsula Beverly Hills

The Peninsula Beverly Hills has held AAA Five Diamond status continuously since 1993 — the longest unbroken run of any hotel in the city. Its 2025 design refresh updated guest rooms and public spaces without disturbing the formula that has kept it a Rodeo Drive-adjacent favorite for over three decades — 195 rooms including 17 private villas, The Belvedere restaurant, and a Peninsula Spa built around the same personalized-service philosophy that defines the brand globally. It remains one of the few hotels in the city where a third-generation regular and a first-time visitor get treated identically well.

Photo Credit: The Peninsula Beverly Hills

Hotel Bel-Air

Set among gardens that predate the hotel itself by nearly a quarter-century, Hotel Bel-Air has operated as Los Angeles’s most private celebrity hideaway since 1946. AAA has recognized it with Five Diamond status since 2019. Its ongoing cultural programming, including past exhibitions like an Andy Warhol showcase, reflects a hotel that treats discretion and artistic relevance as compatible rather than competing priorities. Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant on-site — the birthplace of his tortilla soup — remains one of the quieter culinary landmarks in the city. At just over 100 rooms and suites, it has never chased scale, and that restraint is precisely the point.

Photo Credit: Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau

L’Ermitage Beverly Hills

The quietest name on this list is also, by accreditation, one of the most legitimate — L’Ermitage Beverly Hills has held AAA Five Diamond status since 2022, on a residential stretch of Burton Way less than a mile from Rodeo Drive. Its all-suite format, in place since 1975, has long made it a preferred hideaway for industry insiders who want space and discretion over a lobby scene. The French restaurant Avec Nous and a private rooftop pool round out a property that punches well above its public profile, and its nightly rates sit meaningfully below its five Beverly Hills peers despite matching their accreditation tier — arguably the best value entry point into the city’s true luxury elite.

Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel

Few hotels anywhere carry the cultural footprint of the Beverly Wilshire, immortalized by Pretty Woman and standing since 1928 on the site of the old Beverly Hills Speedway. What it delivers is unmistakable: 395 rooms, Wolfgang Puck’s CUT steakhouse, and a Rodeo Drive address that remains one of the most photographed hotel entrances in the world.

Fairmont Century Plaza

The “Hotel of the Stars” reopened in 2021 after a five-year, $2.5 billion renovation of its 1966 original — one of the largest hotel restorations in recent American history. Its recent après-ski-style holiday programming shows a property still finding new ways to reintroduce itself to a generation of Angelenos who never knew the original. At 400 rooms and with Lumière as its flagship restaurant, it’s built at a genuinely different scale than its Beverly Hills counterparts.

Terranea Resort

Built on the former site of Marineland of the Pacific, Terranea remains the only true oceanfront resort of this scale within Los Angeles County, spread across 102 bluff-top acres in Rancho Palos Verdes. Its wellness programming at the bungalows remains one of its strongest draws, alongside a 50,000-square-foot spa and 582 rooms, casitas, and villas — a scale that makes it the largest resort on this list by a wide margin.

Nobu Ryokan Malibu

At just 16 rooms directly on Carbon Beach, Nobu Ryokan Malibu operates on a different logic than every other property on this list — intimacy and design are the draw. Completed in 2017 by Robert De Niro and Nobu Matsuhisa with Studio PCH, it offers a Japanese-inspired ryokan experience steps from the ocean, with a two-night minimum and rates starting around $2,000 per night — among the highest nightly rates of any property in this guide.

Shutters on the Beach

Opened in 1993 directly on Santa Monica’s sand, Shutters on the Beach remains one of the few hotels in Los Angeles County where guests can walk barefoot from the lobby to the ocean. Its enduring appeal has less to do with formal accreditation than with a genuinely rare setting — 186 rooms, the restaurant 1 Pico, and a laid-back beach-town sensibility that stands apart from the more formal Beverly Hills properties on this list.

The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles

Part of the LA Live complex downtown, The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles opened in 2010 as the anchor of a broader push to establish downtown LA as a legitimate luxury hospitality destination. It remains a fixture of Oscars-weekend coverage given its proximity to the Crypto.com Arena and Peacock Theater, with 123 rooms and Wolfgang Puck’s WP24 as its signature restaurant — a genuinely different neighborhood proposition than anything on the Westside.

Chateau Marmont

Built in 1929 and modeled after a Loire Valley château—and home to many Haute Living fashion editorials—Chateau Marmont’s reputation rests entirely on eight decades of Hollywood mythology, from Jean Harlow to John Belushi, rather than any diamond count, and that’s precisely why it belongs on this list despite the absence of a rating. Bar Marmont and its surrounding constellation of hideaway spaces — including the hidden Japanese restaurant Chateau Hanare — keep it culturally relevant well beyond its 63 rooms and bungalows.

For more of Haute Living’s Los Angeles coverage, see the Hautest Los Angeles Hotels By Neighborhood, our guide to the best hotels for Oscars weekend, and The Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now.

At a Glance

Modern Five Diamond Standard: Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills | Historic Icon: The Beverly Hills Hotel | Design-Forward Five Diamond: The Maybourne Beverly Hills | Longest-Running Five Diamond: The Peninsula Beverly Hills | Ultimate Privacy: Hotel Bel-Air | Best Value at Five-Diamond Tier: L’Ermitage Beverly Hills | Cultural Icon Status: Beverly Wilshire | Large-Scale Reinvention: Fairmont Century Plaza | Oceanfront Scale: Terranea Resort | Ultra-Intimate Design: Nobu Ryokan Malibu | Beachfront Santa Monica: Shutters on the Beach | Downtown Access: The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles | Unrated Cultural Mythology: Chateau Marmont

For more of Haute Living’s Los Angeles coverage, see the Hautest Los Angeles Hotels By Neighborhood, our guide to the best hotels for Oscars weekend, and The Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now.

FAQs

What are the only genuine five-star hotels in Los Angeles? Six hotels in greater Los Angeles currently hold AAA Five Diamond status: Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, The Beverly Hills Hotel, The Maybourne Beverly Hills, The Peninsula Beverly Hills, Hotel Bel-Air, and L’Ermitage Beverly Hills — all located in Beverly Hills.

Which LA hotel has held its five-star rating the longest? The Peninsula Beverly Hills has held AAA Five Diamond status continuously since 1993, the longest unbroken run of any Los Angeles hotel.

What is the best value five-star hotel in Beverly Hills? L’Ermitage Beverly Hills holds AAA Five Diamond status at nightly rates meaningfully below its five Beverly Hills peers with the same accreditation tier.

Which Los Angeles hotel is best for oceanfront luxury? Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes is the largest true oceanfront resort in Los Angeles County, though it holds AAA Four Diamond rather than Five Diamond status.

What is the most exclusive small hotel in Los Angeles? Nobu Ryokan Malibu, with only 16 rooms directly on Carbon Beach, is the most intimate ultra-luxury property in the Los Angeles area.

Which downtown LA hotel is best for luxury travelers? The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles at LA Live is the primary luxury hotel option in downtown Los Angeles, holding AAA Four Diamond status.

What is the oldest luxury hotel in Los Angeles? The Beverly Hills Hotel, opened in 1912, is the oldest hotel on this list and predates the incorporation of the city of Beverly Hills itself.

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