The catch at The Beverly Hills Hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel sells one kind of stay: the pink building, the Polo Lounge and the pool, in a corner of Beverly Hills where almost nothing else is on foot. Five things are worth knowing before you book it. None of them is hidden, and none outweighs lunch in the Polo Lounge if that is why you came.
On our shortlists
The entry room is $1,091 before tax, and tax and parking make it about $1,330 a night.
The Superior Room, about 400 sq ft (37 m²), was $1,091 on a Tuesday in early December 2026 before tax. Beverly Hills charges 14 per cent hotel tax and the other city and state levies bring the total to roughly 15.5 to 16 per cent, about $1,260 for the night, and parking is $70 a day. There is no resort fee. Rates rise in awards season: on a Tuesday in late January 2027 the same room was $1,307, 20 per cent more, and the Bungalow Room was $1,838.
What to do. Book outside awards season if your dates can move, and budget for a car or taxis, since this is a hotel where almost everything is a drive.
No restaurant but the hotel's own is within a ten-minute walk, and the beach is a drive.
The nearest cafés and restaurants outside the grounds are on North Beverly Drive, at least 22 minutes away on foot, and Rodeo Drive is about a mile. Everything else is a drive. With the roads clear, Santa Monica Pier is 19 minutes by car, the TCL Chinese Theatre 14 and LAX 26; the hotel itself puts the beaches at 30 to 45 minutes and the airport at 30 to 40, which is the fairer allowance in traffic. No Metro rail station is within walking distance.
What to do. Treat the beach as a day trip, and if the sea is the point of the holiday, book on the sand instead. The hotel's house car is free within three miles, from 7am to 10pm Monday to Thursday, 8am to 11pm on Friday and Saturday and 8am to 10pm on Sunday, which reaches Rodeo Drive and the Sunset Strip but not the coast.
Five new public spaces are being built beside the lobby, and none is open yet.
A supper club with 94 seats, a cocktail bar with a veranda, a lobby lounge, a screening room and a private dining room are going up to the left of the red-carpet entrance, the largest addition to the hotel since 1949, and the supper club is expected to open later in 2026. The Polo Lounge, the Fountain Coffee Room and the Cabana Cafe stay as they are. Until they open, there is building work beside the front entrance, and some rooms near it have had the work outside their windows.
What to do. Ask when you book which rooms are furthest from the work, and ask again at check-in. A Bungalow Room sits in the gardens, away from the main house where the work is.
The Polo Lounge has a dress code, the pool is for guests only and the hotel asks guests not to take photographs.
Swimwear, nightwear, ripped denim, crop tops, casual hats and men's sleeveless shirts are not allowed in the Polo Lounge at any hour, and after 4pm there are no shorts for men, flip-flops or sportswear; children under 10 are exempt. The pool is for hotel guests only, each cabana takes four, and the striped loungers are taken early. The hotel also asks guests not to take photographs, for the privacy of other guests, and does not permit unplanned professional photo or video shoots in its public spaces.
What to do. Change out of pool clothes before lunch, be at the pool early for a lounger, and ask the front desk what the photography rule means before you plan any pictures.
Eating in the hotel is expensive: a coffee in the Polo Lounge is $18 and a lox and bagel $44.
At Polo Lounge breakfast a filtered coffee is $18, buttermilk pancakes are $30 and a lox and bagel is $44. At lunch the McCarthy salad, the room's signature, is $46, the Wagyu burger $52 and the New York steak frites $70, and at dinner the filet mignon is $89. A 20 per cent service charge is added for parties of six or more. The Fountain Coffee Room, at the same address, is the cheaper room, with eggs, pancakes and sandwiches mostly about $20 to $30.
What to do. Spend the Polo Lounge money on one lunch, on the patio in daylight, and eat the other meals at the Fountain Coffee Room counter or at the cheaper places in the eating guide.
Who should skip it
Anyone who wants a beach, shops or a choice of restaurants on foot, because each is a drive or a long walk from the gates. Anyone watching the total, since the entry room comes to about $1,330 a night with tax and parking. And anyone who would rather not stay while building work runs beside the lobby.
Who should book it anyway
Anyone who wants Old Hollywood in the building where it happened: the 1912 hotel the city made its first historic landmark, lunch under the Polo Lounge's candy-striped ceiling, a stool at the Fountain Coffee Room counter and the 1938 pool among 12 acres of gardens. Book a Bungalow Room, bring a car or use the house car, make the Polo Lounge the one big meal and be at the pool before the loungers go. That is what the money buys, and for a first Los Angeles trip, an anniversary or a family that wants a pool with a story, it is worth it.
The catch elsewhere in LA
- Shutters on the BeachSanta Monica
A $60 nightly resort fee plus tax is added to every stay, and overnight valet is $90 a night, so a room that starts around $740 comes to about $930 with the 15 per cent hotel tax, the fee and $11.25 in nightly tourism fees, before the car.
- Malibu Beach InnMalibu
Pacific Coast Highway runs directly behind the building, and some guests mention hearing traffic over the surf; the King Pier View Rooms have the highway in view. Ask for a sea-facing room on the third floor, away from the street entrance.
- Terranea ResortPalos Verdes
A $75 resort fee and $75 for overnight valet add up to $150 a night on top of the room rate and the Rancho Palos Verdes hotel tax; the one- to four-bedroom bungalows, casitas and villas carry a $90 resort fee.
- Sunset Tower HotelSunset Strip
The room rate is not the whole price. A nightly amenity fee of $52.43, tax included, is added to every stay, parking is by valet at $75 a night, and 16.695% hotel tax applies to the room.
- Santa Monica Proper HotelSanta Monica
A $55 nightly destination fee plus tax is added to every stay, and valet parking is $90.27 per vehicle with tax, so the room rate is not the nightly cost, least of all for a guest with a car.
- The Hollywood RooseveltHollywood
Noise is part of the deal. The hotel runs restaurants, bars, private events and pool programming, music and pool activity can be audible in the cabana rooms around the pool, the Tropicana is shared with day-pass guests aged 21 and over, loungers are first come, first served, and the pool can close for private events or film shoots.
- The GarlandStudio City
The 101 freeway runs along the north-east edge of the grounds, and some rooms hear it. The hotel had its balcony doors replaced in 2013 to cut the noise, so keep the door shut at night and ask for a room away from the freeway side.
- Silver Lake Pool & InnSilver Lake
Noise is the recurring complaint: thin walls let through footsteps from the floor above and the corridor, and street-side rooms hear Santa Monica Boulevard traffic into the night, so ask for a quiet room away from the boulevard.
- Hotel FigueroaDowntown LA
The entry rooms are small: the 1 Queen Bed room is about 187 sq ft (17 m²) and the 1 King Bed about 270 sq ft (25 m²), so book the king or a suite if you want space to sit.
Questions people ask
Good questions about The Beverly Hills Hotel
What are the downsides of The Beverly Hills Hotel?
The Beverly Hills Hotel sells one kind of stay: the pink building, the Polo Lounge and the pool, in a corner of Beverly Hills where almost nothing else is on foot. Five things are worth knowing before you book it. None of them is hidden, and none outweighs lunch in the Polo Lounge if that is why you came. The entry room is $1,091 before tax, and tax and parking make it about $1,330 a night. No restaurant but the hotel's own is within a ten-minute walk, and the beach is a drive. Five new public spaces are being built beside the lobby, and none is open yet. The Polo Lounge has a dress code, the pool is for guests only and the hotel asks guests not to take photographs. Eating in the hotel is expensive: a coffee in the Polo Lounge is $18 and a lox and bagel $44.
Who should not book The Beverly Hills Hotel?
Anyone who wants a beach, shops or a choice of restaurants on foot, because each is a drive or a long walk from the gates. Anyone watching the total, since the entry room comes to about $1,330 a night with tax and parking. And anyone who would rather not stay while building work runs beside the lobby.
Our verdict
Book The Beverly Hills Hotel for the Polo Lounge, the pool and a building that has set the tone for Beverly Hills since 1912 and been pink since 1948, and choose a garden Bungalow Room over a bigger room in the main house. Budget for tax and $70 parking, and expect to drive to the beach and to Hollywood.