The Peninsula Beverly Hills

Editorial score of 9.3 of 10, the composite average of the three factors above (Rooms, Service, Location). Method at our methodology page. Affiliate disclosure: booking links may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you, and never change our verdict.

Why is The Peninsula Beverly Hills so highly rated?

The Peninsula Beverly Hills sits at number two in Los Angeles because it does the hardest thing in hospitality consistently: it delivers genuinely anticipatory service, year after year, without turning it into theatre. Since opening in 1993 it has held both the AAA Five Diamond and Forbes Five-Star ratings every single year, a run no other hotel in Southern California can claim. That is not a marketing line so much as a description of how the place runs. The staff-to-guest ratio is high, preferences established on one visit are remembered on the next, and the delivery is quiet rather than performed. The entertainment industry has treated the hotel as a de facto office for decades, which tells you what people who negotiate for a living think of the discretion here.

The address is strategic rather than obviously romantic. The hotel stands near the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, a short walk from Rodeo Drive and only minutes from Century City, which is why it has become the default meeting hotel for the industry's senior tier. What lifts it above a very strong Beverly Hills field is the villa collection: 18 private structures set in a garden, with their own entrances and dedicated service, that offer a level of privacy the tower hotels nearby simply cannot. For a sensitive stay, a proposal, or a trip where the point is to be looked after rather than looked at, this is the standard the others are measured against.

What are the best rooms to request?

If your budget stretches to it, request one of the 18 private villas, because they are the reason the Peninsula wins on privacy in Beverly Hills. Each villa is a separate structure with its own entrance, a private garden or terrace and dedicated butler service, which makes it suited to long stays and to anyone for whom being seen in a lobby is a professional issue. In the main building, rooms are large by Beverly Hills standards, with travertine and marble bathrooms, high-thread-count linens and the Peninsula's signature bedside tablet that controls temperature, lighting and service. The technology is functional rather than showy, which is the right call, and the suites step up the space and the light without changing the calm.

One honest caveat: this is a 1993 building run with impeccable maintenance rather than a brand-new design hotel, so guests chasing the latest architectural statement will find the aesthetic classic and residential instead. Entry rooms look into the neighbourhood rather than over a skyline, because Beverly Hills is low-rise, so the view is not the selling point here. Book the Peninsula for the service, the villas and the sense of being genuinely looked after, and the rooms deliver comfort without ever trying to shout.

What is the dining and the bar scene like?

Dining here is serious, which is not always true of Beverly Hills hotels. The signature restaurant is The Belvedere, the only AAA Five Diamond restaurant in Los Angeles, serving contemporary European cuisine in a classic French-country room under Executive Chef Luis Cuadra, with a wine list built for people who read it as a document rather than a prop. The Living Room is the all-day lounge, the place for afternoon tea, cocktails and the kind of unhurried meeting that goes better over indirect light and a good drink than across a conference table. Up top, The Roof Garden is the rooftop restaurant beside the spa pool, a skylit space where the kitchen uses herbs and vegetables grown in the hotel's own rooftop garden. Between the three you can run a full day, from a working breakfast to a celebratory dinner, without leaving the property.

Does it have a spa and pool?

Yes, and the wellness offer is a genuine strength rather than a token. The Peninsula Spa occupies a full floor, with treatment rooms, a comprehensive fitness centre and a spa butler service that can arrange treatments at hours most hotels would call closed. The rooftop pool is the centrepiece: high enough for open views over Beverly Hills, generous enough for real laps, and doubling as the setting for The Roof Garden. On a warm afternoon the pool terrace draws a specific, well-dressed local crowd, which is part of the appeal, and for a spa-led stay the combination of the full-floor spa and the rooftop is hard to beat in this part of the city.

Signature amenities

At the edge of the Golden Triangle

The rooms, the villas, the rooftop pool

Exterior

Guest room

Rooftop pool

Garden villa

How does The Peninsula compare with Beverly Hills's other five-star hotels?

Against the field, The Peninsula is the service-and-privacy benchmark, and the choice comes down to what matters most on your trip. Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, is the landmark address at the foot of Rodeo Drive, the most recognisable position in Beverly Hills. Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills is the newer corner property with a headline rooftop pool. Sunset Tower Hotel trades Beverly Hills for the Sunset Strip and Art Deco character, with the Tower Bar as its draw. The Peninsula's own trade-off is that it is a classic 1993 building rather than a new design statement, and its entry rooms look into the neighbourhood rather than over a view.

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