Foreclosures are up, stocks are down and the workplace is awash in pink slips.
Amid this economic gloom and doom, at a time when frugality is fashionable and opulence suspect, three Southern California luxury hotels have opened -- the Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, Montage Beverly Hills and the SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills.
In the giddy days of rampant prosperity -- remember those? -- when planning for these properties began, no one foresaw that they were destined to make their debut in a worsening recession. One might assume that these hoteliers, faced with filling $400 and up guest rooms, high-end restaurants and luxury spas, might be in panic mode.
One would be incorrect.
"Hotels are generally one of the first markets that bounce back," said Sam Nazarian, chief executive of L.A.-based SBE, whose quirky and ultra-stylish SLS is its first luxury hotel brand. "People need to come to L.A. to do business, and we still have the entertainment industry, a solid core for our business. [Los Angeles] is notorious for not having the proper amount of rooms at this level. It's the safest and best hotel market in the country."
The luxury market customer isn't hard to identify -- chief executives, captains of industry, major entertainment players -- but a luxury hotel is more than its room rates. Among the musts today: a super-spa; discreet in-room check-in; welcoming perks such as hot scented towels; separate entrances for hotel guests and bar/restaurant guests; high thread-count imported linens; pillow-top mattresses; private poolside cabanas with flat-screen TVs; and state-of-the-art computer and iPod connections.
There are high-tech fitness centers, 24-hour room service, nightly turndown and perhaps twice-daily housekeeping. There may be fresh fruit and flowers.
At Pelican Hill, guests in the spacious villas have 24-hour personal butlers. At Montage, suite guests can use one of the hotel's fleet of 10 Mercedeses. SLS Hotel's JetVan is on call to take guests anywhere within two miles, including SBE's Hyde Lounge and its other clubs.
How else do they pamper us? Based on my December visits, let me recount the ways.
--
The Resort at Pelican Hill
I turned off Newport Coast Drive in Newport Coast, drove through one of two towering arches and uphill to the resort, pulling into a huge circular motor court. Everything at Pelican Hill seems larger than life, a luxury made possible because it sits on 504 acres of Irvine Co. land.
