Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / United States / Los Angeles / Hotel Bel-Air
Hotel Bel-Air
Los Angeles, California, United States · Dorchester Collection · Apex Luxury
Marilyn Monroe's last Vogue sitting was shot here six weeks before her death, and Grace Kelly returned so often the hotel named a suite for her. Texan Joseph Drown opened Hotel Bel-Air in 1946 with architect Burton Schutt, converting Alphonzo Bell's 1922 estate offices and stables into a 12-acre canyon hideaway where guests still cross Swan Lake by footbridge. Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart checked in for decades; Dorchester Collection closed it for two years and reopened the 103-room resort in October 2011.
- 103 rooms
- Opened 1946
- Neighborhood: Bel-Air
- Rooms from 450 sq ft (42 m²)
- Architect: Burton Schutt
About Hotel Bel-Air
- Marilyn Monroe's final Vogue magazine shoot was photographed at Hotel Bel-Air six weeks before her death.
- Grace Kelly stayed so often that the hotel named a suite after her; the guest book also ran to Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, and Paul Newman.
- The property was specifically known as Stone Canyon before Drown's purchase.
- Alphonzo Bell first developed the 1922 estate on what became twelve acres of ficus, fig, palms, and continuously blooming gardens in Bel-Air.
- After Brunei's Dorchester Collection acquired the hotel in 2008, it closed for a major renovation and reopened in October 2011.
History
Hotel Bel-Air officially opened on August 24, 1946, after Texan hotel entrepreneur Joseph Drown purchased part of Alphonzo Bell’s original Bel-Air estate and converted the site into a secluded luxury hotel. The hotel was designed by Burton Schutt, and its mission-style main building dates to the property’s earlier office use. In the 1970s it underwent a major restoration led by Cuban architect Manuel S. Alvarez, and after Dorchester Collection acquired it in 2008 it received a two-year renovation with Alexandra Champalimaud and the Rockwell Group, reopening in 2011. Today it is known as one of Los Angeles’ classic “old Hollywood” hideaways, set amid gardens, swans, and a discreet canyon location.
The setting
Hotel Bel-Air sits at the end of Stone Canyon Road within a twelve-acre canyon landscape in Bel-Air, the exclusive enclave carved from open land by oil tycoon Alphonzo Bell in the early twentieth century. The original mission-style building served as Bell's estate planning office before entrepreneur Joseph Drown transformed it into a hotel in 1946, adding the Swan Lake that guests still cross by footbridge to reach the lobby. Its canopy of ficus, palms, and continuously blooming flowers insulates the property completely from city noise — the Hammer Museum is thirty-two minutes by car and the Getty thirty-five — embodying the Bel-Air ethos that the defining luxury is deliberate distance from commercial Los Angeles. 5 miles from I-405.
Restaurants and bars
- The Restaurant at Hotel Bel-Air — Restaurant · modern Californian with Mediterranean influence
- The Pâtisserie — Café · Parisian-inspired bakery, pastries
Amenities
- Spa
- Pool
- Fitness center
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- AAA Five Diamond (2026)
- Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star (2026)
- MICHELIN Three Keys (2026)
- World's 50 Best Hotels 51-100 (2026)
- Andrew Harper Members Choice (2025)
- World's 50 Best Hotels (2025)
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