The lobby of the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood was designed in 1931 by Leland A. Bryant as an Art Deco apartment building. Frank Sinatra lived there. Marilyn Monroe lived there. Bugsy Siegel's former apartment is now the Tower Bar, which serves a $42 chicken paillard to a dining room that hasn't changed its curtains or its clientele in two decades. The hotel works because it doesn't try to be current. It just is what it's always been: a building that takes itself seriously in a city that often doesn't.
Los Angeles has more architecturally interesting hotels than any American city — a product of the entertainment industry's demand for impressive spaces, the real estate market's appetite for adaptive reuse, and a design culture that treats hotels as lifestyle statements rather than places to sleep. The Olympics arrive in 2028. The hotels are ready.
Downtown & Arts District
Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel — Kelly Wearstler's interiors in a 1920s building on South Broadway. The design layers Moroccan tile, hand-painted murals, and custom furniture against the building's original bones. The rooftop restaurant and pool offer views of the skyline that justify the room rate. The lobby feels like walking into a design magazine that somehow also serves excellent cocktails.
Kodō Hotel (Arts District) — A century-old firehouse converted into a 36-room hotel by architect Matthew Royce. Japanese-inspired minimalism meets the raw texture of the original firehouse architecture. The ground-floor restaurant, recently added to the Michelin Guide, serves Japanese-American cuisine. The rooms are small by LA standards and beautiful by any standard.
The Hoxton (Downtown) — The London-born brand's LA outpost occupies the historic theater district and channels old Broadway glamour through a contemporary lens. The lobby doubles as a coworking space and social hub. Rooms start surprisingly affordable for the location and the design quality.
Hotel Figueroa (Downtown) — A 1926 Spanish Colonial Revival building that underwent a $50 million restoration and emerged with its Moroccan-inspired soul intact. The lobby's hand-painted coffered ceilings and wrought-iron fixtures survived the renovation. So did the poolside bar, which serves mezcal cocktails under string lights to a crowd that includes hotel guests, downtown residents, and people who drove in specifically for the atmosphere. The rooms blend vintage tile work with contemporary comfort. The location — walking distance to LA Live, the Convention Center, and some of the best date night restaurants in LA — makes it the rare downtown hotel that feels connected to the neighborhood rather than insulated from it.
West Hollywood & Beverly Hills
Sunset Tower Hotel — The Art Deco monument described above. Jeff Klein's 2005 renovation preserved the building's 1931 character while adding the kind of service that old Hollywood expected and modern Hollywood still demands. The Tower Bar, in Bugsy Siegel's former apartment, is a genuine power-dining room. Book a room facing west for sunset views over the Strip.
1 Hotel West Hollywood — Sustainability as design principle: an organic rooftop garden with beehives, eliminated single-use plastics, and a lobby green wall shaped like the Hollywood sign. The rooms are airy and plant-filled, with views of the Hills that make the eco-conscious positioning feel less like marketing and more like common sense.
Viceroy L'Ermitage Beverly Hills — An all-suite hotel that delivers privacy, clean-lined design, and the kind of service where staff remember your name before your second visit. The rooftop pool is the highest in LA and the only one with 360-degree views of Beverly Hills. Refreshed in 2025 with updated public spaces that balance old-money discretion with contemporary warmth.
Westside & Beach
Hotel June (West LA) — A two-mile stroll from Playa Del Rey beach. Vibrant murals enliven an earthy color palette in the lobby, and the in-house Caravan Swim Club restaurant serves food good enough to attract non-guests. The pool area feels like a private club that forgot to check membership cards. Rooms are affordable by LA boutique standards.
Santa Monica Proper Hotel — Contemporary design and coastal elegance a few blocks from the beach. The interiors blend mid-century California aesthetics with Mediterranean textures. The rooftop restaurant is one of the better hotel dining experiences on the Westside.
Shutters on the Beach (Santa Monica) — The only hotel in Los Angeles that sits directly on the sand with nothing between you and the Pacific except a wooden boardwalk. The design leans into Cape Cod beach house aesthetics — white wood paneling, blue striped fabrics, a living room with a fireplace that actually gets used during Santa Monica's three-week winter. The location is unbeatable: walk south to Venice, north to the pier, or just stay on your private balcony and watch surfers. The on-site restaurant, Coast, serves California coastal cuisine with ocean views that justify the prices. Service is attentive without being intrusive, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. This is the hotel for people who want luxury that feels residential rather than corporate, and who understand that beachfront in Southern California is always worth the premium.
Malibu Beach Inn — Right on the water, with all 47 rooms overlooking the surf from private balconies. Interior designer Waldo Fernandez built custom white oak furniture for each room. The location — a few hundred yards from the historic pier — is the best in Malibu, and "best in Malibu" is a competitive category.
Koreatown
The LINE LA — A 1960s tower reimagined by the Sydell Group as a neighborhood-immersion hotel that actually delivers on the promise. Roy Choi's Commissary restaurant serves his greatest hits to a dining room that mixes hotel guests with Koreatown regulars. The ground floor hosts a Poketo shop, a record store, and a coffee bar that functions as a coworking space for the creatively employed. The rooftop pool and bar offer views across mid-city to downtown. Rooms are minimalist with warm wood accents and floor-to-ceiling windows. The location puts you within walking distance of some of the city's best Korean BBQ, karaoke rooms, and late-night food culture. This is the rare hotel that succeeds by making you feel less like a tourist and more like a temporary resident of one of LA's most vibrant neighborhoods. It's also convenient to the best coffee shops in LA for anyone mixing business with leisure.
East Side & Neighborhoods
Silver Lake Pool & Inn — A former mid-century motel at Sunset Junction, reimagined as a boutique hotel that captures Silver Lake's specific energy: indie, design-conscious, and walkable to some of the best restaurants and shops on the east side. The pool is the social center. The rooms are minimal and well-edited.
Alsace Hotel (West Adams) — Warm wood tones, terracotta tiles, and Moroccan rugs arranged around a spacious courtyard with rock gardens and rattan furniture. The Mediterranean aesthetic fits West Adams's historic architecture. This is the hotel for people who want to stay in a neighborhood rather than a tourist corridor.
Each hotel on this list captures a different version of the city — its light, its history, its particular combination of ambition and ease. The competition isn't between them. It's between all of them and the Airbnb listing on your phone. They win by feeling like LA rather than like hotels that happen to be in LA. For more on experiencing the city, see our guides to the best coffee shops for working and the best art museums in Los Angeles, the best date night restaurants in LA.
