Best Room At… Fairmont Century Plaza
The Fairmont Century Plaza is no stranger to big events. The Century City mainstay, which first opened in 1966, has hosted the Emmys, the Grammys, the first and only Presidential state dinner outside the White House, and, for a stretch in the 1970s, a nightly show from Sonny and Cher. Recently, however, the property might have had its most important moment to date: a grand reopening after a $2.5 billion renovation.
The property has retained its iconic curved façade—which is, after all, landmarked—and its proximity to movie studios and entertainment business titans has kept it a mainstay for L.A.’s powerbrokers, but not everything has stayed the same. A new all-day brasserie, Lumière, sits just off the lobby; a 14,000-square-foot spa, which offers a must-try, jet-lag-busting Biohacking treatment among other options, has opened; and that tradition of live performance has been modernized to include music around the lobby bar in the evenings. Which is all to say that the tone of the property—elegance, entertainment, and a rollicking good time—haven’t changed, even if the hotel itself has.
Here, Linda Hodgson, the property’s regional director of sales and marketing, shares details about her own favorite room on site, and why the Fairmont just might make a case for the unthinkable: walking in L.A.
What do you consider to be the best room at the property and why?
It’s not the swankiest room in the hotel, but I love our Fairmont Gold California One-Bedroom Suite. It’s about 975 square feet, and it’s on our 10th floor so the views are amazing—and you look west, so there’s Century City in front of you but you can also see out to the ocean. And as the sun sets over the ocean, you can sit on one of the three balconies and watch the transition of the city from day to night. It’s spacious and well laid out for families, and once you’re in there you can immediately relax. You also get access to our Fairmont Gold Lounge, the first one on the West Coast, which gives you an exclusive space just off our main lobby with a team looking after you and space for meetings, a private patio, breakfast in the morning, and cocktails in the evening.
How much does it cost per night?
The Fairmont Gold California One-Bedroom Suite starts at $2,200 per night.
How would you describe the guests and the vibe at the hotel?
We accommodate everything from large events and red-carpet awards, which is how the hotel first got its reputation for being an epicenter for entertainment, so you get a lot of the people working in that industry in, but we also have families from the U.S. and around the world here for leisure. The property feels very welcoming and lends itself to a really wide audience.
What do you think will surprise people about the property?
The location! This comes up so often with guests; people don’t know what to expect when they come here, but everything is so accessible. The best luxury shopping center in L.A., Westfield Century City, is just steps away, and there aren’t just shops but also entertainment and dining and it’s something a lot of our guests love. The other thing that surprises our guests is the architecture of the building, it’s a historic build with a curved façade and I always think of it as a theater; we actually did a performance down the façade earlier this year with performers suspended from the roof. That to me embodied exactly what the hotel is all about.
What’s a local attraction that you always recommend?
As a dedicated walker and a recent L.A. transplant—who lived at the hotel when I first moved to L.A.—the first thing I did was go to our concierge and asked where I should go. They sent me to the Getty Center, where I hadn’t been for 20 years, and to go back was wonderful. It’s not just the art collection you go to see—even though that spans from the Middle Ages to the modern day—but also the location. There’s an incredible view of the city; you can be in those amazing gardens and see L.A. around you. It’s spellbinding and gives you a true sense of place.
You Might Also Like