Overview: If you ever had the misfortune to set foot inside the ramshackle old Sofitel LA before June 2006, and you visit it again now, it’s like a frog which has just recieved a $40 million renovation kiss from a princess and turned into this dazzling star-studded Los Angeles hotspot with incredible amenities and trendy rooms.

The new Hotel Sofitel LA, straddling West hollywood and Beverly Hills, has become what they call a gigantic ‘watering-hole’ for A-list celebrities, with such gems like Rande Gerber in the Stone Lounge, celebrity chef Kerry Simon drawing rave reviews and huge lines at the Simon LA restaurant, and the jet-setters coming in from all corners of the world to schmooze and be seen living it up at the Sofitel.

The location, if nothing else, is perfect for those with money to burn at LA’s trendy clubs and shops. At the corner of La Cienega and Beverly Blvd, with the Beverly Center Mall directly across the street, the pricey boutiques of Third Street and Robertson Blvd just a stone’s throw away and possibilities for restaurant and nightclub hopping in either direction, and Rodeo Drive, the Sunset Strip and Melrose Ave close by, the Sofitel has morphed into the nerve center of the Los Angeles social circuit - Shopping by day and nightclub hopping once the sun goes down. The Sofitel LA is thus themed around urban sophistication for international travelers and a happening nightlife with great food, great music, a river of alcohol, and a chance to mix it up with the rich, the famous and the beautiful.

Amenities: There’s an outdoor heated swimming pool with cabanas and a sundeck, a 2500 sq ft fitness center (SO Fit) with personal trainning facilities and individual LCD TVs for each piece of Cardio equipment, and a spa (LeSpa),which is earning quite a reputation of its own , with 5000 sq. ft of area dedicated to offering luxury spa treatments and pampering guests with facials and all sorts of gadgets and gizmos which will relax both body and mind.

24 hour room service from the Simon LA restaurant comes with all the trappings and bells and whistles of an upscale luxury hotel and restaurants - Meaning tasty food served in a most impressive fashion, with a heavy room service premium added on to the already not so light tab. Free internet and complimentary coffee in the lobby, concierge and laundry/valet services, gift shop, and a business center with 10,000 sq. ft. of meeting space round up the amenities the Sofitel LA offers to guests.

Rooms & Reservations: The 295 rooms and suites, furnished and dolled up with a European touch and contemporary amenities, are designed more to impress than with a utilitarian bent, and impress they do. Magnificient beds and pillows which you sink right into, spectacular views and huge bathrooms lifted straight from a movie or a fashion mag, with glass tiled rainfall showers and hand-held showerheads and designer French bath products. Everything works just perfect, and if you have a complaint about the service or the zillion gadgets in the room, it’ll be a minor scandal for the hotel and heads will roll.

Room rates start at $359 including taxes, and for a hotel so upscale, that’s quite reasonable, if you factor in the fact that each room is allowed upto three guests. Let’s just say that it doesn’t get more luxurious or chic than this, as far as Los Angeles family hotels or vacations go, and that’s saying a lot.  The Sofitel offers quite a few specials incuding a romance package for honeymoons.

Dining: As mentioned, the dining at the Sofitel is taken care of star chef Kerry Simon and his star-studded Simon LA restaurant. The restaurant offers everything rom a majestic dinding hall with sweeping ceilings to private dining rooms for romantic dinners and outdoor dining on a patio with a firepit, flowing water and lots of greenery. The food is great and everybody who is anybody can be found here at one time or another. If you stay long enough, you’re likely to bump into more than a few A-list stars either at the restaurant or drowning martinis in the adjacent Stone Rose Lounge.

Info: 8555 Beverly Blvd. (N. La Cienega Blvd.) Los Angeles, CA 90048; (310) 278-5444, (800) 521-7772; Photo credit - Luxury Travel Magazine, © courtesy of Sofitel Los Angeles

Posted on April 11th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Hotels