100-Year-Old Businesses: Beverly Hills Hotel – Los Angeles Business Journal

Long before Beverly Hills became shorthand for luxury, the Beverly Hills Hotel stood alone amid open fields and lima bean farms, an unlikely anchor for what would grow into one of the world’s most recognizable cities.

Opened in 1912, the hotel predates the city of Beverly Hills itself, which incorporated just two years later.

“There’s a photograph in the Polo Lounge of the hotel just after it was built,” said John Scanlon, general manager of the hotel, which the London, England-based Dorchester Collection currently operates. “And there is absolutely nothing around it. The whole landscape is almost completely empty.”

That photo underscores the hotel’s foundational role – “I always say that the Beverly Hills Hotel is kind of at the very heart of Beverly Hills,” Scanlon said. “It was where the city started, really, and grew around it.”

Margaret J. Anderson, hotelier and developer, served as the mastermind behind the development of the hotel – paying $500,000 to build one of the “finest tourist hotels in the United States,” the Eagle Rock Sentinel reported in 1911. 

“(Margaret) saw an opportunity,” said Scanlon. And she honed her business acumen around hotels while managing the Hollywood Hotel with her son, Stanley Anderson.

Beginning in the 1830s, the land itself once belonged to Black, Mexican American rancho and farmer Maria Rita Valdez Villa, whose 4,500-acre property spanned much of present-day Beverly Hills. Her “adobe home” sat at what is now the intersection of Alpine Drive and Sunset Boulevard, and her cattle and horses were annually herded to a “rodeo” located at the intersection of Pico and Robertson Boulevards, according to the Beverly Hills Historical Society.

Becoming the ‘Pink Palace’

The Beverly Hills Hotel’s transformation into a global icon came decades later, mainly through the work of architect Paul R. Williams. In the 1940s, Williams redesigned the property, introducing many of the elements now synonymous with the hotel.

“He painted the hotel pink,” covering up the original white motif, said Scanlon. Williams also added the Crescent wing, the Cabana Café, the Fountain Coffee Room and reimagined the Polo Lounge. He introduced the Martinique banana-leaf wallpaper and designed the iconic script signage – based on his own handwriting – that still lights up on Sunset Boulevard.

Once the hotel turned pink, the nickname stuck.

“That’s when people started referring to it as the Pink Palace,” Scanlon said.

By the mid-20th century, the Beverly Hills Hotel had become a hub for Hollywood’s Golden Age, hosting stars from Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor to generations of entertainers since. Yet its enduring appeal, Scanlon said, lies less in celebrity than in discretion.

“It’s a club without being a club in a way,” he said. “We’ve always been really obsessed with the privacy, safety and security of our guests, no matter who they are, and people feel that when they’re here.”

The hotel has its storied past. It was the scene of famous drinking bouts by W.C. Fields and Humphrey Bogart, as well as the Rat Pack’s Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. In the late 1940s, Marlene Dietrich fought and won to end the “no pants for ladies” dress code in the Polo Lounge. Sidney Poitier danced barefoot in the hotel lobby following his best actor Academy Award win for “Lilies of the Field.” Taylor loved Bungalow Five, celebrating several honeymoons there, and when she passed away in 2011, her family held her memorial service in the bungalow. 

The hotel’s “magic starts from the very door” with its red carpet at the entrance, Scanlon said. “When you come here, you can almost be certain nobody’s going to bother you.”

Staying relevant without reinventing  

The hospitality industry has dramatically shifted over the past century – and even currently, the economic landscape has been challenging for some local hotels. Revenue for the hotel industry has essentially remained flat at 0.4% during the first seven months of 2025, according to data from the hotel brokerage firm Newport Beach-based Atlas Hospitality Group. 

The Beverly Hills Hotel has weathered through it all – world wars, an economic depression and recessions, and global pandemics in its 114-year history – remaining open, relevant and in demand through each chapter that reshaped the hospitality industry.

The ability to survive these pivotal moments, Scanlon said, comes from restraint as much as reinvention. Much of the hotel has initially remained the same. The Polo Lounge, for example, looks much as it did decades ago. That continuity is deliberate. 

“I dream that in 100 years from now, (you’ll) still have this beautiful Polo Lounge that will never have changed,” he said. “And that will be unique and special.”

One of the hotel’s least visible but most critical assets is its staff, Scanlon said. Many have worked at the Beverly Hills Hotel for more than 25 years, which he credited that longevity to a culture centered on respect and care.

“We take such great care of our employees,” he said. “There’s a lovely culture here of care and kindness and passion for the hotel to be the best that it possibly can be.”

As the hotel approaches its 114th anniversary in 2026, Scanlon said its role remains unchanged: a place where the city’s history, business and culture quietly converge. 

“The city and the hotel go hand in hand,” he said, noting the city’s name derived from the hotel. “There aren’t many hotels in the world (that can say that). I’m passionate about maintaining it, protecting it. I want this hotel to be loved and be here for hundreds of years to come.”