World's Best

The Top 15 City Hotels in Greater Los Angeles in 2020

Published on July 8, 2020

Best Hotels in Los Angeles, California (shown: the pool at the Santa Monica Proper hotel) — Photo: Courtesy of Santa Monica Proper Hotel

This year’s World’s Best Awards survey closed on March 2, just before widespread stay-at-home orders were implemented as a result of COVID-19. The results reflect our readers’ experiences before the pandemic, but we hope that this year’s honorees will inspire your trips to come — whenever they may be.

If you ask Travel + Leisure readers, the Westside is still the best side when it comes to deciding where they want to stay in the greater Los Angeles area. While the thriving downtown district (often referred to by its nickname, DTLA) is well represented with three properties on this year’s 15-hotel list, most of the winners are in the neighborhoods and cities near the coast or major tourism hubs like Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, and LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

Every year for our World’s Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Hotels were rated on their facilities, location, service, food, and overall value. Properties were classified as city or resort based on their locations and amenities.

Related: The World's Best Awards 2020

Buzzy DTLA and ever-popular Santa Monica both have three hotels in the mix — one of which is this year’s winner. The lovingly restored Spanish-Mediterranean architecture of downtown’s Hotel Figueroa (No. 11 this year, and one of last year’s It List honorees) continues to draw travelers seeking what one reader dubbed “Instagram gold,” though its feminist history is also worth noting. (It was originally funded and built by women in the 1920s with solo female travelers specifically in mind.) Another historic building turned hotel took the No. 13 spot: The NoMad Los Angeles once served as the L.A. headquarters of the Bank of Italy. Now it’s earning accolades for “amazing amenities, including a rooftop pool and a lovely bar, serving fun and unique cocktails,” said a reader. Over in Santa Monica, the No. 12 Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows owes much of its success to its prime location. As one reader attested: “It’s the perfect walking distance for everything in Santa Monica.” Another echoed the point, writing that the Fairmont is “a couple steps to the beach and home to some of the most gorgeous sunsets in California.”

This year, the top spot goes to the Santa Monica Proper, a newcomer that earned its place on the list by consistently firing on all cylinders since it opened just over one year ago. Scroll on for the full list of the best hotels in Los Angeles.

1. Santa Monica Proper Hotel

Guest room of the Santa Monica Proper hotel — Courtesy of Santa Monica Proper Hotel

Score: 96.00

More information: properhotel.com

A “beautiful hotel with top-notch service and amenities,” as one reader put it, the second addition to the Proper portfolio opened last June and quickly became one of the most in-demand hotels in Los Angeles. (It even scored a place on T+L’s 2020 It List of the year’s best new hotels.) “Far better than any traditional luxury hotel,” raved another reader, this 271-room stunner impresses with Kelly Wearstler–designed interiors that feature modern tonal furniture in the bedrooms and travertine tile in the bathrooms. Its Mexican-inspired restaurant Onda — from celebrated chefs Gabriela Cámara of Mexico City’s Contramar and Jessica Koslow of perennial Silver Lake favorite Sqirl — has also been a major draw for both visitors and locals.