Fairmont Century Plaza

A Return Address for Century City

Avenue of the Stars runs through one of Los Angeles's most deliberately curated corridors: Century City, the former backlot of 20th Century Fox that was subdivided and redeveloped into a high-density commercial district where entertainment, finance, and residential towers coexist within walking distance. For decades, the Century Plaza Hotel served as the social anchor of this neighbourhood — a curvilinear modernist building where presidential visits and industry events set the calendar. The $2.5 billion renovation that produced Fairmont Century Plaza, completed in 2021 after five years of work, was not a cosmetic refresh. It was a structural and programmatic overhaul that repositioned the property within the top tier of Los Angeles hotels, a category that also includes long-established addresses like Hotel Bel-Air, The Beverly Hills Hotel, and The Peninsula Beverly Hills.

What distinguishes Century City from Beverly Hills or West Hollywood as a hotel location is precisely its corporate clarity. This is not a neighbourhood guests wander into by accident. People come here with a reason: a business meeting, a film industry obligation, proximity to Westwood or Beverly Hills without the full weight of those addresses. Fairmont Century Plaza sits at that intersection of purpose and luxury, drawing a clientele that prizes efficiency and expects the amenities to match.

What the Regulars Know

The guests who return to Fairmont Century Plaza consistently are not primarily chasing novelty. They are after a known quantity: the balcony on their preferred floor, the Fairmont Gold lounge access that compresses the check-in process into a private desk interaction, and the on-demand martini cart that arrives when requested rather than when a bar schedule permits. These details read as small, but within the logic of a frequent business or entertainment traveller, they represent the difference between a hotel that manages your stay and one that runs alongside your schedule.

Every room at Fairmont Century Plaza includes a private balcony, which is a meaningful rarity in Los Angeles hotel inventory, where indoor-outdoor flow is often marketed but rarely delivered at the room level. For westward-facing rooms above the seventh floor, the views extend across the city with particular clarity. That specific combination — balcony, elevation, west orientation , is the version regulars request. The hotel's Google rating of 4.5 across 505 reviews reflects a consistent experience rather than a spiked average from a single period of attention.

The lobby lounge adds a social layer that functions differently from a standard hotel bar. Themed live music nights run Tuesday through Saturday, with programming that references the property's history as a venue for artists including Frank Sinatra and Sonny and Cher. The 1967 Emmy Awards and 1971 Grammy Awards were held here, and the current programming treats that lineage as context rather than costume. For regulars, the Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule becomes part of the week's rhythm, not a one-time occasion. Properties like Chateau Marmont have built their entire identity around the idea of the hotel as a standing social institution; Century Plaza operates similarly, though in a more formal register suited to its Century City address.

Lumière and the French Brasserie Format in Los Angeles

The French all-day brasserie has proven durable in Los Angeles in a way that might initially seem counterintuitive in a city that trends toward health-conscious menus and regional California cooking. The format survives because it solves a specific problem: it offers a credible backdrop for long lunches and early dinners without demanding that guests engage with a concept or a chef's narrative. Lumière, the hotel's all-day restaurant, operates within this tradition, drawing on French antique furnishings, a zinc bar, and brasserie standards including steak frites, duck confit, and a seafood tower. The reference point is Saint-Germain rather than Melrose, and the room is designed to support that displacement. For guests staying multiple nights, Lumière functions as a dependable base , not every meal needs to be a discovery.

The Spa as a Standalone Argument

Fairmont Spa Century Plaza operates at a scale that positions it as one of the two largest hotel spas in Los Angeles. The treatment menu spans conventional modalities , massage, facials , alongside services from the biohacking end of the wellness spectrum, including lymphatic drainage and neurotransmitter therapy. The presence of Dr. Rita Rakus, known in London for her lip-enhancement work, who opened her first U.S. outpost within the spa, signals the property's intent to attract a beauty and wellness clientele separate from its hotel guests. This puts Fairmont Century Plaza in a different conversation than, say, a purely resort-oriented property like Canyon Ranch Tucson or Amangiri in Canyon Point , it is urban wellness layered onto a business-capable hotel platform, which is a model Los Angeles supports well given the city's density of entertainment industry professionals who treat spa access as a professional necessity.

For guests who prefer fitness on their own schedule, the hotel offers an in-room Technogym kit , yoga mat, foam roller, mobility ball , available on request, paired with workout and yoga programming accessible through the in-room television. It is the kind of amenity that disappears into the background when not needed and earns loyalty when it is.

Events, Scale, and the Hotel's Second Life

A distinct component of the Fairmont Century Plaza footprint is its event space, which operates with its own street access and food and beverage offerings, separate from the main hotel. The ballroom ranks among the largest in Los Angeles, serving weddings, conferences, and charity galas at a scale that few urban properties can match. This dual-operation model , full-service luxury hotel running in parallel with a high-capacity event venue , gives the property a commercial depth that peers such as L'Ermitage Beverly Hills or The Maybourne Beverly Hills do not attempt at the same scale. For event planners working the Los Angeles market, the combination of Century City location, ballroom capacity, and Fairmont brand infrastructure narrows the comparable alternatives considerably.

Placing It in the Los Angeles Hotel Conversation

Los Angeles luxury hotels tend to cluster around a few dominant identities: the garden-enclosed privacy of Hotel Bel-Air, the legacy glamour of The Beverly Hills Hotel, the design-led boutique register of Downtown LA Proper Hotel, and the counterculture mythology of Chateau Marmont. Fairmont Century Plaza occupies a different position: a large-format luxury hotel with genuine historical weight, significant spa infrastructure, and a location that serves business and entertainment travellers who need Century City access without sacrificing full-service amenities. The $2.5 billion investment produced a property that competes on breadth as much as atmosphere , and for the guest whose calendar pulls them to the west side of Los Angeles repeatedly, that breadth is the point.

For broader context on where this property sits within Los Angeles dining and hospitality, see our full Los Angeles restaurants guide. Guests considering comparable investment in American luxury hotel experiences might also look at Raffles Boston, Aman New York, or The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City as properties that similarly pair historical repositioning with contemporary luxury programming.

Planning Your Stay

The hotel is located at 2025 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, placing it within a short drive of Beverly Hills, Westwood, and West Hollywood. Fairmont Gold access, which includes the private check-in desk, members-only lounge, 24-hour personal assistant service, and the on-demand martini cart, is an upgrade worth considering for guests staying three or more nights whose schedules benefit from reduced friction at the hotel level. Room selection is addressed in the FAQ below.

Frequently Asked Questions

What room should I choose at Fairmont Century Plaza?

Westward-facing rooms above the seventh floor offer the most extended city views, and every room includes a private balcony , a configuration that is less common in Los Angeles hotel inventory than the market suggests. For travellers who want additional service infrastructure, the Fairmont Gold tier adds a private check-in desk, lounge access, and a personal assistant available around the clock.

What makes Fairmont Century Plaza worth visiting?

The $2.5 billion renovation that reopened the property in 2021 positioned it as one of the more comprehensively programmed luxury hotels in Los Angeles, combining a large-format spa (one of the two largest hotel spas in the city), French brasserie dining, live music programming with genuine historical roots in the building, and event infrastructure that few comparable Los Angeles hotels can match at scale. It is a property built for repeat visits rather than single-occasion stays.

Is Fairmont Century Plaza reservation-only?

Hotel room reservations can be made through Fairmont's standard booking channels and through the Accor Hotels platform, of which Fairmont is a part. Lumière, the all-day restaurant, operates as a hotel restaurant and is generally accessible to non-hotel guests, though demand during peak periods and evening service warrants advance planning. The spa, given its size and the presence of specialist practitioners like Dr. Rita Rakus, benefits from booking treatments ahead of arrival, particularly for weekend visits.

What is Fairmont Century Plaza a good pick for?

It works well for entertainment industry travellers whose business pulls them repeatedly to Century City, for couples or groups seeking a large-format spa experience within an urban Los Angeles hotel, and for event hosts requiring ballroom capacity at a scale that places it among the city's largest. It is less suited to guests primarily seeking the garden-enclosed privacy of a smaller property like Hotel Bel-Air or the boutique design register of The Sun Rose West Hollywood.

Does Fairmont Century Plaza have a connection to the entertainment awards history of Los Angeles?

Yes , the property hosted the 1967 Emmy Awards and the 1971 Grammy Awards, and the original Century Plaza Hotel was a recognised gathering point for artists including Frank Sinatra and Sonny and Cher. The current lobby lounge programming, which runs live music themed around that lineage Tuesday through Saturday, treats that history as a reference point for ongoing programming rather than as museum display.