A couple of annual rankings and ratings of hotels, resorts and restaurants provide some fresh perspective on Orange County’s hospitality trade, which shows up strongest at the highest end when compared with neighbors to the north and south.
Readers of Travel + Leisure magazine rated hotels around the world for the “500 Best” list published last week. The Automobile Club of Southern California released its Five Diamond and Four Diamond ratings of hotels and restaurants at about the same time.
Orange County properties performed best at the high end of the spectrum compared with their peers in San Diego and Los Angeles counties.
Three properties—Montage Laguna Beach, the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, and the Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast—made Travel + Leisure’s list. There were five hotels in San Diego County, which has about the same population as Orange County, and seven in Los Angeles, a market that’s about three times the size of OC.
“Our priority remains delivering gracious, thoughtful and personalized service to our guests,” said Pelican Hill Managing Director Giuseppe Lama in a statement.
He lauded the “world’s most discerning travelers” who stay at the resort and credited its “passionate, dedicated and talented” employees for the awards.
Four OC resorts earned five diamonds from the Auto Club—the same three to make Travel + Leisure’s list, plus St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort, also in Dana Point.
No Orange County restaurant earned five diamonds from the Auto Club.
Four hotels in San Diego and five in Los Angeles earned five diamonds from the organization, along with one restaurant in each market.
And the Rest
The difference among counties was more pronounced at the four-diamond level, in which 11 OC hotels and four restaurants made the Auto Club list, compared with 28 hotels and nine restaurants in San Diego, and 31 hotels and 10 restaurants in Los Angeles.
Cracking the four-diamond rating here for the first time according to AAA was the Island Hotel in Newport Beach. On the list for the second year in a row was Avenue of the Arts Wyndham Hotel in Costa Mesa.
Other four diamond hotels:
• Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim
• The Blue Lantern Inn and Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa in Dana Point
• The Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa and Hilton’s Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach
• Surf & Sand Resort in Laguna Beach
• Fairmont Newport Beach and the Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach
Four local restaurants earned four diamonds:
• Napa Rose in Anaheim
• Raya in Dana Point
• Studio in Laguna Beach
• The Cellar in Fullerton
The first three of those are at hotels or resorts that earned four- or five-diamond ratings from the Auto Club.
“The number of qualified properties is an endorsement of the quality of the destination,” said Alan X. Reay, president of Irvine-based industry consultant Atlas Hospitality Group. “Ratings and accolades put Orange County on the map, and other hotels here will benefit from that, as well.”
Both lists are based on evaluations. Travel + Leisure said its readers grade sites based on location, rooms, service, restaurants and value—and each hotel gets a final score.
The OC resorts’ scores are:
• Montage, 92.72
• Ritz-Carlton, 89.97
• Pelican Hill, 89.92
The best score possible is 100; cracking even the top 50 requires a score above 93.
The Montage-operated Inn at Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina was No. 46 with a score of 93.86.
The top-ranked hotel in the world was the Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Mont., with a score of 97.44.
Travel + Leisure readers gave an “insider tip” for each property:
• Montage for falconry and art
• Ritz for sport-fishing for charity
• Pelican Hill’s nature walk and views
The Auto Club said it has a full-time inspection staff and AAA has been making site visits to food and lodging properties since 1937. Inspectors visit about 1,200 sites a week.
Just one-third of 1% of the 58,000 sites visited each year earn five diamonds.
About 4% get four diamonds, the organization said.
Five diamonds requires “a highly personalized luxury experience,” while four diamonds signifies the properties “exceed the expectations of the most discriminating traveler,” according to a statement by the Auto Club’s Approved Accommodations Supervisor, Patricia Marenco.
Technology and personal service were also important, the group said.
The Auto Club cited creative chefs, fresh ingredients, imaginative presentation, and “an upscale ambiance” in rating restaurants.
