Talk:L'Ermitage Beverly Hills

Untitled
Official external links have been removed as this make the article seem as if its blatant advertising.

(Raffleseme (talk) 09:17, 24 March 2008 (UTC))

Correction and citations for key facts
Hi, this is a request on behalf of EOS Investors, the owners of L'Ermitage Beverly Hills. I'm an employee of EOS and I'd like to help Wikipedia editors with upkeep for this page. Although I'm not entirely new to Wikipedia, I've recently become more familiar with the rules for financial conflict of interest and intend to follow them as best as I can, including making requests rather than editing pages related to EOS myself.

As editors have flagged that the page needs citations, especially third-party sources, I'm working on getting that information together for the larger sections. In the meantime, I have some quick first improvements to suggest:


 * 1) The infobox table states that the opening date for the hotel is 1993, which is incorrect. The correct date is 1975, per this citation


 * 1) The same citation can be used to support the number of suites listed in the infobox table


 * 1) In the page introduction, I suggest removing the sentences about Avec Nous; this reads as promotional even to me, and the restaurant is not a "notable" aspect of the hotel

Also, the hotel is no longer a Viceroy. Is requesting a page move here the best way to get the name updated?

Thanks for your help! Mcg2132 (talk) 19:45, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ Hi I have moved the page to L'Ermitage Beverly Hills. I have added the reference you provided to update the infobox opening date; please take care in the future to provide correct information in the reference (e.g. author, article title, publish date). I did not add a reference for the number of suites, as that wasn't clearly indicated in the provided article. I removed the sentences about Avec Nous; I agree in that it sounded promotional in its current form, although it could potentially be added to the body in reworded form with a reference later.  Spencer T• C 08:24, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Requesting revision of History section
Hello again! For my next request, I wanted to address the article's History section. The current material is largely unsourced and includes a lot of details that I have been unable to verify. I have taken a stab at a revised section that presents a similar chronological narrative but with sourcing for every claim:

History
The building housing L'Ermitage was originally constructed in 1975 and was intended to contain condominiums. Developer Severyn Ashkenazy and his brother Arnold Ashkenazy transformed the building into an 111-suite luxury hotel. The name L'Ermitage was chosen in honor of the Hermitage art and culture museum in St. Petersburg. Arnold Ashkenazy was an art collector, and L'Ermitage eventually featured some of the prominent pieces that he owned, including oil paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

When L'Ermitage opened in late 1976, it was the first all-suite hotel in the United States. By the 1980s, each suite included a kitchen, dining room, and separate bath and shower rooms. The hotel was situated in a residential neighborhood and sought to distinguish itself through a reputation for exclusivity, fine dining, and guest service. During this period the L'Ermitage was the only Mobil Five-Star, AAA Five-diamond hotel in California.

In 1986, Ashkenazy Enterprises filed for bankruptcy to fend off foreclosure by Beverly Hills Savings & Loan. In 1992, L'Ermitage was taken over by Independence One Bank of California as part of an agreement with the federal government. The hotel was sold for an estimated $12 million in 1993 to a New York investment group, La Hotel Properties Inc., and then acquired by Paris-based Immobiliere Hoteliers and Los Angeles-based Colony Capital in 1994. The property was then closed four years for extensive redesigns and renovations totaling $65 million When L'Ermitage reopened in 1998, the Los Angeles Times noted that the "radical make-over" had "turned the once-stodgy hideaway into a fabulously chic luxury hotel."

In October 2000, L'Ermitage was acquired by Singapore-based Raffles Holdings Ltd. for $68 million. Raffles International then managed the hotel as Raffles L'Ermitage Beverly Hills.

In January 2010, Malaysian financier Jho Low acquired L’Ermitage for $46 million and it was converted into a Viceroy Hotel later that year. In 2015 the hotel began a $37 million renovation of its suites, public areas, and restaurant that was completed in early 2016. In August 2020, EOS Investors LLC purchased the hotel for $100 million from the U.S. government after it was seized as part of an investigation into Low. In October 2021, L'Ermitage dropped its affiliation with Viceroy and rebranded as L'Ermitage Beverly Hills.

As I noted above, I'm an employee of EOS and thus have a financial conflict of interest. As such, I will not be making any edits to this article, and instead am hoping that other editors can review what I've put together and implement any changes that seem beneficial. Thanks! Mcg2132 (talk) 20:01, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi, Spencer. I appreciate you helping me with the correction I posted a few weeks ago and I'm hoping you can take a look at the proposed History section I put together. I see that two other editors, Fettlemap and MB, have been active on this article as well, and I would also welcome their eyes. (Edit note: I've reposted this with my signed-in account.) Mcg2132 (talk) 19:39, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * @Mcg2132 Hello, this request has been implemented with minor edits (e.g. spacing, commas, small/missing words). I was unable to access a live or archived version of the Travel and Leisure source, so I used the LocalLux URL in its place. Thanks, Heartmusic678 (talk) 11:41, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Requesting Features section to replace In Hollywood section
Hello again, editors! I have put together a new Features section that is intended to replace the In Hollywood section, which is currently flagged for not citing any sources. The material I've compiled for Features describes the hotel's rooms, design, services, and unique facilities. The Ratings subsection provides an overview of reviews of said features from notable travel guides, namely Forbes and AAA.


 * Yes check.svg Done Not super thrilled with the tone (certainly comes off as promotional), but that might just be because I spend a lot of time dealing with blatantly promotional material and am forgetting to assume good faith. Regardless, the secondary sourcing checks out, so I have implemented with one minor alteration, namely, folding the Ratings section under Features rather than have it as a standalone. WhinyTheYounger (WtY)  (talk, contribs)  23:33, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Features
L'Ermitage is an eight-story hotel with 116 rooms, all suites. Rooms average 805 square feet, making them the largest in the Beverly Hills hotel market, and feature marble bathrooms, private balconies, and separate dressing, sleeping, and sitting areas. The entire property was renovated in 2016, including suites and public areas, and decorated with original art selected by Paragone Gallery, giclée prints from Adam Santelli and Jody Morlock, and wire-mesh sculptures from Eric Boyer.

The hotel also features a rooftop pool, luxury spa, bar, and restaurant.

Ratings
As of 2021, L'Ermitage earned a five-star rating from Forbes Travel Guide, a rating it has maintained since 2000. As of 2020, L'Ermitage earned a Four Diamond rating from AAA.

As I've noted on past requests, I'm an employee of EOS and thus have a financial conflict of interest. As such, I will not be making any edits to this article, and am instead hoping other editors can review what I've put together and implement any changes that seem beneficial. Thanks! Mcg2132 (talk) 12:49, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Requesting In Hollywood section be removed
First, thank you so much for helping me with my previous requests. I appreciate that editors are busy and it takes time to help out a COI editor. I hope you'll agree, though, that the article has been significantly improved through our collaboration here. To that end, I have two final requests I'm hoping someone can look at.

First, the existing In Hollywood section was flagged in March for not citing any sources. As part of my research on this project, I scoured the web for articles or books that could support these claims—but unfortunately I didn't find much. There are certainly web pages that repeat some of these claims as descriptive asides, but the claims themselves don't appear to be well-sourced. (E.g., I can find articles about the hotel stating that Good Will Hunting was written here, but I can't find articles specifically about the creation of the Good Will Hunting script that make that claim.) As such, I am proposing that this section be deleted.

Second, the introduction paragraph describes L'Ermitage Beverly Hills as a "luxury boutique hotel" but that is a misnomer, as boutique hotels are typically less than 100 rooms (L'Ermitage has 116 suites). Additionally, L’Ermitage doesn’t fit the general characteristics of a boutique hotel (such as design and programming that is reflective of local culture), nor is it a descriptor the hotel uses. As such, I am proposing that the adjective "boutique" be removed.

I hope an editor can review these requests and make the proposed changes if they see fit. Again, I have a conflict of interest and will not be editing the page myself. Thank you. Mcg2132 (talk) 14:17, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done Deleted unreferenced section, and removed the lede mention of "boutique", as I couldn't find any reliable sourcing to support such a claim. PK650 (talk) 05:34, 15 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you PK650 and all the other editors who have reviewed my requests (Spencer, Heartmusic678 and WhinyTheYounger), I'm grateful for your help. That's all I have for now in terms of requests for this page, though I'm hoping to return with some new photos of the property later this year. Mcg2132 (talk) 13:00, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

Claim not a proven fact
I came here in response to a request at Talk page of WikiProject California [apparently [this since-archived request by User:Mcg2132]. 20:39, 21 October 2022 (UTC)]. Before addressing anything else, i want to revise the claim in lede paragraph, apparently supported at least somewhat by references below, that this is the first "all suites" hotel in the US. I don't believe the assertion is a fact, or that anyone is really in a position to know. I rather imagine that in all of US history there has been a 1-,2-, or 4-suite building with the suites rented out as short term rentals, whether or not it was termed a hotel. What might be stated is that "It has been claimed that" the hotel is the first of its kind, with a footnote defining that more carefully, if that is supported by sources. BTW I can't read the first source allegedly on that point, which is in another language.

My experience as a Wikipedia editor is mainly on historic sites listed on historic registers, where sources sometimes assert the site is the oldest or biggest or the longest covered bridge in the US or whatever, but in WikiProject NRHP editors have many times discovered other sites making the same claim. The nominator was not in a position to know about all other instances in history. --Doncram (talk) 03:20, 9 June 2022 (UTC)


 * ✅ @Doncram The first source in Icelandic states "was the first all-inclusive hotel in the United States." It is readable in English via google translate. I have adjusted the text to the supporting sourcing. Heartmusic678 (talk) 18:23, 21 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi, User:Heartmusic678, thank you so much for addressing that. I am better now at getting Google translate to work, and I see that the (modified) claim (now " Built in 1975, the property was the first all-inclusive hotel in the United States," rather than "first all-suite hotel") is supported by the source in Icelandic, which, translated, states: "When it opened in 1975, in a converted luxury apartment building that was once home to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, L'Ermitage Beverly Hills was the first all-inclusive hotel in the United States."
 * A couple further things for improving this article, maybe for others:
 * It sure would be nice to have more or better images in the article, showing luxury or beauty rather than possibly a Soviet-era apartment block outside Moscow.
 * User:Mcg2132, could you possibly please help address this or other points below? Feel free to contact me via my Talk page or email from there, esp. if you respond here and then I don't reply. --Doncram (talk) 20:05, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Link to All-inclusive resort article perhaps, to define what "all-inclusive" means, at least now. That article maybe should be modified to allow for all-inclusive hotels that wouldn't be called "resorts", like I think may apply here.  I tend to think that "all-inclusive" is not widely understood by Wikipedia readers, as most people don't travel much and/or never consider "all-inclusive" offers.
 * Get better sources:
 * I am guessing the Travel + Leisure article in Icelandic must be a translation...it would be better to find and link to the English-language original article
 * I just tried but don't immediately find the article in English. It's clear that Travel + Leisure and the hotel are closely associated, or at least the hotel advertises in Travel + Leisure and the magazine covers the hotel a lot, though.
 * I found another source, this 2022 review of the hotel in Conde Nast Traveller, which doesn't mention "all-inclusive" but does support claims about it becoming "all-suite" eventually, which enhances privacy for celebrities. --Doncram (talk) 20:22, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
 * The source article does support the claim, but is just mentioning in the claim in passing, and gives no detail about what was included in the "all-inclusive" offering at this hotel in 1975. Surely there must exist more extensive, better sources from the time that the "all-inclusive" offering would have have been news-worthy, around 1975.  Better yet, find a review of history "all-inclusive" which more convincingly identifies this hotel's 1975 offering being regarded as a USA first.  And cover when and why the "all-inclusive" service was eventually dropped, if it was.
 * Like there is "The Evolution of the All-Inclusive Resort", commissioned by (?), and a bit biased towards, Club Med, which does not at all mention L'Ermitage Beverly Hills. I will add this report to All-inclusive resorts as a source to support some claims there. --Doncram (talk) 20:05, 21 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks again Heartmusic678. I see also that you responded to an "edit request" or two here already.  I am glad you're on the case, contributing! --Doncram (talk) 19:49, 21 October 2022 (UTC)