Ah, the Suite Life : There’s Still Nothing Like Hotel Living, Say Those Who Can Afford It

DANA POINT —  The posh life is certainly not new to George and Gina Rothschild.

After all, they have lived in some pretty swanky condominiums in the San Fernando Valley and the Wilshire Boulevard sector of Los Angeles. And their first residence in Orange County was a three-bedroom Dana Point house with a gorgeous sea view.

But for sheer deluxe spaciousness, dazzling array of creature comforts and an even more spectacular view, their current Orange County address beats them all.

For the past 23 months, the Rothschilds have maintained residence at a 12-acre bluff-top compound, complete with domestic staff, a galley of chefs, a piano-bar lounge, three tennis courts, two swimming pools and a croquet lawn.

Despite a moniker that is synonymous with fabulous wealth--”sorry, we’re not descended from those (European banking dynasty) Rothschilds,” George said--these local Rothschilds didn’t inherit some palatial private estate.

Their Orange County residence is a hotel--namely, the sprawling red-roofed Dana Point Resort that overlooks Coast Highway and the county marina.

And the Rothschilds, who obviously are accustomed to such displays of conspicuous consumption, take it all in stride.

“It’s our home away from home,” said George, 65, as he and his wife sat in their lobby-floor “parlor,” sipping coffee by the fireplace.

Well, it won’t exactly be an ordinary home they’ll be leaving when they finally check out Thursday.

“You don’t have to lift a finger here. Except pick up the phone,” added Gina, 58. “Sure, we’re pampered here. But it’s carefree. We love it!”

What these Rothschilds are doing evokes a fast-fading lifestyle straight out of America’s gilded age, when flaunting one’s wealth and residing year-round in truly grand, service-to-the-hilt hotels were de rigueur in highest society.

The images of this hotel era still linger at establishments such as the Beverly Hills Hotel--where some of moviedom’s legendary names, including Howard Hughes, lived in secluded bungalows--and the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, where the Windsors and MacArthurs dwelt in tower suites--and, later, the Bushes, too, when Bush was United Nations ambassador.

But like so many other traditions, this lifestyle of the rich and famous isn’t what it used to be.

“It was a whole different way of life, the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s, when many of the well-to-do lived that way. Not only could they well afford it, they found the convenience and charm of those hotels unbeatable,” said Michelle Finn, sales manager for Restaurant/Hotel Design International, a hospitality industry magazine based in Chicago.

However, “people today are far more mobile and dispersed, much less geared to living in the heart of old downtowns,” said Michael Deighton, general manager of the Westin South Coast Plaza. “And there are many more options--condo complexes, Leisure Worlds--where affluent people can live in retirement.”

The newest alternatives are exclusive retirement complexes that combine the amenities of major hotels with deluxe condos, according to the American Hotel & Motel Assn. “They are a cross between a private home and a full-service hotel--you get the best of both,” said Michelle Kelley, communications director for the Washington-based association.

While the Hilton’s Waldorf-Astoria still boasts of 60 tower apartments (costing from $215 a day for a small single to $4,000 for the presidential suite), the Beverly Hills Hotel’s roster of permanent guests has dwindled to only four.

This lifestyle is all but extinct at other famed California bastions such as the Biltmore in Los Angeles and the Fairmont, Mark Hopkins and Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.

Not surprisingly, in Orange County, which for most of its history was far off the grand-hotel circuit, the permanent guest is a rarity.

For example, the 60-year-old Hotel Laguna is best known for drop-in celebrities such as Charles Lindbergh, John Barrymore and Humphrey Bogart. “We don’t have permanent guests, but we still get regulars who have been coming here for decades just for short, seasonal stays,” said Claes Andersen, present owner of the 60-room beachside landmark.

Nearly all of Orange County’s big hotels, from Disneyland and the Anaheim Hilton to Le Meridien, Newport Marriott, Hyatt Regency Irvine and Ritz-Carlton, report the same trend: guests stay two to four months for business or relocation reasons, but no one resides there all year.

Nevertheless, even in present-day Orange County, there are echoes of the grand tradition.

In the past year or so, both the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach and the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa have housed a handful of long-term guests. Typically, these were people who were house-hunting but in no hurry to leave the pampered life of a large, high-style hotel in a prime location.

George and Gina Rothschild are between houses in Orange County.

While they maintain their condo in the San Fernando Valley close to George Rothschild’s real estate management firm, for the past five years they have also kept a year-round residence in Orange County.

“We love the ocean and have always dreamed of having a home close to the sea,” Gina said.

But two years ago, they sold their 2,500-square-foot ocean-view home in Dana Point to move up to an even more elegant place of their own: a 6,500-square-foot Mediterranean-style house being built in the exclusive Ritz Cove area up the coast.

What to do?

“We thought about renting a condo or another house in the area so we could still live here year-round and keep close watch on how our new place was being designed and built,” George said.

“Then we figured--why not a hotel? Why not live it up and still be close to the water and not have to worry about upkeep and all that?” Gina added. “Why not kick back and spoil ourselves this way, as long as we had to wait out the (new home) construction.”

Besides, they have always been fond of the ambience of fine hotels. They have stayed at such celebrated places as the Plaza in New York. And on his business trips, George has traveled the big-hotel circuit from Paris and London to Hong Kong and Maui.

However, for a year-round stay in Orange County, they ruled out the sumptuously mounted, traditionally styled Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, even though that 393-room complex is right next to Ritz Cove.

“It’s a magnificent hotel, no question. We have stayed there and dine there often. But as a regular residence, it’s too formal for us,” said Gina, noting that she and her husband, both tennis buffs, like to dress in casual sports togs.

Instead, the Dana Point Resort, with its Cape Cod-ish white-gray wood-paneled look and 350 rooms still only a five-minute drive from Ritz Cove, proved ideal for them. “Oh, it’s a very elegant place, to be sure,” Gina said. “But it’s less intimidating to live in. It’s, well, kind of folksy.”

Also, the hotel offered them a nice little discount: a daily rate of $60 for the Rothschilds’ single concierge-floor room, which is normally listed as $260.

So a little less than two years ago, the Rothschilds became the Dana Point Resort’s first, and only, “permanent guests.” Although they live part of the week in their San Fernando Valley condo, they have paid for every night since move-in day and have kept clothing and other basics in their room.

On a typical weekend, when the Rothschilds return from the Valley for their ocean-side respite in Orange County, they breakfast on the terrace of their room, sip orange juice, nibble on croissants, and savor the open-air view of the harbor and grounds.

The newspaper has already been delivered to their doorstep, and there is a fully stocked munchies-and-refreshments table in the hallway, next to the soft-white sofas and giant TV screen of their third-floor sitting room.

The concierge staff is always there, a beck-and-call away. To reserve a tennis court. To make an appointment with the club masseur or nearby hair salon. To pick up the laundry. To tidy up their room.

In the evening, the Rothschilds often dine in the hotel restaurant and follow that with a a nightcap and a dance or two at the hotel’s main lounge.

And when the Rothschilds’ five grandchildren, who range in age from 3 to 14, come calling on weekends, the mood turns especially familial--and lively.

Although the Rothschilds themselves rarely watch television or videos, when the grandchildren are there, the staff is sure to be supplying videos such as “Little Mermaid” and “Gremlins II.”

After 23 months, the hotel staff has come to look upon the Rothschild clan as just folks. “You can’t help it after that much time. They’re not just guests anymore. They’re like extended family,” said Christina Lewis, the hotel’s guest-relations manager.

Last Oct. 6, in honor of the Rothschilds’ 38th wedding anniversary, the staff, including bellmen and parking valets, lined up in the lobby to surprise the Rothschilds with an anniversary gift: a crystal ice bucket.

The feeling’s mutual.

“We really dread leaving. It really has been like a home for us here,” said Gina Rothschild, as she thinks ahead to moving-out day Thursday. .

But once the Rothschilds are settled just up the road in their new Ritz Cove house, they have promised to throw a big party for a group of their favorite neighbors--the resort staff.