O.C. Hotel Makes Room for President and Party : Newport Summit: Bush books the Four Seasons solid for a secretive day of talks with Japan’s prime minister.

NEWPORT BEACH —  Don’t expect to check into the Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday night. All 284 rooms are reserved, according to a discreet clerk, who volunteered only: “We have a high-security guest that night.”

On Tuesday, the 19-story hotel overlooking Newport Harbor was bustling with Secret Service agents and a White House advance team making preparations for a 25-hour stay in Orange County by President Bush.

“When he gets here,” said Thomas Gurtner, the hotel’s general manager, “this place pretty much becomes the White House. The White House owns it. . . . Every time the President moves, the hotel stops.”

Over the next two days, Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu will address some explosive issues in this idyllic, ocean-view setting. Concerned with Japan’s image in America, Kaifu asked to meet Bush to discuss volatile trade disputes over rice, his upcoming summit with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Japan’s postwar role in the Mideast.

Kaifu will be the first to arrive, landing today in Los Angeles about 2 p.m. He is expected to head straight for the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Irvine, where he will be interviewed for tonight’s edition of PBS’s “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.”

Sources said the prime minister will dine later in the evening at the private Center Club in Costa Mesa with about 28 others, among them members of his delegation and Japanese business owners from Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Bush, meanwhile, is scheduled to arrive at 12:25 p.m. Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force One, then immediately board White House helicopter Marine One for the short flight to Newport Beach.

From then on, most of the President’s visit will be behind closed doors at the Four Seasons.

He is scheduled to meet privately with Kaifu for about two hours Thursday, and then hold a joint press conference with the Japanese leader. But even the press conference will be limited to a small group of reporters.

Kaifu will have breakfast with Vice President Dan Quayle, who will fly from San Diego and leave for a luncheon in Los Angeles before Bush arrives.

The Japanese prime minister’s day will end with a private dinner at the hotel, but White House officials declined to say who will attend. On Friday morning, the President will simply relax, possibly golfing somewhere in Orange County before he meets with a group of Latino business leaders for lunch. At 2 p.m., Bush leaves the county for a trip to Universal Studios before flying out that night.

The whirlwind visit--the President’s fifth to Orange County--is his first for diplomatic rather than political purposes. As such, there will be little glad-handing and no public appearances.

Secret Service agents essentially have taken over the Four Seasons, directing employees and management to say nothing about the visit.

You won’t see any hotel banners welcoming Bush to this bastion of Republicanism.

“Uh, it’s not really our style,” said hotel publicist Linda Barragan, among several staffers who liked to say repeatedly that almost no extra touches were being added because “we are presidential-ready.”

What of the 4,800 violet petunias and 1,600 impatiens planted Tuesday in the flower beds lining the sweeping entrance and poolside? Mark Brower, owner of Naturescapes, said the flowers are typically replaced four times yearly. “But we’re doing it early for him.”

Well, Barragan said, “if you want to attribute it to the presidential visit I don’t have a problem with that, but it’s really due to rain damage. . . . We really haven’t ordered new chandeliers or anything.”

Still, hotel officials admit gleeful anticipation of their role as host to an international event guaranteed to capture at least a sound bite’s worth of time on the evening news.

“We are tickled pink!” Gurtner said grinning. “The guy from the Century Plaza Hotel called and congratulated us. As a result of this visit, there is international press and you can’t buy that kind of exposure.

“My colleagues,” he added, “will be drooling.”

The hotel learned of the summit meeting only a day before the first White House scouts arrived March 26. And while the hotel staff may be doing nothing extraordinary for the President’s visit, by Friday a full-court advance team settled in for Operation Summit.

By Tuesday, the team had assembled its own phone system and made “sterile,” or safe, the whole floor where the President will stay. Maids on that floor will require Secret Service clearance. The President has his own valet, and a White House chef will oversee meal preparation during his stay.

Standard rooms for a weeknight, no ocean view guaranteed, are $230. The hotel would not divulge what the public will pay for this summit, but Gurtner said, “We have negotiated a rate.”

Chances are superb that the 80 or so guests not affiliated with the White House visit won’t even catch a glimpse of either dignitary. Forget lining the driveway too. Only a handful of hotel workers will get anywhere near the President, and they may be involved only in serving meals, Gurtner said.

“Ninety-nine percent of our staff here, if they want to know what happened that day, they will have to read the newspaper,” he added.

Most workers interviewed expressed excitement about the tiny prospect of meeting the President. One noted, however, that movie celebrities and rock stars with local performances often stay at the hotel--with much less fanfare.

“We get the Grateful Dead, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi,” said one valet, “and they usually give you free tickets.”