There was a time when the words "Hard Rock" and "Palm Springs" would have been an oxymoron. Not anymore.
Throw in the recent spate of boutique and lifestyle hotel announcements and it becomes clear that the famed resort city 100 miles east of Los Angeles, along with the burgeoning resort towns that surround it, are leaving their long-time image as a man-made oasis for the geriatric set in the desert dust that surrounds them.
Today, the area once best known as favorite vacation digs of the Rat Pack, the home of Bob Hope and the site of the Bob Hope Classic, the annual PGA tournament that bore his name, is rapidly morphing into a playground for monied youth who embrace the arts and alternative lifestyles.
Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, long winter getaways prized for their golf and tennis resorts, have more recently attracted business that reflect a progressively younger group of visitors.
With its well-preserved mid-20th century Desert Modernism architecture and its gay-friendly vibe attracting a steady stream of LGBT visitors, the area has become something of a jumping-off point for people trekking to the desert for cultural events such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach.
As a result, hoteliers are looking to complement traditional Coachella Valley lodgings, such as the Riviera Palm Springs and La Quinta Resort & Club 20 miles to the southeast, with more urban boutique offerings. While the Viceroy Palm Springs was something of a pioneer in this aesthetic when it debuted in 2001, others have followed in recent years, including the Ace Hotel Palm Springs in 2009 and Joie de Vivre's Saguaro Palm Springs in 2011.
And earlier this year, boutique hotel progenitor Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants announced that its first Palm Springs hotel, a 190-room property, would open in 2015.
"The town has really focused on re-energizing itself as an urban resort destination," said Bruce Baltin, Los Angeles-based senior vice president at PKF Consulting. "Not only is it continuing to cater to the gay market but also to the hipster market."
Nowhere is this more evident than the Hotel Zoso in downtown Palm Springs. That 160-room property is being reflagged as the region's first Hard Rock hotel, which soft-opens this month after an extensive renovation. Michael Shindler, executive vice president of hotels and casinos for Hard Rock International, said the brand will look to strengthen its relationship with organizers of the Coachella festival, which was founded in 1999 and attracts about 90,000 people each April.
"We'd identified Palm Springs strategically as a place where we wanted to grow," Shindler said, adding that the franchised hotel will help the brand expand its Southern California presence beyond its current San Diego property. "It will make it easier for us to find a development partner suitable for Los Angeles to create a Southern California triangle."
Hoteliers and developers have good reason to embrace Palm Springs, whose full-time population totals about 45,000. While the city's inherent seasonality can bring occupancy rates down to the 50% range during the hotter summer months, last year's revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the Coachella Valley market of about 15,000 rooms, including Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs and Rancho Mirage, marked a 22% jump from two years prior, according to STR.
And this year, demand has advanced further, as RevPAR through August rose 7.2% from a year earlier. Average room rates are now approaching $140 a night.
The resurgence appears to be a far cry from the city's roots as a haven for travellers looking for spa- and golf-oriented resorts within driving distance of Los Angeles. Palm Springs was incorporated in 1938 and gained fame as a vacation spot for Hollywood royalty during the 1950s and '60s.
But early this century, hit by a combination of an aging population and the economic downturn, the region suffered from a drop-off in travel-spending. Consequently, mid-20th century landmarks like the Riviera lost some of their cache while projects like the long-awaited Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage were put on hold.
The latter property opened as a Ritz-Carlton in 1988, then was reflagged as The Lodge at Rancho Mirage in 2001. It was shuttered for renovations in 2006 but suspended construction two years later because of the financial meltdown and subsequent demise of the site's financier, Lehman Bros.
As the economy began recovering, however, the area has received new blood in the form of both new properties and upgrades to older ones. With Palm Springs and its collection of Desert Modernist homes and commercial buildings attracting about 40,000 architecture buffs each March to the city's Modernism Week festival, the Riviera, built in 1958, has been given new life. It was reopened in 2008 following an 18-month, $70 million upgrade.
Meanwhile, the 400-room Renaissance Palm Springs reopened in late 2009 after an extensive renovation of what had been the Wyndham Palm Springs, while the tres hip Ace Hotel opened that year in what had been a Howard Johnson property.
And last month, Dolce Hotels & Resorts, long known for its meetings hotels, said it would debut Palm Springs operations with a 200-room hotel across the street from the Palm Springs Convention Center in 2015, classifying the property as "urban lifestyle."
"Before, we were a sleepy little place, and all of a sudden, we had middle-aged hipsters mixed in with young Coachella-goers, and everybody's enjoying the same vibe," said Mary Jo Ginther, director of the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism. "We've been on a roll the last five years."
Perhaps the most telling end to the area's fading past was last month's announcement by the PGA that the Bob Hope Classic, the area's legendary event that for years has paired Hollywood celebrities, even U.S. presidents, with top professional golfers, was being renamed the Humana Challenge in a bow to its new sponsor, the health services giant.
Follow Danny King on Twitter @dktravelweekly.