Correction: In this episode we mistakenly used the wrong pronouns for G Flip. G Flip uses they/them pronouns and we sincerely apologise for the error.
Show Notes: In this episode of Luxury Unpacked, host Fiona Dalton sits down with Tom Kiely, CEO of Visit West Hollywood, to unpack a destination that knows exactly what it is.
West Hollywood is a city of around 35,000 residents, incorporated in 1984 in part to protect its LGBTQIA+ community. Four decades on it is one of the most recognised names in inclusive luxury travel, with a concentration of hotels, restaurants, galleries and design showrooms that would be remarkable in a city ten times its size.
Fiona describes it as luxury with an edge, and that is the thread that runs through the conversation. Tom talks about what inclusive luxury actually feels like on the ground for a guest, rather than in a marketing campaign, and where the genuine article separates from the tokenism. They walk the difference between the media narrative around Los Angeles and the experience a visitor actually has in WeHo. And they get practical: the hotel landscape from the Sunset Tower to Kimpton La Peer, The Andaz, The London West Hollywood and Ian Schrager's PUBLIC on the Strip; the restaurants worth the booking; a neighbourhood you can genuinely walk; and a currency story that makes this an unusually good moment for Australians to be looking at the United States.
For the traveller weighing up a European city break against the West Coast, and for the advisor whose clients want to feel welcome as much as they want a good room, this is a useful half hour on why West Hollywood is a destination in its own right, and not simply a suburb of Los Angeles.
Start planning at visitwesthollywood.com
Also mentioned in this episode: The Sunset Strip · Pacific Design Center · LA Pride
Subscribe to the Luxury Unpacked Podcast here
Read more about the Luxury Unpacked Podcast here
Read more about this episode The Welcome Effect: How West Hollywood inspires travellers to live more boldly
Discover more from the Karryon Podcast Network:
Into the Hearts of Canada here
The Karryon Check-In with Matt Leedham here
Visit: karryon.com.au for more
Luxury Unpacked is a Karryon Podcast Network original show, hosted by Fiona Dalton and executive produced by Matt Leedham.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the many Countries and Nations in which this show is made and travels, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.
