The Velvet Rope

The Velvet Rope opened in December 2023 in Palm Springs' Old Las Palmas neighborhood, inside a 1951 Herbert W. Burns building first used as a private retreat for visiting Hollywood stars under the name The Desert Mirage and later operated as La Posada. Owner and designer David Rios bought the property vacant and deteriorating, spent over two years and more than five million dollars restoring it, and reopened it as nine suites each built around a different Old Hollywood figure.

The place

The Velvet Rope sits at 120 W Veredasur in Old Las Palmas, the Palm Springs neighborhood where Hollywood stars kept vacation homes from the 1930s onward. The setting matches the hotel's premise directly: a former private retreat for visiting celebrities, reopened in the same residential enclave those celebrities once used to disappear from public view.

The concept

Architect Herbert W. Burns designed the building in 1951 as a discreet lodging for visiting celebrities under the name The Desert Mirage, all clean mid-century lines, flat planes and glass. It later operated as La Posada before falling vacant and deteriorating. David Rios, a designer known for reviving mid-century Palm Springs properties, bought it in that condition and spent more than two years and over five million dollars restoring rather than replacing it. The finished hotel is organized around nine suites, each themed to a Hollywood-era figure or moment: an Elizabeth Taylor suite, a Presidential suite referencing Kennedy and Monroe, a Playmate suite nodding to Hugh Hefner, a Candelabra suite built around Liberace, and others honoring Jean Harlow, the Rat Pack, and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Rios kept period details — stone ledges, wall-built ironing boards, a gold sunburst door set against a mint-green facade — and mixed in vintage props like rotary phones and record players alongside marble vanities and recessed lighting. The building's history as a Hollywood retreat is the organizing concept, not a marketing footnote.

Dining & wellness

Bar Valerie, the hotel's speakeasy-style lounge, centers on a grand piano and a drum set rather than a conventional bar program. The pool area leans into the theme with a mountain-view deck, solar lighting and a running motif of rubber ducks, while each suite carries its own kitchenette and marble bathroom. The hotel is adults-only.