AMIN CASA PALM SPRINGS ★★★★★

A Silent-Film Star's House, Quietly Reborn

Long before it carried its current name, this address on West Arenas Road belonged to Gloria Swanson, the silent-film star who kept the house as her Palm Springs retreat. The property later spent years operating as the Arenas Gardens Hotel before current owners Nelson and Ramon took it over and reworked it into five bungalow suites. Rather than smoothing away the past, they built around it: the grandest of the five bungalows, a two-bedroom unit, still holds the actress's original living room and its stone fireplace, a detail that sets the whole stay apart from the newer boutique hotels that have opened around it. Walk through the gate and the house still reads like someone's home, because for decades, it was.

Why It Works

We chose Amin Casa for what the owners kept rather than what they added. In select bungalows, the original 1928 bathroom tile and 1950s wood cabinetry survive, left in place instead of being smoothed over by a uniform renovation. The pool carries the same instinct for character over polish: a giant inflatable swan, named Gloria SWANson after the house's first owner, floats where a plainer hotel might have installed a standard pool bar. Every bungalow comes with a full kitchen and its own washer and dryer, a pairing that turns a short stay into something closer to borrowing a friend's house in the desert than checking into a hotel room.

Why This Location

Downtown Palm Springs starts at the end of the driveway. The Palm Springs Art Museum and the restaurants and galleries lining Palm Canyon Drive are both a walk away, which matters in a city where plenty of resorts sit well outside the center and leave guests reaching for a car. Arenas Road itself is a quiet residential stretch by day, close enough to the action for an evening stroll but set back enough that the pool and garden stay genuinely calm. For a city built around midcentury houses turned into hotels, this is one of the few still standing on the block where it was built.

Fast Facts

• Prix: Luxe

• Vibe: mid-century, playful, residential

• Chambres: 5 bungalows (one studio, three one- or two-bedroom units, plus the two-bedroom Swanson residence)

• Best For: adults-only couples and small groups, remote-work long stays, mid-century design enthusiasts

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the original 1928 bathroom tile preserved in select bungalows

• Dining: no on-site restaurant; each bungalow has a full kitchen, and grapefruit trees in the garden are there for picking

• Amenities: pool with cabana, in-unit washer and dryer, keyless entry, high-speed wifi, no children's facilities

• Attractions: Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Canyon Drive, downtown Palm Springs, all within walking distance

Inside the Bungalows

Four of the five bungalows pair full kitchens with separate living areas and bedrooms, built for travellers planning to cook a meal or settle in for more than a weekend. The fifth, a studio suite, suits a shorter visit or a solo traveller who wants the same address without the extra space. Keyless entry with a private code lets guests come and go without a front-desk handoff, and a full-size washer and dryer in every unit means laundry never becomes a reason to leave. The rooms that kept their 1928 tile or 1950s cabinetry are worth requesting specifically if period detail matters more to you than a fresh renovation.

Before You Book

The property is adults-only, which makes it a better fit for couples and groups of friends than for families travelling with children. Guests staying 29 nights or longer qualify for a discounted nightly rate and an exemption from the local lodging tax, a combination that brings the total saving to roughly a third, worth knowing for anyone weighing Palm Springs as a longer winter base rather than a weekend trip. There is no restaurant on site, in keeping with the self-catering bungalow format rather than a gap in service, and the garden's grapefruit trees are there for guests to pick from during citrus season.