3 November 2026 |
The man behind Studio 54 brings the PUBLIC Hotel, and “luxury for all,” to the Sunset Strip.
Ian Schrager knows hospitality. He learned it from his parents. He learned it from his longtime business partner, Steve Rubell. And over a fifty-plus-year career, he’s learned it on the fly, guided by a reliable gut instinct. Even now, he’s still watching to see how guests will respond to his newest offering, PUBLIC West Hollywood. What sets his third L.A. property apart is a “luxury for all” approach. Travelers who’d balk at room prices at his Edition hotels, for example, might have an easier time stomaching those at PUBLIC. It is a less extravagant space. Just don’t call it minimalist. “It’s meant to be simple, not minimal. There are no gratuitous gestures,” Schrager says.
The result: after entering through a mostly white lobby with no formal reception desk, elevators take you to color-saturated guest floors, which then reveal neutral, all-white guest rooms. Each one functions as a private screening room complete with projector. 75% of the space is outdoors, including a pool deck and, up on the roof, a 16,000 square-foot park affording 360-degree views of the city. Down in STUDIO, the cocktail-bar-cum-club, you’ll find the black finishes that the rest of the space eschews. It was in this dark, sexy space that Karen O performed for the hotel’s opening while guests danced between tables, a sight evoking that other Studio.
We caught up with Schrager the morning after to get his impressions.
1. How do you feel the opening went last night?
I’m still a little bit stoic about everything. It’s so funny — I’m not a big party person, personally, but I’m trying to create a party for everybody else. So I don’t really know how it goes until I hear from everyone, until I get the feedback. I’m kind of detached. I instinctively feel everything’s good, that it went well. People liked it. Mission accomplished. But it doesn’t sink in for a day or so. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll have my ear to the ground.
2. Let’s start with the genesis of the project. You talk about the alchemy and the magic of a place making it special, and this building, of course, had a former life as The Standard. So was there magic here already?
Not yet. The bones were here. The fact that The Standard was here, and that it was successful, was something to overcome, not something that we rode the trade winds by. That was yesterday, that’s not today. We have to do something new. It’s our job to come in here and be transformative, turn it into something one doesn’t quite expect.
3. So you had to distinguish the space from The Standard. How do you differentiate it from your other properties as well? The West Hollywood Edition, for example. It’s not far from here.
It’s completely different. You know, look… I’m the same person. It’s still a hotel. My aesthetic is always the same. The idea was predicated in simplicity, but you evolve. Hopefully, it’s more refined and more sophisticated. You know, there, I had Marriott as a partner, and so I couldn’t be as adventurous. I couldn’t be as playful. I never would have been able to paint the halls in different colors. It’s a real effort to try and blow people away. And that’s the fun part for me.
4. You’re a New Yorker. Do you have a soft spot for LA? People can be pretty cynical about it as an industry town.
People forget how magical it is out here, or maybe they get used to it. I mean, I don’t know of any other places in the world where you’re an hour from the desert, the ocean, skiing on snow capped mountains, and also in the middle of a thriving metropolitan area. It’s unique circumstances. You know the song, “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere”? Well it’s New York and L.A. Doing something in New York is great, but then you don’t want to be just a local phenomenon, just a New York person. You have to be able to see if the idea you have travels, if it’ll do well in the West Coast. That was very important to me.
5. These days there’s a lot of talk about people going out less, and particularly young people drinking and partying less than ever. What do you make of that?
I don’t think that will continue. The reason for it, I’m not quite sure. Maybe there’s nothing interesting for them to go out to. Maybe they’re bored, nobody’s coming along with anything new and exciting. But you give them something that makes them have fun, to meet people and to be connected, they’ll be there. We’re all people, and we all react to the same things. And so I don’t buy into that “The times are changing.”
Things are changing, I understand, but we’re always who we are. Wanting to meet people, have fun, interact; a desire to be happy, to not be lonely — those things never change. There aren’t any fundamental differences, only fashionable ones. Or else, I wouldn’t be able to do anything all that compelling or relevant. I’m not going out there the way I did twenty years ago but I’m still operating under the same assumptions I did when I first got started.
6. The ethos of this hotel is “luxury for all.” What defines luxury?
It’s making somebody feel good. They’re being treated with dignity. They’re happy, content, and feel that you’re attentive to their needs. Not leaving a mint on the pillow at night, but that you’re really making an effort. They are guests in your home, and you’re looking out for them. It doesn’t matter what the price point is. You don’t have to have all those rich people’s accoutrements. You could be even understaffed, as long as you’re attentive and you genuinely want to please somebody. That’s luxury.
The industry went away from that and now has no soul. You have to be the kind of person that wants to look after people. That’s the criteria. Not the training and all that kind of thing — which you need, of course — but you have to pick the right person that enjoys looking after people. Steve [Rubell] loved it, firsthand, face-to-face. I also loved it, but not the way Steve enjoyed it. I loved it by creating an environment for them to do that, and I got enjoyment from that.
7. Any L.A. spots you love that you’d want people to visit while they’re here?
From a hotel perspective, it would just be the Chateau [Marmont]. Because it has something. The Chateau was offered to me before André Balazs bought it. I didn’t take the opportunity, because there was nothing that I could do to it. It’s what it was, and that’s not what I do. Just owning and running that wouldn’t have had any enjoyment for me. But that’s a place that has it. Whatever it is. And it’s elusive.
8. Did your parents host a lot when you were growing up?
My parents used to have parties. One time, when we were living in Brooklyn, my parents had copies of The New York Sunday Times stacked up to the ceiling so when the guests left, they could take a paper on their way out. I must have been 11. What an impression that made on me. They really thought about everything. I think I got that from my parents. It was just a thoughtful, gracious gesture.
9. At Studio 54, you invoked “Modern-Day Gomorrah.” And there is something about being in a hotel that can make people behave badly. Did you feel you were taking a risk with the all-white bedrooms and linens?
I remember I did a hotel in Miami Beach that was all white. I wanted to do a family stay, because I went there with my family. People were very, very skeptical about it. I remember somebody saying to me, “Wait til the first 10-year-old comes in with chocolate on his hands, and he puts them on your pristine white duvet.” It never happened. By and large, people rise to the level of the place. That’s always been our approach. If you start worrying, that’s what pushes and drives everything down, and that’s when you get the sameness. As a business idea, we make up for that in higher rates, higher occupancy, more profitable food and beverage. So we’re willing to underwrite that risk, because we’ll get it back in other ways.
10. You’ve had a lot of success. Was there one standout “I’ve made it” moment in your career?
No. I still haven’t [had one]. I think creative people feel like that. Something has to drive you, and I don’t think it’s ever the money. It’s incredibly gratifying to do something and have people come in and react to it. I’ve just about been there and done that, with almost everything. Now it’s my family. I’m very family oriented. I have a great marriage, a great wife, and my work. I’m the richest guy in the world. I really feel that.
