See inside the historic Santa Barbara hotel that LVMH just sold to the cofounder of Tinder for $82.2 million
El Encanto, located in the hills of Santa Barbara, was LVMH's only US hotel.
See inside the hotel, which sold for $82.2 million, or around $900,000 per room.
A historic, luxury hotel in the hills of Santa Barbara, California, is under new ownership.
Brothers Justin and Tyler Mateen and Culver Capital purchased the El Encanto Hotel, a 90-room property that originally opened in 1918, for $82.2 million from LVMH, the French luxury giant, the buyers said this week.
"The beauty of the American Riviera rivals the best coastlines in Europe but is less than 90 minutes from Los Angeles and just a direct flight from many major US cities," Justin Mateen, who cofounded the dating app Tinder, said in a statement.
"El Encanto has an authentic heart and soul unlike any property I've visited in California," Tyler Mateen said. "We will bring its rich history and timeless allure to the forefront of every aspect of the guest experience."
LVMH bought Belmond, the hotel company that owned the El Encanto, in 2018. The property was LVMH's only hotel in the US, though the company's Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts collection plans to open a hotel in Miami Beach in 2028.
The buyers said they plan to make changes to the property and that it will remain open during the transition.
See inside the historic hotel.
El Encanto sits in the Santa Barbara hills overlooking the Pacific
Santa Barbara, located about 95 miles from LA, has been nicknamed the " American Riviera" due to its desirable weather and gorgeous coastline.
The hotel sold for $900,000 per room
There are 90 rooms at the hotel, which sold for $82 million, putting the per-room price at around $900,000. A weekend stay at the hotel in August is currently going for around $1,500 per night, according to the booking site.
El Encanto spans seven acres
The hotel includes more than 30 buildings, lush landscaping, a spa, and a pool that overlooks Santa Barbara.
Plenty of celebrities have stayed at El Encanto over the years
El Encanto was popular with the elite of Hollywood 's Golden Age, welcoming guests such as Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Modern celebrities who have stayed there include Gwen Stefani and Leonardo DiCaprio. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy Jr. also stayed at the hotel.
The hotel is known for its Spanish-Colonial architecture and California bungalows
"This property embodies the essence of California living and offers an experience like no other hotel on the Central Coast," Garrett Cayton of Culver Capital said in a statement.
The bathrooms have heated stone floors
The pool overlooks Santa Barbara and has views of the Pacific
The hotel has several levels of suites
The largest suite, the Oak Tree Suite, is 1,650 square feet and sleeps five.
The buyer said any upgrades would reflect the property's history
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Trump criticized the idea of presidential vacations. His Scotland trip is built around golf.
The White House isn't calling Trump's five-day, midsummer jaunt a vacation, but rather a working trip where the Republican president might hold a news conference and sit for interviews with U.S. and British media outlets. Trump was also talking trade in separate meetings with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump is staying at his properties near Turnberry and Aberdeen, where his family owns two golf courses and is opening a third on Aug. 13. Trump played golf over the weekend at Turnberry and is helping cut the ribbon on the new course on Tuesday. Advertisement He's not the first president to play in Scotland: Dwight D. Eisenhower played at Turnberry in 1959, more than a half century before Trump bought it, after meeting with French President Charles de Gaulle in Paris. But none of Trump's predecessors has constructed a foreign itinerary around promoting vacation sites his family owns and is actively expanding. Advertisement It lays bare how Trump has leveraged his second term to pad his family's profits in a variety of ways, including overseas development deals and promoting cryptocurrencies, despite growing questions about ethics concerns. 'You have to look at this as yet another attempt by Donald Trump to monetize his presidency,' said Leonard Steinhorn, who teaches political communication and courses on American culture and the modern presidency at American University. 'In this case, using the trip as a PR opportunity to promote his golf courses.' A parade of golf carts and security accompanied President Trump at Turnberry, on the Scottish coast southwest of Glasgow, on Sunday. Christopher Furlong/Getty President Trump on the links. Christopher Furlong/Getty Presidents typically vacation in the US Franklin D. Roosevelt went to the Bahamas, often for the excellent fishing, five times between 1933 and 1940. He visited Canada's Campobello Island in New Brunswick, where he had vacationed as a child, in 1933, 1936 and 1939. Reagan spent Easter 1982 on vacation in Barbados after meeting with Caribbean leaders and warning of a Marxist threat that could spread throughout the region from nearby Grenada. Presidents also never fully go on vacation. They travel with a large entourage of aides, receive intelligence briefings, take calls and otherwise work away from Washington. Kicking back in the United States, though, has long been the norm. Harry S. Truman helped make Key West, Florida, a tourist hot spot with his 'Little White House' cottage there. Several presidents, including James Buchanan and Benjamin Harrison, visited the Victorian architecture in Cape May, New Jersey. More recently, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama boosted tourism on Massachusetts' Martha's Vineyard, while Trump has buoyed Palm Beach, Florida, with frequent trips to his Mar-a-Lago estate. But any tourist lift Trump gets from his Scottish visit is likely to most benefit his family. 'Every president is forced to weigh politics versus fun on vacation,' said Jeffrey Engel, David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who added that Trump is 'demonstrating his priorities.' Advertisement 'When he thinks about how he wants to spend his free time, A., playing golf, B., visiting places where he has investments and C., enhancing those investments, that was not the priority for previous presidents, but it is his vacation time,' Engel said. It's even a departure from Trump's first term, when he found ways to squeeze in visits to his properties while on trips more focused on work. Trump stopped at his resort in Hawaii to thank staff members after visiting the memorial site at Pearl Harbor and before embarking on an Asia trip in November 2017. He played golf at Turnberry in 2018 before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland. Trump once decried the idea of taking vacations as president. 'Don't take vacations. What's the point? If you're not enjoying your work, you're in the wrong job,' Trump wrote in his 2004 book, 'Think Like a Billionaire.' During his presidential campaign in 2015, he pledged to 'rarely leave the White House.' Even as recently as a speech at a summit on artificial intelligence in Washington on Wednesday, Trump derided his predecessor for flying long distances for golf — something he's now doing. 'They talked about the carbon footprint and then Obama hops onto a 747, Air Force One, and flies to Hawaii to play a round of golf and comes back,' he said. On the green... Christopher Furlong/Getty ... and in the sand. Christopher Furlong/Getty Presidential vacations and any overseas trips were once taboo Trump isn't the first president not wanting to publicize taking time off. George Washington was criticized for embarking on a New England tour to promote the presidency. Some took issue with his successor, John Adams, for leaving the then-capital of Philadelphia in 1797 for a long visit to his family's farm in Quincy, Massachusetts. James Madison left Washington for months after the War of 1812. Advertisement Teddy Roosevelt helped pioneer the modern presidential vacation in 1902 by chartering a special train and directing key staffers to rent houses near Sagamore Hill, his home in Oyster Bay, New York, according to the White House Historical Association. Four years later, Roosevelt upended tradition again, this time by becoming the first president to leave the country while in office. The New York Times noted that Roosevelt's 30-day trip by yacht and battleship to tour construction of the Panama Canal 'will violate the traditions of the United States for 117 years by taking its President outside the jurisdiction of the Government at Washington.' In the decades since, where presidents opted to vacation, even outside the U.S., has become part of their political personas. In addition to New Jersey, Grant relaxed on Martha's Vineyard. Calvin Coolidge spent the 1928 Christmas holidays at Sapelo Island, Georgia. Lyndon B. Johnson had his 'Texas White House,' a Hill Country ranch. Eisenhower vacationed in Newport, Rhode Island. John F. Kennedy went to Palm Springs, California, and his family's compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, among other places. Richard Nixon had the 'Southern White House' on Key Biscayne, Florida, while Joe Biden traveled frequently to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, while also visiting Nantucket, Massachusetts, and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. George H.W. Bush was a frequent visitor to his family's property in Kennebunkport, Maine, and didn't let the start of the Gulf War in 1991 detour him from a monthlong vacation there. His son, George W. Bush, opted for his ranch in Crawford, Texas, rather than a more posh destination. Advertisement Presidential visits help tourism in some places more than others, but Engel said that for some Americans, 'if the president of the Untied States goes some place, you want to go to the same place.' He noted that visitors emulating presidential vacations are out 'to show that you're either as cool as he or she, that you understand the same values as he or she or, heck, maybe you'll bump into he or she.'
American Press
2 hours ago
- American Press
Louisiana spotlight: Nungesser keeping state top of mind for those ready to explore
Traveling has been significantly increasing since the decline during the COVID-19 pandemic — and Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and his team are working hard to keep Louisiana top of mind for those ready to explore. Last year, Nungesser said his office used a U.S. Commerce Department grant to increase awareness of Louisiana as a travel destination in Mumbai and New Delhi, India; Madrid, Spain; and Milan, Italy. In a few months, the team will spend a week in Canada promoting the Bayou State and its French heritage. Canada 'is about 33 percent of our international market,' Nungesser told members of the Rotary Club of Lake Charles Wednesday afternoon. 'Those Canadians love them some Louisiana.' In Paris, the Louisiana Office of Tourism also wrapped taxi cabs serving as rolling billboards to inspire travel to the state and it sponsored the London Jazz Festival last year. Nungesser said Louisiana welcomed 43 million domestic and international visitors in 2023, the most recent data available. Those visitors spent a total of $18.1 billion, an increase of 5.4 percent over 2022. International visitation showed the most significant gain, he said, increasing 16.9 percent in 2023 with spending reaching $1.7 billion. Louisiana has also been on the national stage in recent months with an alligator-themed float that crawled the streets of Pasadena, Calif., for the 136th annual Rose Parade and again as host to the Super Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans. 'Somebody asked me what do we do better than anyone else and I said Mardi Gras,' Nungesser said. 'So we found out what parades we could go to. We were in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for three years and now we're in the Rose Parade.' Though the floats are professionally designed, they are decorated by volunteers days before the parade. Every float is covered in flowers, leaves, seeds, bark and other natural materials to honor the Rose Parade's history. Nungesser said volunteers from Louisiana are flown to California and are shuttled between the warehouse where the float is being built to their accommodations. A New Orleans native who now resides in California brings her beignets-only food truck each day to feed the volunteers during their shifts and the best of Louisiana cuisine is served each night. 'It's a trip everybody should make,' he said. For more on volunteering, visit Nungesser said participation in the parade 'allows us to drive awareness about our state as a vacation destination to a broad number of attendees, as well as viewers watching from home,' Nungesser said. 'The return on investment for the Rose Parade has been incredible.' Nungesser said the Rose Parade media coverage — thanks to a plethora of morning show interviews aired across the nation as the float is being built — for the past four years reached an estimated 10.4 billion people and was worth $144.9 million. State Parks When Nungesser took office nearly a decade ago, seven state parks were under the threat of closure. 'I was told, 'You don't have the money to keep them open and they're in pretty bad shape,' ' he said. 'Thanks to our sheriffs and local volunteers we were able to do a lot of repair and get them presentable and today those seven parks are making a profit.' The Louisiana Office of State Parks operates 21 state parks, 14 historic sites and a preservation area that comprises 45,000 acres, 110 miles of roads and 1.2 million square feet of rental facilities that welcomed more than 1.75 million visitors last year. He said his new goal is creating resort conference centers within some of the state parks to attract visiting conferences. 'We have over 350 groups that meet every year all over Louisiana,' he said. 'They don't meet in New Orleans because the hotel does not cover their per diem, but they meet everywhere else. There's usually 300-500 people and it's a great opportunity for us and it would be a great for the local economies. One thing we won't do is we won't let anyone open a restaurant (within the conference centers) or anything that would compete with local businesses.' One state park thriving at the moment is Bogue Chitto — a top destination for travelers nationwide for its mountain biking trails, which are maintained by the North Shore Off-Road Bicycling Association. 'A thousand people a month from 10-15 states go to Washington Parish for this mountain bike trail,' he said. 'We also have horseback riding. We brought a gentleman's horses into the park and let him run the business out of the park and he's knocking it out of the park, no pun intended. These two private-public partnerships have put Washington Parish on the map. Before they had very little tourism. It has changed that town forever.' Prime Video just completed a documentary on the mountain bike trails and 25 percent of the proceeds will go into building additional trails. He said the park recently acquired an additional 600 acres to expand the mountain bike and horseback riding trails. Museums Nungesser's office oversees nine museums; the Secretary of State's office and some local cities operate the rest. He said he hopes to introduce a bill next year that would force all museums to be open on the weekends — every museum operated under the Secretary of State's Office are not — when people are off work and more likely to visit. His office has also bought the website and plans to video every museum in the state. 'We did a video about the ghost that's upstairs at the Beauregard Gothic Jail — I don't know if it's there but the lady has me convinced and I'm not going up to check — and we test marketed to people who like ghosts and at Halloween, 4,000 people showed up to find that ghost,' he said. 'If you have a ghost, we will promote it and they will come.' He said most are aware of the World War II Museum in New Orleans. Now promotions will tie in Chennault Aviation and Military Museum in Monroe, the Louisiana Military Museum in Abbeville and others to draw in like-minded visitors. He also wants to give all museums the freedom to hire the directors of their choice. Right now, that responsibility falls under the office that oversees the facility. Louisiana seafood Several key pieces of legislation passed during the 2024 Regular Legislative Session affected the seafood industry in the state. Act 47 mandates restaurants serving imported crawfish or shrimp must officially inform their customers on the menu; Act 148 requires restaurants and food service establishments to label on menus all imported seafood as such, not just shrimp and crawfish; and Act 756 transferred the Seafood Safety Task Force to the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board to help in the regulation of imported seafood. 'We want people to ask before they eat. The goal is to prevent imported seafood — which is filled with a lot of antibiotics — to come into this country and to level the playing field for our Louisiana fishermen,' he said. 'If you eat Boudreaux's crawfish tails, they're going to be from Boudreaux's. They're not going to be from Thailand.' Keep Louisiana Beautiful Love the Boot Week is Louisiana's largest litter removal and beautification effort. During 2024, 19,441 people volunteered a total of 100,712 hours at over 760 events, removing a record 347 tons of litter in all 64 parishes. 'It has become a movement,' Nungesser said. Their efforts diverted 293 pounds of aluminum cans and 330 pounds of plastic bottles from the landfill allowing the items to be recycled. Next month, the office will be handing out buckets at marinas around the state, asking boaters and fishermen to scoop up any trash they may see on the waterways and shorelines. 'We're not going to take our foot off the gas until we have no more trash in Louisiana,' Nungesser said.
Time Business News
2 hours ago
- Time Business News
Luxe Laundromat: A Game-Changer in Laundry Services
Laundry day doesn't have to be a chore when you choose the right service provider. In today's fast-paced world, convenience and efficiency are at the top of everyone's priority list, and Luxe Laundromat, located in Reading, PA, is leading the way in transforming the laundry experience. Whether you're a busy professional, a parent juggling multiple tasks, or a local business in need of consistent laundry service, Luxe Laundromat offers tailored solutions that make laundry day easier and faster. Luxe Laundromat isn't just another laundromat. It's a full-service laundry solution that's designed with your convenience in mind. Offering everything from self-service machines to wash-dry-fold and even pickup and delivery services, Luxe Laundromat is your one-stop shop for all laundry needs. Let's explore what sets them apart: The quality of the machines you use plays a significant role in your laundry experience. Luxe Laundromat boasts modern, high-efficiency washers and fast, effective dryers. These machines ensure your clothes are cleaned thoroughly and efficiently, minimizing the time you spend waiting and maximizing the quality of your laundry. Whether you prefer to do your laundry yourself, or you're looking for a more hands-off solution, Luxe Laundromat has you covered: Self-Service Laundromat: If you prefer the traditional way of doing laundry, Luxe Laundromat offers a clean, spacious self-service area with all the amenities you need. Wash-Dry-Fold: For those who want to save time and skip the folding, Luxe Laundromat offers professional wash-dry-fold services to make your laundry experience as effortless as possible. Pickup & Delivery: Short on time? Let Luxe Laundromat handle it with their reliable pickup and delivery service, available right at your doorstep. It's the ultimate convenience for busy individuals and families. Luxe Laundromat understands that doing laundry is not the most exciting activity, which is why they've created an environment that makes it a more pleasant experience. With complimentary coffee, family-friendly spaces, and even charging stations, you can relax while your laundry gets done. The clean and comfortable surroundings also include spotless restrooms, so you'll feel right at home. At Luxe Laundromat, the staff is committed to providing a friendly and welcoming atmosphere for every customer. Their bilingual (English/Spanish) attendants are available to assist with any questions or special requests you may have. They take pride in being a key part of the Reading, PA community and offering services that truly make a difference in people's lives. Located in the heart of Reading, PA, Luxe Laundromat is easily accessible for locals and visitors alike. With ample parking and extended business hours, you can easily find a time to visit that works best for your schedule. Luxe Laundromat is open every day from 7 AM to 10 PM, with the last wash starting at 8:30 PM, ensuring plenty of flexibility to accommodate even the busiest of schedules. Not just for residential customers, Luxe Laundromat also offers comprehensive commercial laundry services. Local businesses can take advantage of Luxe's expert laundry solutions to maintain clean linens, uniforms, and towels. With a professional and reliable service, businesses can focus on what matters most without worrying about laundry. Luxe Laundromat is more than just a laundromat; it's a service that makes laundry day simple, fast, and stress-free. Whether you're a residential customer or a local business, Luxe Laundromat's premium laundry solutions cater to your needs with speed, quality, and care. If you're looking for an exceptional laundry experience in Reading, PA, look no further than Luxe Laundromat. Discover why it's the Top-Rated Laundromat in Reading and let them take the stress out of your laundry day. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
