Living Life at the Top Can Sure Be Suite

Question: What has a bulletproof view, sits on the 20th floor and comes equipped with a grand piano, Oriental antiques and four fridges?

Answer: The Presidential Suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.

Like the other luxury suites that sit at the top of Orange County’s premier hotels, the $1,700-per-night digs at the Four Seasons have housed a range of VIPs. Past guests have included everyone from President Bush to the rock band Aerosmith.

When they’re not occupied, the suites are frequently used for A-list parties and business receptions. Whatever the occasion, these mini-houses have become the most important social addresses in town.

And the sky’s the limit when it comes to hauling out the red carpet for the people who use them. When it was learned that Bush was going to stay at the suite in 1991, the management knocked out the old windows and installed new, bulletproof glass, says a hotel spokeswoman.

When Barbra Streisand tucked her pumps under the bed during a weeklong stay at the Four Seasons last year, she came and went without a trace, enjoying fare that was left on silver trays outside her door, and entering and leaving the hotel by way of a secret entrance.

Sure, top-of-the-line ambience is important for guests. Besides sweeping views, luxury suites offer walls decorated with fine art and ceilings hung with sparkling crystal.

But just as important is a hotel’s guarantee of privacy, says Katie Heimark of the Four Seasons. “One of our biggest attractions for the upper echelon is that we protect their anonymity,” she says. “When Barbra Streisand was here, nobody saw her except for the security people. She stayed under an assumed identity.”

Anyone can enjoy similar treatment. “It’s becoming very popular for people to stay anonymously in hotels,” Heimark observes. “You just make sure your phone number doesn’t match your room number.”

When Whitney Houston last holed up at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point’s $3,500-per-night presidential suite, she appreciated her privacy, just as Arsenio Hall and President Nixon did when they stayed there.

“But even though they’re major celebrities, they enjoy some recognition,” says John Dravinski, the hotel’s general manager. “So, we (the staff) do recognize them, but we don’t make a big-crowd ceremony about them being there.”

Situated on the hotel’s fourth-floor Club Level, the suite--which houses a Steinway grand piano and an $8,000 Waterford crystal chandelier--has been newly renovated.

A few months before his death, Nixon stayed in the 1,840-square-foot suite to work on a book, Dravinski says.

“He liked our hotel because it was close to Casa Pacifica (Nixon’s former Western White House) and he was familiar with the area,” says Dravinski.

Generally, Presidents have few special requests during a hotel stay. “Nixon was very low-key,” Dravinski says. “Presidents travel so much that they come with their own things. We simply provide the generic equipment they need--the faxes, the computers, the phones.”

During his tenure as manager of the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, Henry Schielein--who now manages the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach--welcomed Presidents Reagan, Bush and Carter to the hotel’s presidential suite.

“They were all extremely nice,” says Schielein. “And very basic. We have to remember, American Presidents are not emperors. They are presidents of the people. And I must tell you I find them very easy to talk to, very genuine.”

No satin sheets? “Offer a President satin sheets and he would resent it,” says Schielein. “But I do try to find out what VIPs like and have it on hand for them.

“For example, Henry Kissinger once stayed at a hotel I was managing and I knew he had grown up in Bavaria, where I come from, so I put together a basket of sausages, cheeses, rye bread and beer. He loved it.”

While the Balboa Bay Club has a penthouse suite that rents for $1,250 a night, Schielein has his eye on creating a presidential suite there that will be “the ultimate suite in Newport Beach,” he says.

“A top-notch suite has to have it all--elegant decor, beautiful art and all in extremely good taste,” he says. “Absolutely nothing hokey-- no kitsch. We hope to have ours ready sometime this year.”

According to sources, President Clinton has yet to spend the night in an Orange County hotel, but Al Gore (before he was became vice president) has done time at presidential suites in the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel in Costa Mesa and the Hyatt Regency Irvine.

“During President Clinton’s campaign, Al Gore stayed with us twice in our Pacific Suite,” says Westin South Coast Plaza manager Wayne Boddington. “He didn’t have any special requests--very easy-going.”

The 1,900-square-foot three-bedroom suite, which rents for $920 per night, is on the 16th floor.

Suite guests have included Placido Domingo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli and Julio Iglesias.

“When Planet Hollywood opened a few years ago, we had Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sly Stallone all on the 16th floor,” Boddington says, a tinge of awe in his voice.

Oh, what a night.