Montage Beverly Hills, Ritz-Carlton Tahoe join 5-diamond club

The Montage Beverly Hills and the Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe in Truckee are the newest California hotels to score five diamonds in the 2012 AAA Awards, the Auto Club’s top honor bestowed to just 126 of the more than 31,000 hotels reviewed this year in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. In all, 19 California hotels past and present are on the five-diamond list for 2012.

The Aria Sky Suites in Las Vegas, Mandarin Oriental Miami and the St. Regis Houston also are among the newcomers to receive the top ranking. Last year, the Montage Laguna Beach dropped from five to four diamonds, where it remains.

Twenty-one hotels in California snagged four diamonds for the first time in 2012, including L.A. Live hotels JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton in downtown Los Angeles, the boutique Hotel Amarano in Burbank, the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, the Hotel Palomar L.A.-Westwood, Westlake Village Inn and the Hilton Los Angeles/San Gabriel.

Other four-diamond newcomers include the DisneylandHotel in Anaheim as well as four in the San Diego area — Hilton San Diego Bayfront, Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa & Marina, Paradise Point and Jamul Haven. Just 190 hotels are added this year to four-diamond properties; 178 hotels in California receive that ranking.

AAA and the Automobile Club of Southern California announced the awards last week in marking the 75th year of inspecting and rating hotels and restaurants on a 1 to 5 “diamond” scale. Check out the entire 2012 diamond ratings list.