The long-awaited La Bahia Hotel & Spa on Beach Street in Santa Cruz is on track for a Sept. 1 opening, and reservations are now being taken online, according to the hotel’s general manager, Markus Krebs.
The hotel, which broke ground in the summer of 2022, aims to be the most high-end vacation hotel between Half Moon Bay’s Ritz-Carlton and Carmel’s swankiest accommodations. Currently, bookings for early September for the hotel’s 155 rooms are going for $556 to $736 a night, according to its online reservation portal. It will feature two restaurants and bars that will be open to the public; those are also slated for a Sept. 1 opening. That includes Low Tide Bar & Grill, a Champagne bar called Pearl and fine-dining High Tide; a poolside bar, Plunge, will be open to hotel guests only.
Hiring is underway, with newly listed positions including chef de cuisine and director of spa and wellness.
The hotel is owned by Long Beach-headquartered Ensemble Hospitality, which also owns the nearby Dream Inn and the Bernardus Lodge & Spa in Carmel Valley. La Bahia Hotel & Spa was built on the grounds of the former La Bahia Apartments, which fell into disrepair after bureaucratic and development delays held up prior attempts to restore or revitalize the landmark. The historic bell tower of the former structure has been restored, a remaining vestige of the original La Bahia, which was built in 1926 and then known as the Casa Del Rey apartments. It was renamed La Bahia in 1964 and eventually turned into an apartment complex.
