When Danny Hyde decided on the vibe he wanted for the hotel he’s creating out of a historic beachfront property in Dana Point, he didn’t want to clutter the bungalows with TVs, he said.
The property, an early example of a California motor court-style hotel, is more than 80 years old and steps from the ocean. “It’s important to us,” he said, “that you know you’re in Dana Point. A black screen can be a portal out of that.”
Instead, the focal point of the rooms in the EL Caminante Bar and Bungalows is a king bed sitting on handcrafted Saltillo tiles with a view of the expansive beach. The TV is there, but framed to disappear into the room’s decor.
Each of the bungalows is decorated to create its own unique experience, helped through varied artwork, vintage light fixtures and one-of-a-kind mosaics created on Mexican white tile in the bathrooms. The idea, Hyde said, is for the ambiance to create a “sense of place.” Overnight stays will be priced between $300 to $1,500.
The property was once the Capistrano Seaside Inn and served as a getaway spot for early Hollywood stars. Over time it’s luster wore off and it was even listed among the nation’s 10 worst motels on Yelp before being shuttered for years and red-tagged by the city. Following a spin through the courts, the property ultimately went to a foreclosure sale.
Hyde, president of the San Clemente-based Artist Guild Hospitality, purchased the property in 2021 out of the foreclosure. With his partner, Jeff Finn, the two assured city officials that they would renovate with an eye to its historical importance and followed the standards of historical restoration for the exterior. And the community has since been watching closely how the project has unfolded.
Twenty-two of the hotel’s 30 rooms are on the lower level and will have private patios – equal to the size of the room – with cozy seating and a custom-designed outdoor fireplace to give an indoor-outdoor feeling to the space.
As a special surprise, each of the rooms has an old-style record player that plays vinyl, cassette tapes and CDs. Upon request, guests can pick from more than 45 artists to tailor the music to their tastes.
A hacienda – described as a presidential suite – is located above the hotel’s lobby and bar-lounge area and includes a private patio that can accommodate 23 people.
The property’s surrounding landscape kept the original palm trees and has been planted with flowering bushes, edible plants and five Asian fruit trees, from which Hyde said guests will be able to pick fruits like lychee and loganberries. Handcrafted bricks from an artist in Mexico create a path around the units and through the front courtyard to a three-tiered handcrafted fountain where guests can dip their toes while looking through a clear glass barrier that separates the property from Pacific Coast Highway.
“It’s important you know you are here,” Hyde said during a recent tour of the property. “It’s important you have a sense of place. Everything, including the woodwork, is intentional.”
The minute he and Finn saw the property, Hyde said they knew it would fit their company’s portfolio. They have at least 30 other historic properties they’ve restored along the California coast and one in Hawaii. Their specialty, Hyde said, is taking old buildings and making a new life for them.
“It felt like this was the spot we wanted to create in,” said Hyde, who was living in the same Capistrano Beach community when he purchased the property. “We went to court, submitted a bid, and got selected for it.”
When they got the property, the buildings had been torn down to the studs.
For Hyde, who describes himself as a hotelier and real estate developer, working on the hotel has been a labor of love, he said. Growing up in Nevada, he framed his first house as a 14-year-old, he said. While he’s built multiple single- and multi-family homes and offices, he said he gets his greatest satisfaction from working on hotels.
“Hospitality is always open,” he said. “When homes are built, I can never go in again.”
As soon as he spent time at the property, Hyde said he realized he had a gem that needed a “gemcutter.” So, he assembled a group of artists to help create the pallet, he said.
First, they had to make sure the floors were level and the walls were square. Each door – the rooms have two Dutch doors – had to be recut. Everything they constructed had to be rebuilt “twice and three times,” he said.
Now, he said, the property is almost ready to open to the public. April 1 is the date he tossed out, with a possible soft opening earlier for locals.
Hyde is excited about a rooftop bar positioned over the location of a former carport against a steep hillside overlooking the ocean. “I stood on it and decided to turn it into a deck,” Hyde said.
After getting approval from the California Coastal Commission, he’s moving forward with the work to finish it in time for the hotel’s opening. Once completed it will accommodate 49 people.
The deck will be one of three spots where people will be able to grab specialty drinks and a menu featuring Mediterranean-style cuisine and unique pizzas, tapas, and ceviche. The food will be prepared in a 1968 Airstream Ambassador parked near the lobby’s entrance.
Hyde said he’s excited to see what guests will think of the new place, and Didi Shields, the hotel’s general manager, said they’ll be in for quite a treat.
Hyde and Shields said they’ve talked to the city about adding sidewalks in front of the property similar to what’s been done in front of Olamendi’s restaurant just down the road. They’re hopeful this can happen, they said, especially in the wake of city officials looking at a plan to create better connectivity for pedestrians and bikes between Doheny Village and Doheny State Beach.
While the hotel restoration has taken longer than others he’s done, Hyde said the greatest difficulty arose from disagreements with contractors.
“It’s hard to lose people fighting over details,” he said, referring to a September lawsuit filed by Lipps and Sons LLC, which first served as the general contractor. The complaint seeking roughly $1.2 million in damages alleges the contractor was not paid for the hotel renovation and is contesting change orders. According to court records, the case has moved slowly and appears headed to mediation or, if necessary, binding arbitration.
Hyde acknowledged the project has required many changes from what it looked like when he and Finn bought it in the foreclosure sale. Instead of concrete floors and walls, they are now hand-tiled and the walls are drywalled. Every finish that was planned has changed, he said. Hyde declined to say what the project cost.
“It was designed to be rustic; we made it more of a Spanish hacienda,” Hyde said, adding that the hotel has had “noise” around it from the beginning and “there is still noise.”
City Attorney Patrick Munoz said Hyde and Finn have gone through all the required inspections, including to add new features not on the property before, such as the view deck and a fountain. Hyde and Finn had proposed a pool, but the city said no.
“Nobody got cut any special deals and they had to comply with all the uniform codes,” Munoz said, adding the city does inspections as construction progresses and a final inspection will still be required.
Munoz said the hotel fills a niche the city wanted to retain near the beach for visitors. It was also important to the city that the historical significance of a hotel was preserved.
In the end, Hyde hopes the controversies around the hotel fade, he said, and visitors instead focus on the romance and the nod to Spanish history of the new hotel.
“Maybe it feels timeless, and maybe it’s always been here,” he said. “When you do historical renovations, you think about what it would have been like if they had the most resources. What type of art would they have had? What creativity inspired the original bones?”
