Five resort and golf properties, three in Rancho Mirage and two in Cathedral City. Between them they hold the largest published outdoor reception figure in this four-city corridor, 3,000 on the Omni's 5th Fairway, and its lowest published entry price, $500 for a ceremony at Cimarron.
5 venues
Twenty-four acres on a 650-foot bluff, reopened in December 2014 as the 86th Ritz-Carlton worldwide.
Its 5th Fairway is rated for 3,000 at a reception, the largest figure in the corridor.
Formerly the Westin Mission Hills, on 360 acres at 71333 Dinah Shore Drive, and still filed under the old name by several directories. Celebrity Ballroom: 17,325 square feet, 1,280 at dinner.
John Fought designed both courses, including the 6,782-yard Boulder. A marketplace listing puts ceremonies from $500 and receptions from $1,000, the lowest entry pricing in the corridor. There are no guest rooms, despite the word Resort.
Palm Springs is in the name; Cathedral City is the address, 67967 Vista Chino. Site fees supplied to a marketplace run $1,000 to $1,500 for a ceremony and $2,000 to $2,500 for a reception.
No, twice over. The Annenberg Trust states in its own FAQ that Sunnylands, the historic estate and the Center and Gardens together, is not available for private events or rentals, and explains that the property puts educational and cultural programming ahead of hire. The second refusal is narrower and catches more people: staged photography is not allowed on the grounds at all, wedding, engagement, graduation and team pictures alike, on the stated ground that it disturbs other visitors.
Omni Rancho Las Palmas publishes the only first-party rate card in the corridor and it is granular. Plated dinners run $135 to $190 per person and buffets $145 to $190, with stations at $25 to $65 and hors d'oeuvres at $45. Four-hour bar packages go $82 beer and wine, $93 call, $110 premium, $138 craft, with a $200 bartender fee for up to four hours and one bartender required per 75 guests. Brunch is $55, or $48 for the spa bridal version, and an outside cake costs $3.00 a head to cut. On top of all of it sits a 26 percent service charge and 7.75 percent sales tax. What the brochure never states is a room rental fee or a food and beverage minimum.
Rancho Mirage Municipal Code section 17.30.270(B) prohibits renting a dwelling for twenty-seven consecutive days or less, and extends the prohibition to advertising it, offering it and agreeing to it, so no booking and no occupancy is required for the breach. An initial citation to the property owner is $5,000, each subsequent occurrence is $10,000, and liens, civil injunctions and criminal prosecution sit behind those. The city records no grandfathered permits, no HOA exemptions and no hotel or condominium carve-outs. A Rancho Mirage house posted on a short-stay platform for a wedding weekend has already crossed the section before anyone clicks book.
DoubleTree Golf Resort Palm Springs stands at 67967 Vista Chino, inside Cathedral City limits, about ten minutes from downtown Palm Springs. The consequences are ordinary and worth spelling out. Guests navigating to a Palm Springs address are sent to the wrong city. City-keyed directories misfile the property. Event approvals, noise complaints and transient occupancy tax questions all go to Cathedral City staff, whose short-term rental rules were not researched here. Peak season runs January through June and December, and the resort wraps 27 holes containing 85 sand traps and 21 lakes.
Thunderbird, Tamarisk, Morningside and Mission Hills are salon and lawn names at the Ritz-Carlton, and all four are Rancho Mirage country clubs a short drive away. The resort publishes a complete capacity chart, from an 8,400 square foot ballroom at 650 banquet and 800 reception down to three rooms rated at 50 reception apiece, and no rates whatsoever. The single commercial term it does print is a room block threshold of ten or more rooms a night for preferred wedding rates.
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