Hotels reveling in Hollywood glitz have not been immune to the harsh business realities of the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest case in point is The Standard in West Hollywood, California, which closed Friday after its operators said they were unable to absorb rising rent costs in the face of an unprecedented plunge in travel during the past year.

“Despite 22 years of unconditional love for our hotel, our guests, our team and our community, the hotel was unable to prevent a significant increase to its lease, which makes operating the property impossible," said operators of what had come to be known as a major celebrity magnet at 8300 W. Sunset Blvd. on the iconic Sunset Strip in an Instagram post the day before the shutdown.

Representatives of New York-based operator Standard International Management and the hotel’s landlord, Spain-based real estate investment firm Ferrado Group, did not immediately respond to CoStar News’ requests for comment.

A Standard International representative told the Los Angeles Times that Ferrado Group exercised an option to raise the lease price on the West Hollywood location in 2019. Under current conditions, the rent increase “rendered it unsustainable to operate the hotel,” although the hotel operator did try to renegotiate the lease, the Standard representative told the newspaper.

The Standard retains its other existing local property on Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles, which remains temporarily closed during the pandemic. The West Hollywood location, opened in 1999, was the first of what became six openings under the boutique Standard brand, known for its trademark upside-down banner, which expanded to other cities including New York City, London and Miami.

The brand was started by prominent developer and hotelier Andre Balazs, who sold his interests in The Standard operations in 2017.

The West Hollywood hotel was unable to stave off the impacts of the current travel economy, despite a history that included frequent stops by young movie and music stars among other notables who filled its dining and entertainment spots, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez, Lenny Kravitz and Uma Thurman.

The 139-room hotel’s pre-closing Instagram post touted a place “alive with personality & personalities, and the backdrop of countless legendary tales.” The setting included hip design elements, live music performances at its Desert Nights nightclub and other on-site venues, and its pool area lined with blue Astroturf.

The Standard is hardly the only high-end property in the Los Angeles area with Hollywood connections to undergo significant real estate-related transitions in the midst of the pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on all types of hotels as both leisure and business travel have plummeted at historic rates.

Data from travel research firm STR, a CoStar Group company, shows that West Hollywood hotels in 2020 experienced a 48% drop in occupancy from the prior year, falling to 41.2%, as average room prices declined 14.4% and revenue per available room dropped 55.4%

A plunge in both business and leisure travel caused downtown Los Angeles hotels to experience a similar 48.6% drop in occupancy, falling to 40.6% in 2020, as room rates declined nearly 22% and revenue per available room fell nearly 60%.

Partly in response to the pandemic market, hotelier Balasz last summer announced plans to convert his nearly century-old Chateau Marmont, another iconic celebrity haunt off the Sunset Strip, into a “private, members-owned hotel” that would be operated similar to a club with fee-paying members and potentially some with ownership stakes.

Numerous other owners nationwide are now mulling alternative business models as the coronavirus pandemic takes a serious financial toll on travel and tourism, especially high-end vacations at luxury hotels.

Jan Freitag, CoStar Group’s national director of hospitality market analytics, noted that the second half of 2021 could look very different from the first half for U.S. hotels, depending on factors including pending vaccinations and improving economic metrics that could put consumers back in the mood to travel again.

The second half could be something akin to a "Roaring ’20s” effect if pent-up demand leads people to get back to places like high-end hotels with lively social venues. For now, the only U.S. hotels doing relatively well include roadside, limited-service properties serving travelers who are still keeping their social circles tight while avoiding air travel.

In general, glitzy, nightlife-focused places such as The Standard may need to wait their turn for something resembling full recovery.

“Those properties that depend on a lot of good-looking people gathering in close quarters could be struggling for a while,” Freitag said.