Korakia Pensione
a Moorish villa built in 1924 by the Scottish painter Gordon Coutts, joined to a neighbouring Mediterranean villa to make twenty-eight keys with no television
The place
In 1924, at the foot of the San Jacinto mountains, a Scottish painter had a Moorish villa built to recover the Tangier he had just left. Sixty-five years later, a buyer restored it and added the Mediterranean villa across the road, formerly owned by a silent-film actor.
Twenty-eight keys spread over 1.5 acres, two heated saltwater pools, a record player in the rooms and no television. Every evening, an old film is projected onto a whitewashed wall.
A Scottish painter, two villas, a single address
Gordon Coutts, a Scottish painter whose canvases were shown at the Royal Academy in London and at the Salon in Paris according to Palm Springs Life, settled in Palm Springs in 1924 and had a Moorish-inspired villa built at the foot of the San Jacinto mountains, which he named Dar Marroc. The operator's site states that he hung his canvases in the library and received Rudolph Valentino, Errol Flynn and the painter John Lavery there. Winston Churchill's visit, often repeated, is not established: the operator's site writes that he is said to have painted in the studio, and Palm Springs Life speaks of local tradition. Coutts died of a heart attack in 1937; his wife Gertrude died the same year in a car accident.
The second villa, Mediterranean in style, dates from the 1930s and belonged to the silent-film actor J. Carrol Naish, Coutts's neighbour on the other side of the road. According to Palm Springs Life, the Moorish property fell into disrepair for decades, until it was bought in 1989 by J. Douglas Smith, who restored it and renamed it Korakia, crow in Greek, before acquiring the Naish villa and then the Orchard House of 1918.
The operator's site today advertises twenty-eight villas and houses over 1.5 acres, sixteen of them Mediterranean in inspiration and twelve Moroccan. The categories run from room to studio, suite and bungalow; the units are not numbered but named, Bedouin, Marrakech, Kasbah, Delphi, Acropolis. One divergence to note: Tripadvisor and hotels.com count 28 rooms, the Michelin Guide states 29.
Two pools, one screen, no remote control
The operator's site describes two heated saltwater pools, which Kayak indicates are open twenty-four hours a day. Every evening, old films are shown outdoors with popcorn; several Tripadvisor reviews confirm the practice. A hot breakfast is served in the Moroccan courtyard and is included. To this the operator adds coffee and tea left outside the room on waking, bicycles, yoga on Saturday mornings, sound baths, a Moroccan bar and record players in the rooms with a vinyl collection available to borrow.
What is charged on top: resortfeechecker.com recorded a resort fee of 67.62 USD per room per night in April 2026, against 60 USD from August 2022 to October 2025; hotels.com shows the same amount and specifies that it covers breakfast, concierge, pool access and water. The terms page on the operator's site, for its part, mentions only a supplement of 150 USD and 30 USD of resort fee for a third person: the two sources do not agree on the existence of a fixed nightly charge.
There is no full restaurant on site, and Oyster reports a service supplement on room delivery. The house offers neither television nor telephone in the rooms, which the operator's terms state explicitly; pets are refused apart from service dogs and portable speakers are prohibited in the common areas.
A few streets from Palm Canyon Drive
Korakia occupies the Historic Tennis Club, a residential district backing onto the mountain south-west of the centre. The operator's site advertises a few streets to Palm Canyon Drive, the shopping artery; Tripadvisor reviews mention 5 to 10 minutes on foot to the centre. The Engine platform, however, gives the address a Walk Score of 60, that is moderately walkable. The Tahquitz Canyon trails start nearby and the operator organises guided outings.
In recent news, the house marked its hundred years in 2024, the Dar Marroc villa dating from 1924. It is run by the Auric Road group, which also owns the Hotel Joaquin in Laguna Beach and the Lone Mountain Ranch in Montana. The same source describes the Auric House as a four-bedroom villa with an infinity pool, where the operator's site advertises six, with six bathrooms: the two counts diverge. Travel Weekly dates the last full renovation to 2001.
What to take away
- The whitewashed wall that serves as a projection screen in the evening, facing the low benches and the lanterns set on the ground.
- The two heated saltwater pools, one of them backing onto an ochre facade covered in round tiles.
- The record player installed in the rooms and the vinyl borrowed from the house collection.
- The hot breakfast served in the Moroccan courtyard, among bougainvillea, palms and fountains.
The rooms have neither television nor telephone: the operator's terms say so in black and white, and it is a deliberate decision, not an oversight. On air conditioning, the sources contradict one another: Booking.com, Expedia, hotels.com and the Michelin Guide list air conditioning among the amenities, while the operator's site mentions no cooling system in its room-by-room detail and one Tripadvisor review describes dated units. We have found no source establishing that some rooms are without it, but nor do we have room-by-room confirmation: check when you book. The point is not a trivial one, Weather Spark giving an average maximum temperature for July of 106°F, or about 41°C, with peaks beyond 45°C; as the accommodation is spread across old buildings over 1.5 acres, the thermal and sound insulation is not that of recent construction, and several Tripadvisor reviews mention noise from neighbours and rooms judged small. The children policy varies sharply from one channel to another: the operator's site and Travel Weekly state a minimum age of 13 accompanied by an adult, Booking.com repeats that threshold, the Michelin Guide states 16, hotels.com a minimum age of 18 at check-in, and Expedia writes on the contrary that children are welcome. Take the 13-year threshold as the reference and have it confirmed in writing. The resort fee, finally, is 67.62 USD a night according to resortfeechecker.com and hotels.com, an amount the operator's terms page does not repeat; a deposit of 250 USD a night is also reported. The advertised rates vary from one platform to another: 258 USD on Kayak, 259 USD on hotels.com, 221 USD on Priceline, a range of 240 to 602 USD on Tripadvisor. Guest ratings also diverge, from 4.3 out of 5 from 420 reviews on Tripadvisor to 9.6 out of 10 on Expedia and hotels.com.
We have not stayed at this property. This entry is written from verified sources, including the operator's own website, rather than from a visit.
Practical information
Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) is 4 km away, or 2.5 miles according to Travel Weekly and 2.6 miles according to Engine; the operator's site gives a ten-minute journey. Los Angeles is about 175 km away via Interstate 10, which the operator converts into a two-hour drive, with comparable distances and times for San Diego and Orange County.
SunLine Transit Agency's route 4 serves Palm Canyon Drive and links Palm Springs to Thousand Palms; a single journey costs 1 USD and a day pass 3 USD according to the fare table published by SunLine. Parking is free on site according to Booking.com, hotels.com and the Michelin Guide, but one Engine customer reports a limited number of spaces, and the operator specifies that any vehicle parked outside the designated bays is charged for.