Image: Cypress Inn Site
When Doris Day became a co-owner of the Cypress Inn in Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1988, she was not simply investing in a historic California hotel. Built in 1929 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, the hotel already had a distinctive character when Day and local businessman Dennis LeVett became its owners. The hotel was constructed in 1929 in Carmel, California, in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, a design that gave it the distinctive character it retains today. The Los Angeles Times, reporting on the new ownership in March 1988, described the hotel as a historic property and highlighted the arrival of a very different kind of guest policy, dogs would be welcome.
Her influence therefore extended beyond the practical decision to allow pets inside a hotel.
In its own history of the property, Cypress Inn says the building originally opened as Hotel La Ribera before later becoming Cypress West. The hotel’s account of her legacy says her vision was to create a welcoming escape where guests and their four-legged companions could be treated equally. The Cypress Inn says her work focused on rescuing, healing and finding homes for animals, particularly those that were often overlooked.
The Hollywood star and lifelong animal advocate saw an opportunity to create a place where people could travel without leaving their pets behind. One of the biggest changes under its new management would be welcoming guests’ dogs. The Cypress Inn’s own history now credits Day’s vision with helping transform the property into one of America’s best-known pet-friendly boutique hotels. More than three decades later, the hotel continues to carry the imprint of the actress whose second act became deeply connected with animal welfare. The building that became Cypress Inn had already been standing for nearly six decades when Doris Day entered its story. By the mid-1980s, Day and local businessman Dennis LeVett had become co-owners. The decision reflected Day’s long-standing affection for animals and would eventually become central to the hotel’s identity. For Doris Day, making Cypress Inn pet-friendly was closely tied to her own relationship with animals. The idea was unusual enough in the 1980s to distinguish Cypress Inn from conventional hotels, where travelling with a dog could be difficult. The Los Angeles Times captured that change soon after Day’s arrival, reporting that guests’ dogs would be welcomed under the new management and observing that Day could hardly have chosen another policy given her passion for animals. Over time, the concept became more than a rule at the hotel. It became its defining character, helping establish Cypress Inn as a destination specifically associated with pet-friendly hospitality in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The Cypress Inn was only one part of Doris Day’s commitment to animals. After her Hollywood career, she devoted much of her later life to animal welfare and established organisations including the Doris Day Animal Foundation and Doris Day Animal League. That philosophy naturally found an expression at the hotel, where animals were not treated as an inconvenience to human travellers but welcomed as part of the experience. The hotel’s history describes Day’s involvement as helping create a place where elegance and compassion could coexist. She helped give pet-friendly travel a distinctive identity at Cypress Inn, turning her personal love of animals into part of the property’s public character.
