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The Doubletree Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard (above) and the former Holiday Inn near Sunset Bouleva

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Yet another hotel in Westwood is set to start major renovations, another sign that local way stations are taking a turn for the ritzy and potentially leaving bargain-hunting travelers with scant options.

The Doubletree Hotel in Westwood, a moderately priced inn popular with parents visiting UCLA, will close later this year to accommodate a year of renovations expected to cost more than $5 million. It will reopen with a high-end restaurant as the upscale Hotel Palomar.

Another luxury hotel, Hotel Angeleno, is set to open this April, taking the place of the Holiday Inn located by the Sunset Boulevard exit on the 405 Freeway.

The soda-can-shaped building, home to the lower-end Holiday Inn for 35 years, will reopen as a boutique hotel that caters to patrons looking for luxuries not often found at run-of-the-mill inns.

But the special amenities common at boutique hotels – including plasma TVs, Italian cotton linen, aroma therapeutic toiletries – do not come without extra costs.

Base-level rooms at the Doubletree on Wilshire Boulevard currently run around $200 per night, and if rates at comparable area boutique hotels are any indication, rates should jump about $100.

“There’s always a concern when there’s a price change,” said Stephen Chavez, director of sales at the Hotel Angeleno.” But the way we’ve always looked at it is we definitely want to provide a higher-end product.”

The loss of moderately priced lodging could pose a problem for less affluent UCLA families looking to visit campus come graduation time.

Bargain-hunters visiting Westwood will be limited mainly to three local inns – the Royal Palace Westwood, the Claremont Hotel and the UCLA Guest House – all of which have nightly rates starting at about $100 or cheaper.

“There are certainly families who want a more affordable option,” said Steve Sann, a partner at Nine Thirty, a restaurant at the upscale W Hotel on Hilgard Avenue, where rooms range from around $300 to $1900 per night.

“Any families looking for a cheaper place will obviously have an incentive to book early and shop around,” Sann said.

Cheap lodging options in Westwood began to dwindle a few years ago, often replaced with luxury hotels and condos.

Some other economical hotels recently converted include Hotel Del Capri, a mid-priced inn on Wilshire Boulevard, the Century Wilshire Hotel and the Westwood Motor Inn, considered by many Westwood’s cheapest hotel.

Even with more high-end hotels popping up, Valeriano Antonioli, general manager at the W Hotel, expects an eventual resurgence in moderately priced inns.

When more expensive hotels saturate any market, cheaper hotels will often fill the niche and cater to the demand for more economical options, Antonioli said.

Some say the switch from economical to extravagant in Westwood is smart business.

“This area deserves and expects nice things, so that’s what we’re going after,” Chavez said.

Westwood is surrounded by affluent communities, including Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Holmby Hills, along with office buildings housing major international corporations and entertainment companies, Sann said.

“These people want a hotel with some real personality, some sex appeal,” he said.

The Doubletree will close in mid-2006 for about a year of renovations.

The number of rooms will be reduced from 296 to 260 to make room for suites, and upgrades will be made to the pool, lounge area and fitness facilities.

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants Group, the company that will operate The Palomar when it opens, runs 40 other boutique hotels and is considered by many one of the pioneers of boutique hotels. Hotel Palomar will be Kimpton’s first hotel in Los Angeles.

Boutique hotels “aren’t cookie-cutter hotels,” Sann said. “They don’t feel or look like a chain hotel. It’s a hotel where there’s a high sense of style and design.”