Airbnb may have revolutionised travelling but it will never replace the romance of a hotel: the fluttering feeling roused simply by walking into a lobby. "Checking in" is a chance to retrace the steps of storied guests, those one-time legendary lodgers, celebrities past and present, who’ve slept in the same beds and partied in the same bedrooms as us. Booking into a hotel lets us normal folk live vicariously through the names who have come and gone – if just for one night.
We might not be able to stay in the Chelsea Hotel, but we can certainly relive the drama and frivolities of some of the most infamous guests at other hotels around the world. Take a look at our slideshow for a list of the best.
Chateau Marmont – LA
Experiencing its fair share of triumphs and tragedies, the castle-like hotspot is most recently known for actor John Belushi’s tragic drug overdose. Fashion photographer Helmet Newton also died here after crashing his car into a wall of the hotel’s driveway. Using up “the eighth of his nine lives,” rockstar Jim Morrison hurt his back after he tried to swing from a pipe on the roof into his hotel room. But it’s not all sad and bad behaviour, Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ frontman Anthony Kiedis recorded the lyrics for "By The Way" in his hotel room, and trace back decades and you’ll find Hollywood tales of James Dean and Natalie Wood’s blossoming relationship.
Photo: Rex Features
Dorchester Hotel – London
Nicki Minaj has been with her fans through thick and thin - and vice versa. In 2011, after discovering her whereabouts, hundreds of fans crammed into the hotel in search of the singer. Chaos quickly ensued: fights broke out and walls were defaced with graffiti. Unable to control the situation, the hotel staff promptly asked Minaj to leave, to which she responded by tweeting, “We've officially been kicked out of the hotel! Lmaoooooooo.”
Photo: Rex Features
Relais Hotel Du Vieux – Paris
Once known as the Beat Hotel, this was the run-down haunt of artists like Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg. During the ‘50s and ‘60s, Beat Generation figures flocked to Paris in search of inexpensive accommodation. As the defining characteristic of the Latin Quarter residence, there were forty tiny rooms and one shared ‘Toilette Turque’ - or squat toilet - and shower. Initially anything but glamorous, this now 4-star hotel has certainly banked off its past.
Photo: Press
Browns Hotel – London
Before pop culture took over the world, one of the most important events happened in London’s Brown’s Hotel in 1876. That year, Alexander Graham Bell made the first ever phone call with his revolutionary invention – the telephone.
Photo: Rex Features
Raffles, Singapore
The birthplace of the delicious Singapore Sling cocktail, the opulent Asian hotel lays claim to more than just famed mixology. Originally a tiny 10-room bungalow built in 1887, the national monument has since hosted literati like Hemingway, Alfred Hitchcock and Rudyard Kipling. Kipling is famed for penning children’s classic The Jungle Book while living in one of the Raffles suites.
Photo: Rex Features
Pera Palace Hotel – Istanbul
Built in 1892, this mysterious landmark was the first hotel in Istanbul to have electricity. A harbinger of modernism, it soon after unveiled the electric elevator, complete with a lift boy. The first hotel in Turkey to own one, the cage-style contraption drew in a long list of famous friends, including Ernest Hemmingway, Josephine Baker, Alfred Hitchcock and film star Greta Garbo. Agatha Christie’s favourite room, 411, is now the Agatha Christie Suite: a bedroom finished in rich crimson and Burgundy.
Photo: Rex Features
The Savoy – London
At the ripe old age of 70, Irish veteran actor Richard Harris, better know as Harry Potter ’s Dumbledore, set up home in the daringly decadent London hotel. At the ring of a bell, his domestic responsibilities were someone else’s; whether they were putting away his clothes or bringing his dinner, it was a luxurious life that cost him £6,000 ($9,981) a week. He is one of many celebrities who lived and finally died in a hotel.
Photo: Rex Features
The Beverley Hills Hotel, LA
The year 2012 wasn’t a great year for John Travolta. It was here at the LA hotel, where a masseuse claims he allegedly exposed himself during a spa appointment. But long before Travlota’s scandals, the gossip rags were spotlighting the iconic hotel for completely different reasons. Opened in 1912, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy shacked up in his bungalow for the best part of the ‘40s and ‘50s, even though Tracy never divorced his wife.
Photo: Press
Hotel Elysée – New York
So good he never left, playwright Tennessee Williams lived in Manhattan's Hotel Elysée for 15 years. While many stories have come out of the rumour mill, the most famous one tells of disgruntled guests sick of the constant ‘tap tap tap’ of a typewriter. Not daring enough to pass on the message, the hotel would simply move guests to another room. Williams died in the Sunset Suite in 1983.
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