I work at a value hotel in the part of the world that serves the Ark, the Creation Museum, the Cincinnati Reds, and other event spaces in the area. The region has been growing, hotels have been springing up like crazy, and many locals saw the hotel business as a great place for career mobility.

Then the coronavirus happened.

Now everything has changed. For some hotels, business has dropped to 10–20 percent (at best) of what they were doing and things look extremely grim. Despite the slowdown, it has also been incredibly chaotic. Everything is scary and unpredictable day to day. Here are 10 realities of life in the hotel industry during the coronavirus epidemic.

10 Unusual Hotels Around The World

10 Hotels Are Essential, But Layoffs And Hour Cuts Are Still Happening

In the crazy age of the coronavirus, hotels have been deemed essential. But that doesn’t ensure smooth sailing for hotel companies or their employees. Although many essential services have seen a spike in demand, hotels haven’t participated in the surge as tourism is at a standstill all over the world.

Many hotels do not want to deal with increases in unemployment insurance. So they are trying first to cut the hours of their employees before laying people off.

However, bigger hotels are often faring so poorly—due to an apocalyptic loss in occupancy—that they have no choice but to lay off employees. Some establishments near Disney World are furloughing people left and right because the closing of the park has left some 1,000-room hotels at only 1 percent occupancy. At that rate, they can hardly afford to keep the lights on, much less continue to pay all their employees.

As for Las Vegas, many resort hotels have shut down because a huge amount of their money comes from the casino business. This requires larger gatherings of people to be successful. More than anything, they are basically gaming spaces with a hotel attached. Without gaming resorts, there is no point in staying open.^[1]

9 Some Hotels Are Offering Special Home Office Rates For Daytime Stays

At least one hotel so far, Red Roof Inn, is offering a weekday special from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM to use their hotel rooms as a home office space. This offer is actually quite cheap, running at a little under $30 per day for your temporary office space. They even allow one other person and one pet.

Now this is half off most nightly rates for that type of hotel, but they’re probably not offering full amenities. Presumably, they don’t expect the guest to use the bed or the shower. No breakfast, either.

However, this is still quite inexpensive. Those who are searching for home office space might want to look into this or other hotels that may soon offer similar deals. To get away from it all and have your own work space for $30 dollars a day is fairly cheap, especially if the kids are home due to quarantine and you cannot concentrate long enough to finish your work.^[2]

8 Phones Have Been Ringing Off The Hook With Cancellation Calls

Once the number of COVID-19 cases escalated sharply, gatherings started to be banned and hotels repeatedly received the worst kind of calls: cancellations. For the first several weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, the phones were ringing off the hook at my hotel. That was also true at many other establishments.

Everyone was getting cancellation calls for stays that ranged from only a few days in advance to those in late summer. Occupancy dropped like a stone overnight. The managers and owners of many hotels are now terrified that, at best, they will break even for the year. But that’s the rosy case and very unlikely to happen.

Many hotel employees are slightly traumatized at this point. Some have reached a point of weary resignation, knowing that most remaining calls will still be cancellations. We’re all just hoping that our hotels don’t have to close permanently and that we don’t have to look for new jobs.

There is also the worry of having your hours cut. Although the US Congress passed a stimulus package to help with unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic, it can still be difficult to apply for and receive the money in a timely manner.

What do you do while you’re waiting? Very few places are hiring, especially part-time workers.^[3]

7 Breakfast Services Are Suspended Or Greatly Limited At Most Hotels

As the COVID-19 outbreak spiked significantly, one of the first things to change was how food was served. To comply with stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, restaurants closed their interior dining rooms. So you have to use delivery, curbside pickup, or drive-through because gatherings of more than a few people are now banned.

This left a lot of hotels in a weird gray area. They are not sure if they are properly complying with the law or not. Most states did not say anything specific about hotel breakfasts one way or another, although some states were unclear about whether a breakfast “buffet” was acceptable.

As a result, some hotel managers wondered if continental breakfasts were still okay as long as only a few guests gathered at once. Meanwhile, some establishments have shut down these dining options entirely, even if they don’t serve any hot foods. It hasn’t helped that the authorities have not given much guidance or clarification on the issue.

Out of an abundance of caution, most hotels have suspended their breakfasts or are offering to-go bags. If you need to visit a hotel for business or something, you should call them first to see if they still have any kind of breakfast options. That way, you’ll know if you need to plan ahead for the next morning.^[4]

6 People Are Trying To Get Rock-Bottom Prices When Hotels Are Already Struggling

Many people know that travel has been suspended in most places, that people aren’t gathering, that a lot of vacation destinations are closed, and that most hotels are doing incredibly badly right now. In fact, they might continue to perform poorly for the rest of the year.

However, like all things business, a hotel isn’t a charity and guests don’t consider their business a charity, either. With all the people running out of money right now, those who do need a hotel are looking for rock-bottom prices. This makes room sales supercompetitive.

Currently, some hotels are offering such low competitive rates that they risk losing money on their rooms because they are not receiving enough revenue to cover all the overhead. Some hotel owners believe that having a fuller house will look better to their creditors.

At the end of the day, though, any hotel that is selling out right now is barely breaking even and may even be operating at a small loss.^[5]

10 Hotels That Offer Ridiculously Over-The-Top Extras

5 When Prices Go Down, Many Criminals Come To Stay

As we’ve mentioned, hotel prices have cratered. As a result, drug dealers, prostitutes, and other ne’er-do-wells see these rock-bottom prices as a great opportunity to use hotels as the base of operations for their businesses. Many druggies who need a place to crash during a high are also tempted by the low prices.

If this wasn’t enough, many cities are now paying to put up homeless people in hotels during the pandemic. It would be great if they stayed inside, which is the whole point. However, many of these people are not self-quarantining. Instead, they are getting into trouble.

The problem extends beyond housing the homeless. They still need money for food, and some are trying to score drugs. Others just have side hustles. They want to save money so that they won’t be homeless forever.

Although it is great to give the homeless a place to quarantine, they simply don’t have the resources to just stay inside hotel rooms for weeks. They certainly don’t have the distractions available to them that most of us have, except for TVs in their rooms.

To make matters worse, many homeless people have mental illnesses. Just giving them homes without providing the help they need may reveal or even cause larger issues.^[6]

4 Some Hotel Workers Have Made Themselves Paranoid Wrecks Over The Virus

Like anyone on the “front lines,” some hotel workers have made themselves paranoid wrecks over getting the virus. Before finally quitting, one of my coworkers was donning a new pair of gloves after every customer and wearing a mask when the CDC was still saying it wasn’t necessary (although we know better now). She was also scaring the guests, who were afraid that she was wearing a mask because she had the coronavirus.

Although you want to be careful to avoid getting the virus, it is also important to base your actions on common sense and not just paranoia. Wearing gloves can help, but you also need to wash your hands after you take them off. You can’t touch anything that’s potentially infected and then touch your face, or the gloves are useless.

They can easily give you a false sense of security. In addition, your paranoia can stress you out and lower your immune system. Although hotel workers clean constantly, wash our hands like crazy, and take a lot of precautions, there is a point at which your methods to sanitize become nonstop panic cleaning that just dries out your skin without any additional health benefits.^[7]

3 Business Is Almost Impossible To Predict Even Day To Day

As stated in the introduction, I work at a value hotel. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I could work the morning shift and predict how many guests we would have by the end of the day, give or take five individuals. That’s true even for hotels with lots of walk-in visitors.

Even on days when we weren’t doing that well or when it was a slow time of year, business was usually predictable day to day. Once you know the flow of your business, you develop a sense for how things will go.

However, this pandemic has changed everything. Due to cancellations, the criminal element, people traveling at the last minute to get back to their places of origin, homeless people, and many other factors, the hotel business has become impossible to predict day to day or even hour to hour.

The value hotel where I work has about 115 rooms. Right now, we are filling about 20–40 rooms a night. It is almost impossible to predict occupancy or which days will be better or worse.^[8]

2 Guests Are Much Chattier Because Everyone Wants To Talk About The Pandemic

You will get some chatty guests at a hotel, but most people just want to do their business and get on their way. However, the pandemic has changed all that. Customers and employees alike regularly commiserate about the virus.

In fact, regular guests who were never chatty are now talking much more. This virus has scared many of us. By discussing what’s going on, we have that human connection that can comfort some people and make them feel better.

Depending on the individual hotel employee, this can be either cathartic or stressful. Some like the chance to talk about the pandemic. Others are already hearing enough about it on the news and at work. These employees just wish they could forget about the virus for a few minutes.

Unfortunately, when you work in customer service, it is part of your job to chat people up and be sympathetic—even if you wish you could just ask them to please stop talking about the pandemic. You are already stressed out enough over it.^[9]

1 The Future Is Uncertain—No One Knows If Or When Things Will Be Normal Again

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, hotel owners and employees are nervous about the future of hotels. Many owners are convinced that this fiscal year is going to be a complete wash. Hitting breakeven is the new goal (if they can even manage it).

To make matters worse, no one is sure how bad this will be for the hotel industry in the long term. Yes, some hotels and motels will always exist because people need a place to stay. But others cater to guests who are visiting resorts and other attractions.

After the end of the pandemic, we may see a long-term change in how people interact at events, in large crowds, and with other groups. The Internet is such a powerful tool that we may see more virtual entertainment come out of this. Possibly, only smaller groups will be allowed to congregate, even in resort towns.

Even if the law allows, things may never go back to “normal” if general attitudes change. This could be truly ruinous for the resort hotel industry as about 95–99 percent of their business would be permanently gone.

Just like every situation involving the pandemic, we can only do our best as we wait to see what will happen. The world may not change that much in the long term. But it’s impossible to predict at this point, and the uncertainty can be frightening.^[10]

10 Outrageous Requests Made To Hotel Concierges

The Cecil Hotel, built by William Banks Hanner, opened its doors on December 20, 1924. It cost, what is equal today, almost $14 million, and it truly was a grand building in its heyday. Over decades, however, its infamous legacy has replaced any notion of glamour and luxury. Instead, the horrendous acts of violence and brutality that happened within its walls will forever haunt those who hear its stories. The Netflix documentary, ‘The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel” reminds us how dark the hotel’s past really is. Here are the top 10 horrible facts about the Cecil Hotel.

10 The First Suicide

Long-term residents started referring to the Cecil Hotel as “the suicide” in 1962, and with good reason. While the first-ever death at the hotel, a man named William Mckay, was determined to be caused by natural causes in 1926, the very next year saw its first suicide. Percy Ormand Cook committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at 52 years old. This began a long and tragic trend of people attempting suicide and completed suicides at the hotel. 

People have taken their lives at the hotel by overdosing, slitting their throat, ingesting poison, jumping from the roof or windows, or by gunshot. Some incidents have left people questioning if it really was a suicide, like Grace Magro. She fell or jumped from a nine-story window. Her boyfriend claimed to be asleep at the time. Upon her descent, she became entangled in telephone wires which ripped from the poles.

Another harrowing incident is Pauline Otton’s leap out of a ninth-floor window. Not only did she kill herself, but also an elderly pensioner on the street below. Twelve of the 16 acknowledged deaths involving the Cecil Hotel are believed to be suicides.

9 Skid Row Led to the Downfall of the Cecil Hotel

The hotel was at the height of its success in the 1940s. The grandeur of the marble lobby and its style and sophistication at the time attracted a lot of high-end clientele. But a shady maneuver was being carried out by the city of Los Angeles, which, instead of helping the homeless population, chose to redirect them to the area now known as Skid Row. Skid Row became a dumping ground for people released from jail and mental facilities as time marched on. The nearby Cecil Hotel became a dilapidating relic of the fading glamour of the old world.

The hotel became an extension of the surrounding area in that it was part of a program to provide long-term housing to people in skid row. These rooms rented out for weeks, months, or years were significantly cheaper than the rates of hotel rooms. In addition, the new crowd it was attracting, that of addicts, prostitutes, and the homeless, changed the appeal and safety of the hotel.

The cost to renovate the entire building was too high and ultimately not worth the upgrade, at least to those with a stake in the building. And so, in 2011, they renovated and rebranded part of the hotel under the name “Stay on main.”

8 There was a Ghost Sighting at the Hotel

With all the horrors and deaths surrounding the hotel, Many believe that there’s sinister energy within The Cecil. But in 2014, less than a year after Lisa Lam’s death, an 11-year-old boy believed he captured a ghost sighting on camera. The image looks like a person hanging outside the window on the fourth floor. It’s been said that the hotel is haunted, but could this supernatural sighting be a testament that actual spirits haunt the building?

A two-hour special streamed in January 2021, “Ghost Adventure: Cecil Hotel,” is the first-ever paranormal investigation to take place in the hotel. Zak Bagans leads the investigation along with his team and two psychic mediums. It’s available exclusively on discovery+ and retraces the steps of Elisa Lam.

7 A Woman was Found Dead in the Water Tower

Canadian student Elisa Lam checked into the “Stay on Main” part of the Cecil Hotel on January 26, 2013. She was initially in a shared room, but after the other guests complained about her strange behavior, she was placed in her own room. Lam was declared missing after her family hadn’t heard from her on January 30.

Three weeks later, some guests complained about the water, which ran slightly brown and smelled and tasted awful. Then, like something out of a true-crime horror movie, a hotel worker discovered a woman’s body floating in the water tank. The investigation revealed strange footage of Lam in an elevator, which led many to believe she was fleeing from someone. Many saw this as proof that she was murdered. Her death was ultimately ruled an accident. “The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel” covers this story extensively, including other aspects that possibly led to her death.

6 The Hotel Inspired American Horror Story Season

American Horror Story’s fifth season, “Hotel,” owes its inspiration to The Cecil’s grim past. The series centers around a dark and mysterious LA hotel named Hotel Cortez. So it’s not surprising that the show revolves around the hotel’s disturbing deaths and paranormal events. The series even includes the serial killer Richard Ramirez, a known Cecil resident, in the episode “Devil’s Night.”

The show’s creator, Ryan Murphy, talked about the real Cecil hotel’s impact on the series. He stated in 2015 that he was obsessed with the hotel and the surrounding mystery involving Elisa Lam. The notorious video footage of a panicked Lam in an elevator is haunting, especially when the CCTV footage shows no other person. It could lead one to believe that the hotel is genuinely haunted. 

5 The Black Dahlia May Have Stayed There

In 1947, when the hotel was at its peak, it was rumored that Elizabeth Short, posthumously known as the Black Dahlia, had been drinking at the Cecil bar. Short, a young aspiring actress, was found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood, which is not far from the Cecil. The murder case became highly publicized due to the grizzly nature of the crime. The murderer mutilated and bisected her corpse at the waist. However, officials made no arrests, and the case remained unsolved. 

This fact is still unverified, but her connection to the hotel remains a point of curiosity. The Black Dahlia’s life and death became the basis for many books and films. It is still regarded as one of the most interesting unsolved murders in American history. 

4 The Hotel Will not be Reopening

A seedy hotel with a dark past is enough to scare off any potential guests, especially when it’s one that’s received so many bad reviews. However, “true-crime tourism” is a real phenomenon. All the attention the hotel has received over the last couple of years has been good for business. Or it would be if the hotel hadn’t been closed since 2017.

According to a Forbes article, the hotel will not be reopening despite headlines stating that it’s currently undergoing renovations and will reopen soon. There were plans to reopen in late 2019, with Simon Baron submitting an application detailing plans: “on-site sale and dispensing of a full-line of alcoholic beverages in conjunction with a 150,753 sq. ft. hotel with 299 in-room mini-bars, ground floor restaurant, lobby bar and rooftop bar with 349 indoor seats and 312 outdoor seats. Hours of operation of the restaurant, lobby bar, and roof top bar are from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., daily.” 

It was also reported that the developing firm had taken a $30 million loan to redevelop the building in 2020. However, the pandemic has halted any progress, so it is still too early to tell if a grand renovation is actually in the works.

3 Serial Killers Stayed at the Hotel

Not one but two serial killers are confirmed to have stayed at the Cecil Hotel. The most famous being the mid 80’s serial killer, Richard Ramirez, who lived in a room on the top floor. At this time, there were so many addicts and dodgy characters in the hotel that Ramirez never raised any suspicions. In fact, he would return to the Cecil after committing murder and simply throw his bloodied clothes into the hotel dumpster and proceed to walk naked through the corridors. No one ever questioned this.

In 1991, the Austrian serial killer, Johan “Jack” Unterweger, also stayed at the hotel. Under the pretense of his journalistic work, which he was well renowned and respected for, Unterweger brutally murdered three sex workers. He was sent to LA to research crime and prostitution in the city and would even ride along with cops. No one suspected that he was a serial killer who strangled at least ten women to death. The hotel’s location and the vicinity’s many prostitutes made this a prime spot to hunt his victims.

2 Pigeon Goldie was Murdered in Her Room

On June 4, 1964, one of the most horrific murders took place in the Cecil Hotel. A 65-year-old woman named Goldie Osgood, a telephone operator for the hotel, was found dead in her room. A hotel worker found Osgood’s body in the ransacked room, and it was revealed that Goldie had been raped, stabbed, and beaten.

Osgood was well known in the community and had earned the nickname Pigeon Goldie by feeding the birds in the nearby Pershing square. Her LA Dodgers cap, which she always wore, was still full of birdseed and found next to her body. Newspapers at the time reported that her friends claimed to have seen her just minutes before her body was discovered.

Jacques B. Ehlinger was arrested after he was seen walking through Pershing square in blood-stained clothing. He was never charged with Osgood’s murder, and her case remains unsolved.  

1 Down Will Come Baby…

In 1944, 19-year-old Dorothy Jean Purcell, who was staying at the hotel with her boyfriend, woke up to stomach cramps. Not knowing she was pregnant, Purcell ended up giving birth on the bathroom floor. She gave birth to what she believed to be a stillborn baby. She didn’t want to wake up her 38-year-old boyfriend or tell him about the baby, so instead, she threw the newborn out of the window.

Police found the lifeless infant’s body on a roof adjacent to the building. Even more disturbing is that an autopsy of the baby boy revealed he had air in his lungs at the time of death. Therefore, he was not dead when she threw him out the window. Parcell was charged with murder but was not found guilty by reason of insanity. 

Three independent criminal psychiatrists testified that she was mentally confused. Parcell never gave any other reason as to why she had done what she’d done, except stating that she thought the baby was stillborn.  

All hotels are temporary spaces—a constant revolving door of guests coming and going. Consider the sheer number of people who will go to bed in just one hotel room over time. Now consider how many of those may never wake up again. The Eagles neatly summed it up in “Hotel California” with the line:

“You can check-in any time you like, but you can never leave”.

Here are 10 rooms that became the final resting place for their guests. Sleep well.

10 Horrifying Facts About H. H. Holmes’ Hotel

10 Room 1046, President Hotel

When Roland T Owen arrived at the President Hotel in Kansas City in January 1935, it was the start of mystery that is still unsolved today.

The strange occurrences began after Owen checked into Room 1046 and a maid spotted a note left for man named “Don”. The next day Owen was overheard on the phone talking to “Don” insisting he didn’t want to go out to eat.

A maid bringing towels to the room, heard two male voices inside. She knocked and one man gruffly told her they didn’t need anything. Later, Reception noticed the phone in Room 1046 was off the hook and sent a bell boy to investigate. He had to return to the darkened room twice more to replace the receiver.

On his final visit, the boy turned on the lights to see the bed and walls splashed with blood and Owen naked, cowering in the corner with multiple stab wounds, a punctured lung and a fractured skull. There was evidence of torture and when asked who was responsible, Owen murmured “No one”. He died without saying another word.

Police found that the room had been stripped of all clothing and personal items and no one called Roland T Owen had ever existed. A pauper’s funeral in an unmarked grave was arranged but at the last minute an anonymous cash donation mysteriously arrived to pay for the cost of a service and burial.

Years later, a woman named Ruby Ogletree spotted a photograph of the corpse and claimed it was her missing son, Artemis. This has never been confirmed and the identities of Roland T Owen and “Don” are still unknown.

9 Suite 352, Swissotel Nai Lert Park

David Carradine, 72 was a veteran actor who found fame in the 1970s TV show “Kung fu” and later in two “Kill Bill” films.

He arrived in Bangkok in May 2009 to shoot a film. Days later, a maid entered Suite 352 of the Swissotel Nai Lert Park to find his dead body hanging in the closet. Suicide was ruled out after a rope was found tied around his neck, wrist and genitals. Thai investigators ruled his death was due to auto-erotic asphyxiation.

His family believed he was a victim of foul play, but CCTV showed no one had entered his room during the crucial time frame. Graphic photos of the death scene were published in a Thai newspaper.

When his body was returned to the US, a pathologist agreed with the findings of the Thai autopsy.

8 Room 100, Chelsea Hotel

Nancy Spungen was the American girlfriend of Sid Vicious, the bassist in British punk group the Sex Pistols. They met in London in 1977 and began a turbulent drug fuelled affair. The band broke up in 1978 and the couple moved into Room 100 of the Chelsea Hotel in New York.

Early on 12 October 1978, guests heard “female moans” coming from Room 100. Vicious phoned Reception asking for help and staff entered the room to find Spungen lying in the bathroom. She had bled to death after being knifed in the stomach.

Vicious was found dazed in the hotel corridor and was arrested after confessing to her murder. Later, he changed his story and said he was asleep at the time. Vicious was released on bail and subsequently died of a heroin overdose in February 1979.

Spungen’s murder investigation ended there. Years later, associates of the couple still believe that Spungen was killed in a robbery by drug dealer Rockets Redglare who had visited Room 100 on the night of her death and then swiftly disappeared.

7 Room 5, Lake Quinnault Inn

Lyle Stevik checked into Room 5 at Lake Quinnault Inn, Washington on Friday 14 September 2001. The young man had no luggage and gave his home address as Meridian, Idaho.

Stevik was spotted wandering along the highway and a maid noticed his only possessions were a toothbrush and a pen.

On Monday morning, he was found dead inside the motel closet, a belt around his neck. The mystery guest had killed himself leaving $160 inside a note that read “For the room”. Another crumpled note simply read: “Suicide”.

Police discovered the name Lyle Stevik was a character from a Joyce Carol Oates novel who had attempted suicide by hanging. The dead man had used the name as an alias and the address he gave in Idaho was a Best Western Hotel.

There were no missing persons reports matching his description and no further clues. Lyle Stevik became just another John Doe on a list of unidentified bodies.

2006 saw a rise in popularity of online chatrooms and an emerging interest in true crime. Stevik’s photo from a missing persons list caught the attention of one amateur sleuth who formed a Reddit community dedicated to finding him.

Many speculated that as his death had occurred so soon after 9/11, he could have been involved in the terrorist attacks. Others placed adverts in local newspapers with an age progressed photograph of Stevik.

The mystery was solved in 2018 when the DNA Doe Project asked the local Coroner’s Office for access to Stevik’s stored DNA in order to trace family members.

The cost was funded by well-wishers from around the world and a DNA match was found in California.

The story ended abruptly when the family refused any publicity. In 17 years, they had never reported him as missing as they believed he was still alive. Stevik’s identity remains a mystery.

6 Room 302, Hotel del Coronado

On Thanksgiving 1892, Lottie A Bernard arrived at the Hotel del Coronado, San Diego and checked into Room 302. Over the next few days, she roamed the hotel corridors asking if her brother had arrived yet. She was found dead on stairs leading to the beach, shot in the head and still holding the gun. Her real name was Kate Morgan and police believe her “brother” was her estranged husband or a lover she was waiting for.

Guests began to complain of strange activity in Room 302 such as lights blinking, cold breezes and mysterious footsteps. News travelled and the hotel became a mecca for paranormal investigators.

In 1992, parapsychologist Christopher Chacon studied the hotel using specialist equipment and found 37 abnormalities in another room. Room 3502 belonged to the maid who attended to Morgan in Room 302, only to disappear after the shooting. Chacon’s research inspired Stephen King’s story about a haunted hotel room which went onto become the film “1408”.

Room 302 is still the most requested room at the hotel. Although the door number has been changed to 3312, guests still report the eerie presence of its former resident.

5 Room 607, Lake Seminole Hard Rock Hotel

Anna Nicole Smith was a former Playmate turned actress whose private life was played out in the tabloid press. Smith was locked in a legal battle over the estate of her late husband, J.Howard Marshall III – an 89-year-old billionaire. In 2006, her 20-year-old son Daniel died from an overdose.

In February 2007, a grief-stricken Smith and her lawyer husband Howard K. Stern checked into Room 607 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Florida. Smith stayed hidden in her room, suffering from stomach flu and pneumonia with a fever of 105F but too afraid of the paparazzi lurking outside the hotel to leave for hospital.

Her only relief came from slurping on a bottle of chloral hydrate – a powerful sedative and taking up to nine prescription drugs a day.

Stern left the star alone to buy a boat for the couple on 8 February and Smith was discovered unconscious by her bodyguard’s wife. After attempting CPR, she called an ambulance, but Smith was pronounced dead.

Her death was ruled to be non-suspicious, but her bodyguard claims she died of a broken heart.

4 Bungalow 3, Chateau Marmont

John Belushi was a comic actor who shot to fame in the 1970s TV show “Saturday Night Live”. He went onto star in hit films “National Lampoon’s Animal House” and “The Blues Brothers”.

On February 28th, 1982, Belushi checked into Bungalow 3 at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in LA to work on a screen play. Already a long-term cocaine addict, Belushi went on a drugs and alcohol binge, lasting days.

Belushi’s celebrity friends, Robert de Niro and Robin Williams dropped by the bungalow one night to find Belushi surrounded by smashed furniture, discarded food and piles of filthy clothes. Also in residence was a woman named Cathy Smith, a backing singer and supplier of Belushi’s drugs.

On the morning of 5 March 1980, a waiter delivered breakfast to the room which Smith signed for and then promptly left.

Belushi’s bodyguard arrived around noon to deliver a typewriter and found him unresponsive. An ambulance was called but Belushi was dead.

Smith fled to Canada and was arrested in 1986 after admitting injecting Belushi with 11 “speedballs” – a combination of heroin and cocaine, causing his death. She served 15 months for involuntary manslaughter.

3 Penthouse, DuPont Circle Hotel

Mikhail Lesin was a close adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and worked with the Kremlin to launch state-controlled TV stations. After allegedly falling out with Putin, Lesin moved to the US in 2014. He spent a few weeks in a Washington DC hotel, drinking alone in his room before taking a cab across town to the DuPont Circle Hotel. He paid $1200 cash for one night in the 9th floor penthouse and made several trips out before returning with loaded grocery bags.

On 5 November 2015, a welfare check on the room found Lesin dead, face down on the floor surrounded by empty alcohol bottles and dollar bills.

The official cause of death was blunt force injuries of head, neck and torso from falling whilst drunk and the case was closed. However, staff noticed that around 10 hours of footage from security cameras outside his room were missing.

News website RFE/RL filed a lawsuit to gain access to the autopsy and redacted police statements which revealed Lesin had a fractured neck bone – consistent with manual strangulation. The case remains closed.

2 Samarkand Hotel

In 1970, Jimi Hendrix was a global rock star famed for his guitar work on tracks including “Purple Haze” and “Hey Joe”. Constant touring and drug abuse had taken their toll on Hendrix. He retreated to London with his German girlfriend of a few weeks, Monika Dannemann who was staying at the Samarkand Hotel.

Wracked with insomnia, Hendrix accepted a handful of sleeping pills from Dannemann, and he never woke up. Dannemann has given varied accounts of the events of September 18, 1970, and couldn’t remember how many pills he had taken. Before phoning an ambulance, friends were called to help clean up the room, including Hendrix’s roadie who was seen burying drugs in nearby gardens.

Doctors found unusually large amounts of wine in Hendrix’s lungs, but his death certificate lists inhalation of vomit as the cause of death.

In 1975, Dannemann claimed Hendrix was killed by the mafia, and he was rumoured to be on a secret CIA list.

1 Room 434, Beverly Hilton Hotel

It was the weekend of the Grammy Awards in February 2012 and Whitney Houston checked into Room 434 of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The star had battled years of addiction but was planning a comeback. Houston was in town to attend the annual pre-awards party of her former mentor, Clive Davis.

Hours before the event, Houston was found dead by her assistant, face down in the hotel bathtub under 12 inches of scalding hot water. An autopsy ruled that she died from drowning, cocaine use and heart disease.

After her death, the hotel was bombarded with requests from fans hoping to book the infamous Room 434. Some even managed to sneak photos of themselves in the bathtub where Houston was found.

The room has now been re-numbered to confuse any ghoulish occupants seeking to recreate her final hours.

10 Unusual Hotels Around The World

Traveling is one of the most fun and educational things a person can do. The best part of travel is getting out, seeing the country, meeting new people, and taking in new cultures. That is, if you’re an extrovert. If you’re an introvert like so many are, the energy required to launch yourself into so many unfamiliar situations means frequent retreats back to the hotel room. There, in your mini forward operating base, you can recharge and reset for the next barrage of novelty. And it helps if the hotel room isn’t grey and lifeless.

While some hotel rooms look like interrogation cells in Guantanamo and some like Queen Elizabeth’s personal spa, there exists a third type that is simply something else. These hotel rooms are wildly unique in shape or decor, or even redefine the whole concept of living spaces. Here are ten of those hotel rooms, who can best be described as out of this world.

10 Igloos at Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, Finland

Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort is located in Finland’s Lapland region, the coldest, northernmost region in the country. Its iconic- and plentiful- snowfields and pine forests have helped make the area a worldwide mecca for Christmas enthusiasts. Many local businesses have adopted Christmas themes and events into their seasonal business models. In short, it’s almost as close to the North Pole as you can get, metaphorically (and somewhat literally; there’s not much civilization above that latitude). Kakslauttanen plays heavily into this concept and offers a huge range of wintertime activities and arctic-themed accommodations.

Most famous of all its attractions are the glass igloos. In a field all their own, amidst snow-covered pine trees, rows of igloos lie, each their own free-standing structure. The igloos are all one room, and each has an entire dome made of glass. This makes for some of the coziest sky-watching on the planet, and in particular, offers an astonishing view of the northern lights. Not to be a one-trick pony, Kakslauttanen also offers snow igloos, log cabins, and cabin-igloo hybrids, among others.

9 Giraffe Manor, Kenya

Giraffe Manor is located in Nairobi, Kenya, on a huge plot of private land that is used as a sanctuary for African wildlife. The building itself looks like typical colonizer opulence (as indeed, it used to be): a multi-storied mansion in stark contrast to the jungle and plains surrounding it. But the Manor has a higher calling than its antiquated fellows. It now functions as a breeding/rehabilitation program for a population of endangered Rothschild’s giraffes and as a hotel where guests can mingle freely with the giant mammals.

The giraffes are regulars around, and even in, the hotel. Like any animals, they go where the food is, and the Manor feeds them well. Windows are strategically placed around the building’s exterior to allow the giraffes to dip their heads in for treats and the occasional pet. The Manor’s actual rooms are exquisite, but the real draw is the acclimated, friendly giraffes that pop by to greet you as you dine or relax.

8 Space Room, Fantasyland Hotel, Canada

The Fantasyland Hotel is located within the enormous West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The mall is the largest in North America and boasts an impressive number of non-shopping-related attractions, such as the world’s second-largest indoor waterpark. The Fantasyland Hotel meets the expectations of its epic location with a series of elaborate theme rooms of surprisingly high production value. These include ancient Roman-, old western-, pirate-, and tropical Polynesian-themed rooms, among others. Possibly the coolest of them all is the space room.

The space room is modeled after the interior of a sci-fi spaceship, with cosmic paint throughout, a “porthole out into space,” neon LED lighting, buttons, and dials everywhere, and more. The coolest feature is the bunk beds, which legitimately look like sleeping pods aboard a futuristic star-cruiser. In lesser hands, the whole scene could look tacky, but Fantasyland did their job and made a room that looks authentic and fun.

7 Dog Bark Park Inn, U.S.

Located along Highway 95 in Cottonwood, Idaho, the Dog Bark Park Inn is a two-bedroom bed and breakfast with an odd design. The whole building is shaped like a giant beagle, who has gained the name, Sweet Willy. The owners refer to its design style as “barkitecture.”

Inside the beagle are two rooms available for rent, though the inn is perpetually booked months or years in advance. Both its rooms are chock-full of canine memorabilia, including a slew of dog-shaped wood-carvings made by one of the inn’s owners Dennis Sullivan. Dogs also cover the pillows, headboards, wall art, shelves, rugs, and more. I checked, and yes, they do allow cats.

6 Airplane Room at Hotel Costa Verde, Costa Rica

Hotel Costa Verde in Quepos, Costa Rica, is one of many upscale hotels that line the border of Manuel Antonio National Park. The park is small but beautiful and diverse, both geologically and biologically, making it a hot spot for ecotourists. Combined with the nearby beach and gentrified resort district makes the whole area a tourism goldmine. Costa Verde stands out by offering a unique lodging experience; one of its rooms is located within an actual refurbished Boeing 727 airplane.

The plane is propped up on a ledge so that it overlooks the beautiful coast and seems, at a glance, to be stuck in the thick canopy of the surrounding jungle. Oddly enough, the metal plane’s interior holds two bedrooms that are hyper-wooden. The walls, ceiling, floors, and furniture are almost entirely made of uniform dark wood. This makes for a cool contrast with the exterior, which looks like a set piece from Lost.

5 Utter Inn, Sweden

The Utter Inn is located on and in Lake Malaren in Vasteras, Sweden. I say ‘on and in’ because the entire hotel is two rooms- one floating in the middle of the lake and one attached directly beneath it.

The hotel is only accessible by boat (obviously) and looks, from the outside, like a tool shed or slightly oversized outhouse. A deck that doubles as a dock surrounds the building. Inside, the upper room has a trapdoor that leads down into the submerged room, whose windows are portholes that offer views of the murky, yellow lake-water around. It is somehow both one of the simplest places on this list and one of the strangest.

4 Treehotel, Sweden

The Treehotel is located in Edeforsvagen in the Swedish Lapland. It is an untraditional hotel made up of seven independent treehouses built throughout a forest in the Lule River valley. The treehouses are all one-room lodgings built around old-growth conifers and are raised off the ground by four to six meters, depending on the treehouse. Each of the seven houses was designed by a different Scandinavian architect, and it shows. Everyone is different from the last, and all of them are wild.

Some, like The Cabin and The Dragonfly, are relatively normal, with traditional, boxy exteriors and usual shapes. Some are not normal at all, like The UFO, which looks exactly like its namesake. The room is a large, chrome flying saucer propped up several trees with an ‘entrance ramp’ extending down to the ground below. The inside is one big circle, with tiny portholes looking out at the human world below.

3 Helga’s Folly, Sri Lanka

Helga’s Folly is a hotel in Kandy, Sri Lanka, that bills itself as an “anti-hotel,” and they mean it. The whole building- the exterior, common spaces, and all 17 rooms- is covered head-to-toe with an eclectic mishmash of art from every conceivable style, making the place more like an acid trip than a resort.

Instead of the soothing hues and calm minimalism of traditional hotels, the rooms in Helga’s Folly are covered in sensory experiences, every inch of every wall filled with color and information. There are mobiles, mirrors, sculptures, skeletons, tapestries, tile mosaics, plants, graffiti, murals, taxidermy, and a thousand other distractions in every corner. If you’re looking to stay in a 3D version of Ginsberg’s “Howl,” this is the place.

2 Hotel CasAnus, Belgium

Not much needs to be said about Hotel CasAnus in Stekene, Belgium, as its name says a lot already. The hotel, which began as a giant sculpture, is one long room shaped like an anatomically accurate rectum. On one end of the building is a similarly accurate, puckered sphincter. The exterior of the CasAnus is red, lumpy, and veiny, and though the interior is white, it otherwise matches the smooth, organic surfaces of the outside. Yes, there is a working toilet inside the rectum, which conceptually makes the whole scenario a scatological Mobius strip.

1  Null Stern Hotel, Switzerland

Null Stern Hotel, famous for creating a hotel out of an abandoned nuclear bunker, has an expansion project called Zero Real Estate. Located in the Swiss Alps, its “rooms” are unique. More unique, in fact, than any other rooms on this list. That’s because the seven rooms at Zero Real Estate have no walls or ceilings. They are beds with nightstands that rest on simple flooring, and that is it. That sounds like the biggest scam in the world until you see where the rooms are located.

The seven rooms are scattered across the Swiss Alps, and all have breathtaking views of their surroundings- due mainly to not having any structures to get in the way. Snow-capped mountains and rolling, flowering hills are visible for miles on every side. This makes the Zero Real Estate rooms, in a way, the ultimate way to lay out under the stars. Maybe the best part is that each room also has full service from a “butler,” in this case, a local who treks up to the room and offers food, drinks, and local color. Weather permitting, these rooms would make for a very cool experience.

For the ultra-wealthy, money is no object. Instead, it’s many objects: golden mammoth skeletons, rooftop pools full of Patron, and jetpacks for their butlers (I assume). But when the one-percenters inevitably get sick of soaking in their own opulence, they vacation in search of fresh, new luxuries at the finest resorts in the world. Luckily, there are hundreds to choose from, each with its own creme-de-la-creme top-tier penthouse/villa/island. These rooms are the finest, or at least priciest, available anywhere in the world. This list ranks the ten most expensive of these super-suites, rooms whose price per night will make you question if that golden mammoth skeleton might actually be real. Spoiler: it is.

Related: 10 Hotels That Offer Ridiculously Over-The-Top Extras

10 Nobu Villa, Nobu Hotel- $35,000/night

Many Las Vegas resorts, especially those right on the Strip, are massive testaments to human engineering and commerce. They’re big, bright, and tower over the street-level neon. The Nobu Hotel, however, exercises more restraint, with only 182 rooms and a consistently austere and beautiful aesthetic.

For $35,000 per night, guests can stay at the hotel’s finest suite, the Nobu Villa. It boasts 10,500 square feet, a personal butler, masseuse, limo, and 24/7 access to world-class food from celebrity chef (and hotel owner) Nobu Matsuhisa. It also has a full bar, its own barbecue pit on its terrace, and a whirlpool. The whole place rides the line between opulence and elegant simplicity, a line that most other entries on this list fall far away from.

9 The Royal Villa, Grand Resort Loganissi- $45,000/night

The Grand Resort Lagonissi is located south of Athens, Greece, on its own mini peninsula that juts into the Aegean Sea. The resort is worth its cost from location alone; its unobstructed view of the Mediterranean and a dozen of the Greek islands that peek their heads out of it is breathtaking. It’s also breathtaking that its nicest room(s), the Royal Villa, costs $40,000 per night.

For the price, guests stay at a villa “designed for royal and prestigious guests.” It shows. The villa is a three-bedroom, three-bath, private gym, private massage parlor, indoor pool, and outdoor pool affair. Best of all: it has its own butler’s quarters with a separate entrance. That way, you can be waited on hand and foot and then shoo that unsightly commoner away so you can again forget that the lower class exists.

8 The Ty Warner Penthouse, Four Seasons- $50,000/night

The Four Seasons New York stands right at the heart of downtown Manhattan. Between Madison and Park Avenues, the hotel is a short walk to dozens of major New York City landmarks, and from its Ty Warner Penthouse, you can see them all out of your many gold-trimmed bay windows.

The room was designed by probably the most celebrated architect of all time, I.M. Pei, and he was not phoning it in that day. Or should I say year, as it took Pei seven whole years to design the suite. He made every nook and cranny extravagant and expensive; even the sheets boast 22-carat gold fabric. Through its gold telescope, you can look out on Central Park and the rest of the city, swirling a snifter of brandy, and know you’ve won the game of life.

7 The Penthouse Suite, Faena Miami- $50,000

The Penthouse Suite at Faena Hotel is every bit as luxurious as you’d imagine from a $50,000 per night suite. But unlike the other hotel room entries on this list, the suite is located in Miami, and boy does it show.

The architecture is all art deco; at every opportunity, every structure is maximal. Chairs and couches are tiger print and gold, a golden greyhound statue guards the leopard print living room, and every inch that could be gold-leafed is. The entrance to the building hosts a Damien Hirst art piece entitled “Gone but not Forgotten” that is, in fact… a golden wooly mammoth skeleton.

6 The Hilltop Villa, Laucala Island- $50,000/night

Though it’s not the most expensive stay on this list, Laucala Island sure feels the least like real life. Red Bull CEO Dietrich Mateschitz owns the island, and he keeps it, aesthetically at least, a paradise.

There is no spot on the private island where the grass isn’t perfectly green, the water isn’t crystal blue, or where tall palm trees jut out from expertly manicured gardens. The appropriately-named Hilltop Villa is at the top of that pristine island, which costs $50,000 per night. It comes with a chauffeur, a nanny, an entire kitchen staff, and even your own horses to ride on your own strip of beach.

5 A Private Island, Cheval Blanc Randheli- $50,000/night

If staying on a hill atop a private island that may house a couple of dozen other elites isn’t private enough for you, there is always Cheval Blanc Randheli, where guests can rent an entire island to themselves for only $50,000 per night.

Located in the Maldives amidst a coral reef, the hotel is as tropical and picturesque as can be. The private island is even better, as there is not another soul to distract you or obstruct your view. That is, aside from an entire team of personal chefs, bartenders, and even your own private pianist.

4 The Penthouse Suite, Hotel Martinez- $55,000/night

You’re probably thinking, “Wait, there are four more rooms after the private island? How?” The answer: absurd, King-Midas-level opulence. Located on the south coast of France in Cannes, the Hotel Martinez looks out over the French Riviera, so it’s not lightly that I say that the hotel itself might be the better view.

The hotel is perfectly designed and furnished throughout, but the Penthouse Suite, located on the top floor and with its own private terrace, is the pinnacle of taste. The bedroom, living room, dining room, and even the closet manage to be stylish and yet relaxing. The closet is even put together well enough that it pulls off a leopard print carpet. Celebrities stay here during the Cannes Film Festival and enjoy its private, two-Michelin-starred restaurant, the La Palme d’Or, costing them $55,000 per night.

3 The Grand Penthouse, The Mark- $75,000/night

The Mark is a Central Park East hotel that offers about as much luxury as New York possibly can, especially in its pièce de résistance, the Grand Penthouse. Though not the most expensive room there is, the Grand Penthouse is the biggest.

The suite is over 10,000 square feet, and its private terrace alone is 2,500. The living room is the size of a full grand ballroom, the ceilings are 26-feet high (which many New Yorkers would gasp at), and even the entryway is over 30-feet across. Not to be a one-trick pony, the suite is also lavishly decorated with 100% unique furniture pieces across its two full floors. To enjoy that much space and style while overlooking Central Park, guests pay $75,000 per night.

2 The Royal Penthouse Suite, Hotel Wilson- $80,000/night

The Hotel President Wilson is located in Geneva, Switzerland, and offers views of both Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc. The views are best from the hotel’s top floor, the entirety of which is dedicated to the Royal Penthouse Suite.

The insanely decadent suite has 12 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, one of which boasts a jacuzzi with a panoramic view of the lake. The suite also contains a massive, 103-inch television, as well as a full grand piano. At $80,000 per night, the room is not even marketed primarily to celebrities but rather heads of state and royalty.

1 The Empathy Suite, Palms Casino- $100,000/night

The most ridiculously expensive hotel suite in the world is *drumroll please* the Empathy Suite at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. It costs a staggering $100,000 a night, and in exchange, offers some particularly unique luxuries.

Damien Hirst designed the room and applied his special brand of eccentricity to the decor. Two white sharks hang by one of the windows, preserved in formaldehyde and prompting a few reasonable questions. There is an impressive 13-seater bar, for some reason made from a collage of faux medical waste. The medical theme continues with pill wallpaper and window stickers, then gives way to the other two themes: polka dots and butterflies. There’s a lot of luxury to experience in the suite, but ultimately it’s the design that steals the focus. For better or worse.

Honorable Mention: The Boulevard Penthouses, Cosmopolitan

The magnificent and mysterious Boulevard Penthouses at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas get an honorable mention for being both the most expensive rooms in the world and the cheapest- all depending on how you slice it.

For the highest spending gamblers at the Cosmopolitan Casino, the Penthouses are gratis perks, making them the cheapest hotel rooms in the world. But to earn that posh prize, those big spenders need to guarantee cumulative bets of at least one million dollars on the casino floor. Thus we have the most expensive hotel room in the world. Sort of. And is it worth it? It would be hard to argue any room could be worth a million dollars, but the Cosmo Penthouses try their hardest. The rooms look like sets from a utopian sci-fi movie; every surface is clean, sleek, minimal, neutral, and functional. And as you could likely guess, gold is everywhere.