By Mal Chenu
The Savoy Hotel, London.Credit: Richard Bryant
1.COCO CHANEL – HoTEL RITZ, PARIS
Perhaps the most renowned hotel guest of all time, Coco took a suite at the Ritz one day in 1937 and stayed for 37 years. Eventually she brought in her own furniture, including Coromandel lacquered screens, gilded mirrors, a velvet banquette, rock crystal chandeliers and her art collection. Faithfully preserved, the Coco Chanel Suite on the second floor with a view of Place Vendome is yours for about $25,000 per night. ritzparis.com
2.WYATT EARP – THE BROOKLYN HOTEL, SAN DIEGO
Guests can stay in the Monet Suite at the five-star Savoy in London.Credit: Richard Bryant
Now the Horton Grand, a boutique hotel in historic downtown San Diego, The Brooklyn hosted the famous lawman from the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona for seven years from 1886, the year after it opened. The Horton retains the Brooklyn's Victorian charm and still has the original oak registration desk and bar, which were discovered in a New York church. hortongrand.com
3.ERNEST HEMINGWAY – HOTEL AMBOS MUNDOS, HAVANA
He probably spent more time in the piano bar than his room but the Nobel Prize-winning writer stayed here for seven years in the 1930s and wrote and slept off the daiquiris in Room 511 for $US1.50/night. The room is preserved as it was when Ernie lived here and is now a small museum on the Hemingway tourist route. Another favourite haunt, El Floridita bar is just a short stagger away. hotelambosmundos-cuba.com
Coco Chanel Suite, Ritz Paris
4.AGATHA CHRISTIE – PERA PALACE, ISTANBUL
The oldest "European" hotel in Turkey was built in 1892 to host passengers of the Orient Express train. The prolific murder mystery writer was a regular guest and – they say – banged out a quite bit of Murder on the Orient Express here. Room 411 is memorialised as the Agatha Christie King Room and "Agatha" is the European-Turkish-fusion fine dining restaurant, themed for her most famous novel. jumeirah.com/en/hotels-resorts/istanbul/pera-palace-hotel
5.TENNESSEE WILLIAMS – HOTEL ELYSEE, NEW YORK CITY
John Lennon and Yoko Ono turned their honeymoon into a protest lie-in at Montreal's Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel in 1969.Credit: Fairfax Media
Playwright and American legend Tennessee Williams lived at the Elysee for 15 years and died – appropriately enough – in the Sunset Suite in 1983. Today, the enormous Tennessee Williams Suite honours the writer of A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and features photos and memorabilia. The Elysee is also home to the Monkey Bar, which opened in the 1940s and is known for its mural tableau of primates swilling banana daiquiris. elyseehotel.com
6.WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART – HOTEL WEISSES KREUZ, INNSBRUCK
"We are well, thank God, we are lodging at the Weisses Kreuz." So wrote Leopold Mozart in a letter home on December 15, 1769, having ended a tortuous day of travelling with 13-year-old son Wolfgang on their way to Italy. The Mozarts are just two of the many guests to have crashed at the Weisses Kreuz since it opened as an inn in 1465. weisseskreuz.at
7.MICHAEL JACKSON – PRESIDENTIAL SUITE, HOTEL ADLON KEMPINSKI, BERLIN
Remember when the King of Pop dangled his baby son Prince Michael II over the hotel railing in 2002? The Aldon doesn't display a "Michael Jackson was a total dickhead here" plaque but his suite is still available. Wacko Jacko aside, the stately Aldon was a top-notch European staple from 1907 but found itself on the wrong side of World War II and then the Berlin Wall (it's just 50 metres from the Brandenburg Gate) before being restored to its former glory and reopened in 1997. kempinski.com/en/berlin/hotel-adlon
8.JOHN LENNON AND YOKO ONO – FAIRMONT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH, MONTREAL
The Lennons staged their second ''Bed-in for Peace" protest in Suite 1742 for a week in 1969. They wrote and recorded the anthem Give Peace a Chance here. The hotel is currently being renovated and is due to reopen in July 2017, when the John Lennon and Yoko Ono Suite will feature a virtual reality experience of the iconic "bed-in". fairmont.com/queen-elizabeth-montreal
9.CLAUDE MONET – THE SAVOY, LONDON
Fascinated by the interplay of sunlight and London's pea-soup smog, the French impressionist stayed at the Savoy on three occasions and painted the Houses of Parliament, Waterloo Bridge and other city landmarks through the grimy haze. "London would be quite ugly if it was not for the fog," he wrote. As part of a £220 million renovation, two of the rooms he used were remodelled into The Monet Suite in this celebrated five-star pile on the Thames. fairmont.com/savoy-london
10.GEORGE WASHINGTON – EVERYWHERE
The one that started it all. So many places have plaques claiming "George Washington slept here" it has become a real estate and hospitality industry cliche. America's first President did indeed travel extensively but it's hard to be sure which venues actually hosted him. Two confirmed – and renowned – stays are Smithfield Inn Bed & Breakfast in Virginia and John Rutledge House Inn in South Carolina. smithfieldinn.com; johnrutledgehouseinn.com
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