Here at RoomSuggestion we would rather remember musical legends for their amazing body of work and their contributions to music history, but some are so
closely linked to their hotel rooms it is hard not to remember their escapades – often involving drugs, sex and rock-n-roll – in hotel rooms across the
world.
Take Michael Hutchence’s untimely death in Room 524 of the then Ritz-Carlton in Sydney, or Michael Jackson’s infamous baby-dangling incident from
the balcony of his fifth-floor suite at Hotel Adlon Kempinski in Berlin, or actor Johnny Depp and his then girlfriend supermodel Kate Moss causing $9,767-worth of
damage to their presidential suite at Manhattan's posh Mark Hotel.
Today, we are remembering the blues legend that is Billie Holiday and taking a trip to Room 203 at Hotel Mark Twain (formerly Ramada Inn) where Holiday had her brush with law enforcement when she was arrested on 22 January 1949 for possession of
opium.
Holiday was eventually acquitted on June 3, 1949 after her defense team convinced the jury that she had been framed. Today the room is renamed the Billie
Holiday Suite and a plaque and assorted artwork has been placed in the lobby of the hotel in homage to the great singer. Do not let the mention of ‘suite’
fool you though, as this first-floor room overlooking the busy Taylor Street is pretty standard except for the bronze plaque on the wall outside the door, and a framed
poster art portrait of the singer inside along with a newspaper article from the San Francisco Chronicle recounting the story of a raid. But for all it may lack in
grandeur, it will make up with bags of history as you walk and sleep in the shadow of one of the musical giants of the 20th century.
Why not make a date with history and book this suite now?
