After a 16-year fall from grace, the former Ritz-Carlton Double Bay in Sydney, Australia, is set to receive a much-needed revamp.
The hotel, which once hosted celebrities on par with Madonna, Bill Clinton and Princess Diana, fell from its lofty perch in the late 1990s, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Contributing to the once-posh property's demise were increased competition, ownership changes and -- notably -- the high-profile death of Australian rock star Michael Hutchence, who hanged himself in room 524 back in 1997.
The property dropped its Ritz-Carlton moniker in 2001 and became the Sir Stamford, then closed for redevelopment in 2009, only to change hands once more, in a deal signed Sunday, for around $60 million.
Per the Herald, the revamp will cleanse the property's recent reputation for "all-night dance parties, prostitution rackets and ... Russian cabaret dinners."
Other posh residences have fared better after playing the unwitting host to a celebrity death.
After Anna Nicole Smith's 2007 overdose in a Florida hotel room, property managers were quick to change the room numbers. Whitney Houston's 2012 passing in the Beverly Hilton was handled in a similar fashion, reports the Free Republic, with the room removed from service, then given the old number-switcheroo.
While it's too early to know what will happen to the room that hosted recently-deceased "Glee" star Cory Monteith, the Vancouver hotel where he passed away will likely follow a similar strategy.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the room where Janis Joplin died in 1970 hasn't been subject to such a scrubbing. Fans can spend the night in the room, and some have even reported that it's haunted.
Lonely Planet put together a list of hotels you can stay in or visit where delight and despair are bedfellows:
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