Many of you will know of the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, the place is legendary. I’ll be honest, we need something like this in Cape Town, a place for rock stars, a place that is more than just a hotel, a place where legends stay and great tales are made. This is the write up on the website of Chateau Marmont:

Hotels are the stuff of stories, of mini dramas, a world unto themselves – we leave our lives behind and become who we want to be. Arriving at Chateau Marmont you surrender yourself to a grandi-loquent environment, an infamous hideaway and the perfect getaway in the center of one of the world’s most exciting cities.

Modeled after an infamous royal residence in France’s Loire Valley, Chateau Marmont is a fantastical folly in the land of make believe. While in residence you become part of a highly discriminating, international clientele desiring an experience at once luxurious and unique.

Chateau is the perfect co-conspirator; as Harry Cohn, founder of Columbia Pictures said in 1939, “If you must get in trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont.” You can be yourself or, better yet, be whomever you want to be; don’t be surprised if your visit brings out your inner Howard Hughes, your Greta Garbo, your Jim Morrison. As public or private as you wish – there are those in residence who are desperate to be seen and others who choose to remain anonymous. The eccentric and highly personal history of the place, its luscious rich past, its tarnished patina are all part of the charm.
This great castle on the hill is the set of a film waiting for someone to call action – this is the place where things happen. Checking in is like turning up in the middle of an ongoing party at a European country estate – there is always someone you know staying here. Mindful of its history – but always in the moment – it is contemporary as tomorrow morning – there is great comfort here. Sit in a wicker chair on the veranda writing post-cards imagining you are in an exotic outpost-far far away.

And when the dusk of evening settles, put on some smoky jazz and get lost – sink into the aphrodisiac of the deep couches, take your paramour on an elevator ride – at night everyone comes to Chateau Marmont – this is the pageant and parade that evening brings, they come for the martini, for the sex appeal, to make the deal–naughty or nice, everyone is your darling. And after hours – there is the Bar Marmont – an outpost for the foreign correspondent you’ve become – all hotel guests are insiders – there is no velvet rope here. You are on liberty, sabbatical, furlough from your familiar life, you feel the heat, the sweat, the late night lust that is LA. This is the place you can most be yourself and it is the only grand hotel you can call home.

-by A.M Homes

How awesome is that?

Some facts on the Chateau Marmont(I think — it’s from Wikipedia):

• In 1982, John Belushi died of a drug overdose in one of its garden bungalows.
• Greta Garbo loved to stay in the Chateau Marmont for weeks during her infamous seclusion period and would not leave her room for days. She also attended many lavish and glamorous parties here in her movie star days.
• Fashion photographer Helmut Newton died on January 23, 2004, after his car crashed into a wall on the driveway of the hotel.
• It appears in the HBO  series Entourage, when director “Billy Walsh” meets with “Vincent Chase” to discuss Queens Boulevard.
• Hunter S. Thompson was often a guest at the hotel.
• Howard Hughes moved into the attic of the hotel and would spy on beautiful women in the pool area using prism binoculars.
• Lindsay Lohan stayed at the hotel following her July 24, 2007, arrest for drunk driving. She also lived at the Chateau between 2005 and 2006.

So that’s just a little note to let you know that if you’re going to Hollywood, there is only one hotel I want you to visit.

Click here for the Chateau Marmont website.