The story of the incredible hotel featured on the Eagles' Hotel California album cover.

Sources on the controversy:
https://variety.com/2014/film/news/be...
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/ne...
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/n...

Transcript:
What is the hotel on the Hotel California album cover? Is it in California? Is it even a hotel? Does it even exist. I did some research and I’ve found the hotel, and I have become obsessed with it. Let me explain.

The hotel featured on the hotel California album is the Beverly Hills Hotel on sunset blvd. in, of course, beverly hills California. You can see the three peaks that feature on the album cover here.

I’ve been reading a lot about this hotel and it has blown my mind. But first, let’s talk about how it ended up on the cover of this album. And if we you want to hear more about the hotel itself, you can stick around till later in the video.

Apparently, Don Henley wanted to find a building that could be a stand in for the fictional Hotel California, and "portray it with a slightly sinister edge”. Looking at the final result, I think this is a job well done. The photo was taken by either photographer David Alexander or art director John Kosh. They both went up on a cherry picker high above Sunset Boulevard to get the shot and snapped a load of photos while the sun was going down, so they don’t actually know which one took the shot that ended up on the cover. Fun fact, John Kosh was also the man behind the iconic Abbey Road album cover. In its interview about the cover, Kosh explained that most people didn’t recognise the BHH. And when the identity was revealed, the hotel threatened legal action but nothing actually ever come of the threat. Apparently, due to the fact that the number of reservations had gone up significantly since the album’s release.

Also, if you were wondering, these photos on the centre fold and back cover weren’t taken a the BHH. They were taken at the lido hotel in Hollywood that has since been turned into apartments.

Anyway, going back to the BHH, let’s talk about why the hotel has captured my interest for like a week now. The Hotel opened on May 12, 1912, long before LA became the massive city it is today. The idea was to open a hotel for people to stay at while looking at property to buy in the area. The original owner and founder of the Hotel was Margaret Anderson and her motto for the hotel was, “Guests are entitled to the best of everything regardless of cost!” The regardless of cost bit really seems to have been followed as gospel at the hotel.

Today, the cheapest room will set you back over $800 a night. The most expensive visible on the site is the $6000 a night Grand Deluxe Suite. For the even more expensive rooms, you have to make an enquiry. The Beverly Hills Hotel doesn’t just have rooms though, they have ‘bungalows’.

There are your run of the mill bungalows. You know, Presidential Bungalow and things of that nature, but then you have your legendary bungalows. This is were stuff gets real. The hotel website explains that:

Out of our 23 uniquely designed bungalows, there are several standout ‘legendary bungalows’. These feature design elements inspired by their most notable guests. Who are these most notable guests? Well. Bungalow 9 has a design inspired by past guest Charlie Chaplin. Bungalow 3, was a favourite of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, who was and on and off resident of the hotel for 30 years. Whilst living there, he requested that staff leave roast beef sandwiches under a tree outside his bungalow every night.

But perhaps most impressively is bungalow one. This was a favourite of none other than marlin Monroe. With CHANEL N°5 bath amenities and a library of Marilyn Monroe films and books, along with a number of other little features, you certainly won’t forget that Hollywood’s most famous star used to stay there. And you can two for a reported $8,500 a night.

Vanity fair have an amazing article cataloguing the hotel’s incredible history. The article includes tidbits like Sidney Poitier apparently danced barefoot in the lobby following his best actor Academy Award for Lilies of the Field. And In the Polo Lounge, Charles Bluhdorn, of Gulf & Western, negotiated his purchase of Paramount Pictures for $125 million. John Mitchell, campaign manager for Richard Nixon, was at the hotel when news of Watergate broke and reported could be heard yelling. “They blew it!”. I could go on for a while about the celebrities that have stayed in the BHH for a while. JFK, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, Reese whitherspoon, Arthur Miller, Princess Margret, John Lennon and Yoko Ono I really could go on.