Scandals Are Good for Business

From the Sept 27, 2005 issue of USA Today. The article features various hotels that have endured thanks to the buzz generated by long ago scandals.

•New York's Hotel Chelsea, where punk icon Sid Vicious allegedly stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, to death in October 1978 in Room 100. (The former Sex Pistol was charged with homicide but died three months later from a heroin overdose.)

Some guests still request Room 100, "strangely enough," says longtime managing director Stanley Bard. It isn't available, however, because the room became part of a larger suite in a renovation 20 or so years ago.

Bard prefers to talk about other notables — Bob Dylan, Madonna, Leonard Cohen and Allen Ginsburg — who have checked in. As for the Sid and Nancy episode, "I'm not happy about it, but you can't control these things," he says.