The last guests at the Hotel Chelsea

I was drawn to the Hotel Chelsea by the impressive lists of its former residents. Who wouldn't be? During its lifetime, this hotel has provided shelter to musicians, artists and writers like Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Jane Fonda, Ethan Hawke, Mark Twain O'Henry and Jean-Paul Sartre. The hotel's convenient location on 23rd street in Manhattan's West Chelsea area gave it more brownie points and with a starting price of US$220 (Bt6,600), we even found it affordable. Closing in August for major renovations, we would also be among the last guests to stay at the "original" Hotel Chelsea, which has, for the past 106 years, been a sanctuary for hundreds of creative souls.

A major renovation is, in fact, what the Hotel Chelsea desperately needs. Built back in the 1880s, this iconic 12-storey red brick building with wrought iron balconies and sweeping marble staircases suffers from age and poor maintenance. The sorry state of its lobby, dusty and old, despite efforts to brighten it up with some funky art, makes it hard to imagine what it looked like in its glorious heyday.

The rooms, irregularly shaped and sized - the property was once a private apartment cooperative - make it unpredictable when reserving a room. We booked a "Junior Suite" online: when we arrived, we were told we were "very lucky" that a "big" and bright "Junior Suite" was still available.

Despite being turned into a hotel in 1905, Hotel Chelsea still has permanent residents. Our room on the third floor was among the accommodation of those residents, some of who had turned their living space into businesses including a barber's shop, with hand-written advertisements posted to attract other residents. This charming side of the hotel brought to mind the words of Patti Smith who wrote at length about her own stay at the Hotel in "Just Kids".

Our Junior Suite was bright and big, and equipped with all the amenities promised on the Internet, but everything was so dirty and old that we dared not to touch anything. Dust was everywhere in this hotel and our room was covered with it from floor to ceiling. The carpet had not been vacuumed apparently in months and it was difficult to say when the bathroom was last cleaned. At least, the bed was made on a daily basis and we found ourselves very grateful for even that small service. We were unsure if this is because it is New York where everything is about money or if the hotel was so near to closing that no one cared, but one does expect something for $220 a night (plus four tax extras that brought it closer to $240 a night).

The hotel didn't offer breakfast. It did, however, provide a free WiFi network which my iPod told me should "not be trusted". We overcame the problem by heading to the nearby Starbucks to get our daily dose of Internet, a strong morning coffee and wait until the rush hour was over to take off and explore the city.

Hotel Chelsea has been bought by realty investor Joseph Chetrit for a reported US$80 million. This deal marks the end of the ownership led by a Hungarian family who bought this hotel in 1946. One can only hope that the Hotel Chelsea that eventually reemerges doesn't lose the sense of the long and historic hospitality it has provided to artists, whose names should continue to attract visitors like us.