India, May 19 -- By taking up residence in a series of upscale hotels, the eternally childlike performer Elaine Stritch, for one, found a welcome escape from reality. Here's a chronicle of the myriad rich and talented guests for whom a long-term check-in was the ultimate luxury. By Alexandra Jacobs

In the go go middle years of the last decade, our family would sometimes rent out our Brooklyn brownstone through a service called One finestay, which is a little like a high-end version of Airbnb. Personal papers and possessions would be hidden away, keys copied, and our bathrooms stocked with matching towels and little soaps to maintain the illusion that this was not someone's loved and lived-in residence. We would return from our own vacati...