The Celestial Suite was an extravagant 13-room penthouse that catered to the rich and famous. It took $1 million and the vision of an Academy Award-winning set designer to bring it to life.
@uninhabitedexplorations TikTokA Houston-based urban explorer took viewers into the Celestial Suite.
Houston, Texas, was once home to one of the world’s most expensive hotel rooms. Now, this historic place sits abandoned. What happened to AstroWorld Hotel’s Celestial Suite?
Visitors to Houston, Texas, have a variety of hotels to choose from. However, from the late ’60s into the ’70s, travelers seeking luxury and a unique experience knew there was only one place in the city that could meet their needs: the Celestial Suite.
In its heyday, the Celestial Suite boasted themed rooms, Tiffany glass, and so much 24-karat gold that reportedly even Elvis thought it was “too gaudy.”
Since its abandonment, few have laid eyes inside. Now, a user on TikTok has — and it has people wondering about the history of this incredible suite.
The History Of A Strange Hotel
In a video with over 132,000 views, TikTok user and Houston-based urban explorer @houstonurbex shows what he calls “Elvis Presley’s Abandoned Penthouse in Houston.”
The video shows a mostly dark room, replete with gold, marble, and countless details and decorations. While viewers only get a taste of the hotel room, it’s clear that there’s much to offer, with each room shown bearing its own theme and style.
“The Celestial Suite at the abandoned Astroworld Hotel was once a luxurious, space-age penthouse, designed to impress high-profile guests,” the TikToker writes in the caption, in part. “In its prime, it featured plush interiors, sweeping views, and a futuristic design that reflected Houston’s 1960s optimism.”
@uninhabitedexplorations TikTokThe Celestial Suite was a two-level penthouse that consisted of 13 themed rooms.
“Today, it sits quiet and decaying-faded carpets, dusty windows, and empty rooms replacing the glamour-feeling more like a forgotten time capsule than a place where legends once stayed,” his caption continues.
To understand how this hotel room got here and why it’s presently abandoned, one must learn about the strange history of the Astrodome and its surrounding area.
After Houston’s Astrodome stadium was completed in 1965, Roy Hofheinz, also known as “Judge Hofheinz,” was not satisfied. He had a bigger vision for the area. Instead of having the space simply be a destination to watch sports and events, the entire area could be an attraction.
Following this line of thinking led him to develop a part of the city with not only a stadium but a theme park and hotel as well. These would become known as AstroWorld and the AstroWorld Hotel, respectively.
The Celestial Suite
While AstroWorld followed the space age theme that Houston believed was the future, the AstroWorld Hotel’s crown jewel would take a different approach. For its penthouse, the hotel would go all out, spending around $1 million (over $9 million in 2026 dollars) to create one of the most iconic hotel rooms the world has ever seen.
The result of this money and effort was the Celestial Suite. This was a two-level penthouse on the hotel’s top floors designed in part by Academy Award-winning set designer Harper Goff.
@uninhabitedexplorations TikTokThe Celestial Suite’s Tarzan room.
Across its two floors, the suite attempted to create a fantasy-like environment while still offering space to entertain. According to ABC13, the suite had 13 themed rooms, including a Tarzan room, Fu Manchu suite, circus room, master suite, and more. There was also a Roman tub, a marble library, a birdcage dining room, and a dance floor.
This room didn’t come cheap. Reports from the time say that renting the room cost around $2,500 per night. This is over $20,000 in 2026 dollars.
Given the high price tag, it’s no surprise that the suite’s primary clientele were the wealthy and famous. Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Frank Sinatra all reportedly stayed in this suite.
So, how did this hotel room go from an in-demand spot for the wealthy to an abandoned mess?
The Celestial Suite Says Good Night
As the rest of the hotel adapted to the changing tastes of guests, the elaborate penthouse complex on the top floor became a bit of a problem.
This is because the suite, for all of its design features and memorable traits, was never really a practical hotel room. Instead, it was a showpiece representing the excess and forward-thinking nature of the era. However, as that era faded, so too did the need for such a suite.
@uninhabitedexplorations TikTokThe building later operated under several brands, including Holiday Inn Astroworld, Crowne Plaza, and Wyndham. It has been closed to the public since the 2010s.
Not only that, but updating and maintaining a suite of this proportion would be an incredible undertaking with questionable return, especially as the popularity of AstroWorld fell and as the Astrodome became less used in favor of other stadiums.
Additionally, getting the suite up to contemporary standards meant more than simply doing a little redecorating. With changing safety codes came the need to modernize many buildings — meaning that getting the suite into usable condition could mean fundamentally altering it for questionable benefit. This is not to mention the fact that some parts of the suite were already showing signs of rain damage and other issues.
Consequently, the owners of the building have said that there is no viable business plan to reopen the suite.
That doesn’t mean that there’s no hope of seeing it in your lifetime, however. As of 2017, the owners of the suite described the area as 90% intact, noting that details like first-generation AstroTurf and era-appropriate televisions and telephones were still present in the room. While tours are rare, they do happen — allowing guests to get a taste of what spending a third of the country’s average salary on a single night in a hotel room might look like.
@houstonurbex The Celestial Suite at the abandoned Astroworld Hotel was once a luxurious, space-age penthouse , designed to impress high-profile guests like Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Johnny Cash. In its prime, it featured plush interiors, sweeping views, and a futuristic design that reflected Houston’s 1960s optimism. Today, it sits quiet and decaying-faded carpets, dusty windows, and empty rooms replacing the glamour-feeling more like a forgotten time capsule than a place where legends once stayed. #abandoned #elvispresley #penthouse #foryoupage #urbex
All That’s Interesting reached out to @houstonurbex via Instagram and TikTok direct message and TikTok comment.
For more abandoned places, check into some of the world’s spookiest disused hotels. If you’re not scared enough, take a ghostly dive through the history of the haunted Hotel del Salto.
