The hotel room where John Lennon and Yoko Ono created a watershed moment for the peace movement at the height of the Vietnam War is a little smaller now.

Part of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel suite, which has a gold plaque on the door noting its history, went to the installation of a panoramic elevator on the floor.

But that hasn't dimmed the aura of the place where the ex-Beatle and Ono staged their "bed-in for peace" between May 26 and June 2, 1969, and recorded the antiwar anthem Give Peace a Chance the day before they left.

"The furniture has changed, because of course it's 40 years ago, and we do renovate every five to 10 years," hotel spokeswoman Joanne Papineau said as she gave a tour of Room 1742 on Tuesday.

Pictures of Lennon and Ono during the bed-in dot the walls. Sunlight floods in from the large window in the sitting room where Lennon positioned the couple's mattress and held court with throngs of people in 1969.

Papineau leafs through a security log book from the visit, which notes the couple's room service orders — a mix of British and Japanese food — and a request for an extra large comb plus a cage for a white mouse.

"They were throwing [flower] petals into the air a few times a day so we had to keep vacuuming the floor," she said with a chuckle.

"There were 200 'fellow Beatles' who were running around in the lobby so you see it was a bit of a circus and guests were not always so happy."

Bed-in put Queen E on the map

The Queen E, as the landmark hotel is nicknamed, didn't boast about holding the event at the time.

"It created a lot of problems with guests," Papineau said. "They didn't talk about it for a while but guests wanted to see where it happened."

There was a spike in interest after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States when Lennon's message of peace gained resonance.

Now, many fans of Lennon and the Beatles want to book the room. Others reserve it for romantic getaways.

"Guests love it," Papineau said of the room. "A lot of them feel a presence. They say there's a special vibration."

Now the hotel — which has since been renamed the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth — is offering an "Imagine" anniversary package for guests.

That gets customers a CD featuring Give Peace a Chance and a copy of the song's lyrics, as well as breakfast in bed for two. A night's stay in the room runs $599.

There's also a hotel window display, replicas of the couple's pyjamas for sale and a Yoko tribute cocktail. People can also sign a peace book that will be given to Ono.

Museum exhibit features Yoko phone-in

The bed-in is also being marked with the Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, as well as with 17-second peace messages from Ono broadcast on some city subway trains three times a day.

Ellis Steinberg got a chance to speak to Ono recently when she made her daily random phone call to the museum exhibit. He had just asked a museum guard when she usually calls when the phone rang.

"I was excited as I've ever been," he said. "She's, like, 'Hi.' It sounded exactly like I would have expected her to sound, just like all the times I've seen her on TV."

The two exchanged pleasantries — "We asked each other how we were doing. I was good, she was good" — and Steinberg thanked her for spreading her message of peace.

"She said, 'Oh, you know, we try. It's the least we can do.'

"We spoke for a little bit and she was telling me how the Queen Elizabeth wasn't their first choice. It was their third or fourth choice."

Ono didn't want to talk about reports of drug use by her and Lennon at the time of the bed-in — "She kind of ignored the question" — so Steinberg asked if he could come to New York and play chess with her sometime.

"She laughed and politely declined."