I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a quirky person, and some people will probably think I’m really strange for admitting these things. However, I’m curious if I’m alone in feeling this way. I’ve written in the past about some of my strange habits when staying at hotels, but let me admit an unusual habit I have when it comes to actually deciding which hotels I book…
In this post:
I avoid haunted hotels, and hotels with bad energy
There are quite a few hotels out there that some people believe are haunted, whatever that actually means. For some hotels, being haunted is a selling point, and they lean into paranormal tourism.
For other hotels, it’s something they don’t try to highlight, and it simply reflects something in the property’s past. Maybe it’s about the land the hotel is built on, maybe it’s because of something tragic that happened at the hotel in the past, etc.
I have to admit, regardless of whether it’s something the hotel tries to promote or deny, I avoid hotels that are rumored to be haunted. Let me be clear — it’s not that I’m actually scared for my safety, and think I’m going to be abducted, or something.
However, I’m a spiritually open person, and I do on some level believe in the energy of a place. I’m not some conspiracy theorist when it comes to this kind of stuff, but sometimes I walk into a room and just feel like the energy is bad, and the room gives me chills. Now, the mind is powerful, and that might largely reflect what’s going on in my head and what I’m perceiving, rather than anything that actually exists in a space.
Regardless, I probably get in my own way when it comes to “haunted” places. I just don’t feel at ease, and I won’t stay at them. Speaking of energy, sometimes I’ve walked into hotel rooms and have gotten a really strange vibe. In fairness, the bad energy thing is a two-way street. After all, I’ve had hotel owners accuse me of having bad energy. 😉
Roughly a decade ago, I checked into a fairly new hotel in Abu Dhabi, and something about the room felt off. I just didn’t feel comfortable staying in the room, and I wasn’t sure why. So I went to the front desk and asked if I could get a different room. It’s kind of hard to make that request without sounding a little nuts, but hey, if you don’t feel comfortable staying somewhere, it’s better to raise a concern early.
I think on some level this all goes back to me being really introverted. I spend a lot of time thinking, and perhaps I get in my own way. I’m curious, and I’d love to hear from OMAAT readers. If you know that a hotel is rumored to be haunted, does it make you more likely to stay, less likely to stay, or does it have no impact on your decision at all?
I also don’t like hotels where gruesome things happened
This is a bit more concrete, but I also avoid hotels where I know especially unpleasant things happened (beyond just denied suite upgrades). It’s not uncommon to see gruesome deaths or murders happen at hotels, given the number of people staying in hotels at any given point.
Perhaps this falls into the category of “what you don’t know can’t hurt you,” but if I’m aware of a negative high profile event that happened at a hotel, I typically avoid it. At an absolute minimum, I’d make sure that I stay in a room not anywhere close to where the event happened.
I know this also sounds sort of of silly, but this is clearly an area where I know I’d just find myself thinking about that event too much, to the point that it would impact my sleep quality. Let me emphasize that I’m sure I’ve stayed at a lot of hotels where bad things happened, but I didn’t know about them.
I’m curious if I’m alone in taking this approach, so I’d love to hear from OMAAT readers. Do you in any way avoid a hotel if you know of something awful that happened there? Would you avoid the hotel altogether, just avoid the type of room, or does it not impact your decision at all? Like, would you be happy staying in the exact room where someone was brutally murdered weeks earlier, or where is your line?
Bottom line
I avoid hotels that are known to be haunted, or where I know something bad happened, which might throw off the energy of a place. I know people will judge me for that, and I’m fine with that. What I’m curious about is if I’m alone in feeling this way.
Are you at all impacted (one way or another) by whether hotels have a reputation for being haunted, or have been the scene of some bad event?
My school bought a small motel that had a ton of ghost stories associated with it because the on-campus housing filled out. A bunch of my friends and I decided to just request rooms in that dorm and make it a party dorm. I lived there for a whole year and didn't see or feel anything except well, pressure from the homework. Oddly, kids who came to our parties did supposedly see ghosts, but they...
My school bought a small motel that had a ton of ghost stories associated with it because the on-campus housing filled out. A bunch of my friends and I decided to just request rooms in that dorm and make it a party dorm. I lived there for a whole year and didn't see or feel anything except well, pressure from the homework. Oddly, kids who came to our parties did supposedly see ghosts, but they came anyway, because the booze is free.
The next year I moved to a house built in 1820 with 6 friends and the rent was next to nothing because, again, supposedly haunted. Once again, except for the draftiness - the city planning commission refused our request to install a new door, leaving us with a very loud and crappy door in place and a perfectly new door on the porch right next to it. Just for kicks we decided to draw a pentagram in the basement only to see that someone beat us to the punch, so we repainted it and called it a day. The house was kerosene heated and turns out some delivery people wouldn't go down there. We got a discount because of it, so it worked out for us.
Although if you are staying at say, a smaller inn or bnb, especially if it's as old as the house we rented, check for gas leaks. That is a real thing that causes accidental deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning every year and gas furnaces would be the culprit in most of those. One symptom is halluciination and another, paranoia. This isn't a joke and can cause serious harm to your health. So yeah, definitely something to be on the look out for. Not ghosts though. If there are ghosts, why are they described in completely different ways both in appearance and circumstances of their manifestation in different cultures? It's not as if gravity actually works differently in Australia. Also, what's with the lack of minority ghosts in the US? Where my dead pendejos at, yo? And why are all the Asian ghosts in Asia when there have been Asians in America since the 1840s? Is the afterlife not woke enough? Ghost lives matter?
I'd like to see some ghosts. The opioid epidemic caused so many deaths amongst my friends in the last 15 years, and I miss them. And I'm not about to carbon monoxide poison myself to see them, sorry.
Not a hotel, but I booked a bed and breakfast near Dumfries in Scotland while I was doing a roadtrip around the UK. The place looked nice, and the host was a lovely older lady, but the place just felt...evil. I had never, and haven't since, felt anything like it. The atmosphere felt dark and oppressive, and the bedroom was just unbearable. Like, I felt that if I stayed, something terrible would happen. I literally...
Not a hotel, but I booked a bed and breakfast near Dumfries in Scotland while I was doing a roadtrip around the UK. The place looked nice, and the host was a lovely older lady, but the place just felt...evil. I had never, and haven't since, felt anything like it. The atmosphere felt dark and oppressive, and the bedroom was just unbearable. Like, I felt that if I stayed, something terrible would happen. I literally was praying nonstop from the time I walked in. After dinner, I actually apologized to the lady and left, and apparently I wasn't the first to feel that way. Found a place in Castle Douglas that was quite alright to stay the night. This was back in 2015. This post brought back the memory.
I believe in all this stuff and would avoid any hotel that I knew had either paranormal activity or a had gruesome thing happen in there.
You will never know if someone has died in the hotel bed you’re sleeping in.
The Grand Hyatt in Taipei was built over a gravesite and is supposed to be haunted. It has been a PR nightmare for them. You can find several travel articles where they've obviously paid someone behind the scenes to writing glowing reviews of the hotel and downplay the haunted vibes. They hired a fengshui expert to curb the ghosts. That hotel is also famous for being one of the first high profile cases of a...
The Grand Hyatt in Taipei was built over a gravesite and is supposed to be haunted. It has been a PR nightmare for them. You can find several travel articles where they've obviously paid someone behind the scenes to writing glowing reviews of the hotel and downplay the haunted vibes. They hired a fengshui expert to curb the ghosts. That hotel is also famous for being one of the first high profile cases of a Westerner being deported for working illegally when Taiwan adopted its work permit system in the early 90s. They hired a European pianist and someone tattled (probably a competing hotel) that he was working there illegally. None of this stopped a certain famous Puerto Rican male singer from hiring male escorts when he stayed there while he was in Taipei for a concert once though.
Clicked because I recognized the US Grant in San Diego in the images, so I guess it's known for being haunted? Had a great stay there in the final days of Starwood Preferred Guest.
More seriously, stayed at the JW Marriott Khao Lak in Thailand some years ago, in the era of Marriott Flight + Hotel packages, which was terrific.
It wasn't until we got home that we realized this was the Sofitel where people...
Clicked because I recognized the US Grant in San Diego in the images, so I guess it's known for being haunted? Had a great stay there in the final days of Starwood Preferred Guest.
More seriously, stayed at the JW Marriott Khao Lak in Thailand some years ago, in the era of Marriott Flight + Hotel packages, which was terrific.
It wasn't until we got home that we realized this was the Sofitel where people died during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami... including probably in our ground-level room.
Funny as one of the most requested rooms @ The Beverly Hills Hilton is the suite with the bathtub Whitney Houston drowned/ died in
My understanding is they no longer sell the suite
I had the pleasure of staying in it prior to her passing.It had nice privacy on the balcony.
Many dying to stay in it ;) :)
I’ll take ghosts any day over rats and insects!
I’m booked at the HKG Ritz, time to google and see what the comments are referring to!!
I'm not inclined to stay at the Mandalay Bay in LAS.
Just too much evil/suffering associated with that location...
When I was a young nursing student doing over night shifts I learned in a startling manner that hospitals are haunted. Places of transition; birth and death. I feel the same way about hotels. There is a lot of very interesting energy and of course people do "transition" in hotels.
There is much to this. In my experience.
If one lives in a house that is more than a hundred years old, it is almost certain that there have been births and deaths within the house - before the 1930s those events did not generally happen in hospitals.
Across the whole world, 30% of deaths still happen at home.
And frankly I hope to die at home rather than in a hospital with tubes connected. But not in pain.
The proportion of housing pre 1919 in UK is 21%; pre 1925 in USA is 12%.
Some years ago we stayed at a historic hotel in northern California just after memorial day, and there were only two rooms occupied in the entire place including ours. There was a distinct "Overlook" feel to it, although I can report that the bartender was very much alive, the booze was definitely real, and there were no unsettling apparitions in the men's room.
Hotels will frequently renovate the floor or at least renumber the rooms when there is a high profile gruesome event.
Otherwise, any older building where a lot of people pass through is going to have some nasty incidents. You can't really avoid that unless you only stay at newly built hotels
And none of this has anything to do with being introverted, or even introspective.
True. For example, every large hotel in Vegas will have multiple suicides per year, and has a protocol for dealing with them.
For obvious reasons, they don't really publicize this.
I once stayed a hotel where someone was later murdered. It was in NYC. I didn't stay there again but that was probably because the room rate wasn't so good.
Comfort Inn, 31 W. 71st St., New York
https://nypost.com/2016/01/27/death-after-extreme-sexual-behavior-ruled-homicide/
A 41-year-old New Jersey man’s death in an Upper West Side hotel back in June was originally blamed on drug-fueled sadomasochism gone wrong — but now it has been reclassified as a homicide,...
I once stayed a hotel where someone was later murdered. It was in NYC. I didn't stay there again but that was probably because the room rate wasn't so good.
Comfort Inn, 31 W. 71st St., New York
https://nypost.com/2016/01/27/death-after-extreme-sexual-behavior-ruled-homicide/
A 41-year-old New Jersey man’s death in an Upper West Side hotel back in June was originally blamed on drug-fueled sadomasochism gone wrong — but now it has been reclassified as a homicide, police sources tell The Post.
It was foul play, not sex play, with a pair of lovers who wrapped his head in plastic wrap that led to the death of Paul Dawson, of Asbury Park.
“Two males who were with him wrapped him in plastic wrap during an S&M session,” one law enforcement source said of Dawson, who died at 9 a.m. June 9 in a room at the Comfort Inn at 31 W. 71st St. near Central Park, the sources said.
In January 2010, Mossad killed Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh of Hamas in Room 230 of the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai.
I had lived on the same corridor of that hotel for 4 weeks about 18 months earlier.
That would not stop me going back there.
So what happened at the Ritz-Carlton Santiago?
Perhaps a picture of the Grand Hyatt Bangkok would be more appropriate?
Does this mean the Grand Hyatt Bangkok is off limits for you?
The Richardson Hotel in Buffalo is built within an old mental asylum. And not just any mental asylum, one that’s so iconic and chilling looking it was used as a template for asylums in computer games. Not just that, the hotel only takes up a small part of the former asylum and the empty asylum, with cobwebs and abandoned wheelchairs along dusty corridors, remains as is either side of it. It’s fascinating. But I stayed...
The Richardson Hotel in Buffalo is built within an old mental asylum. And not just any mental asylum, one that’s so iconic and chilling looking it was used as a template for asylums in computer games. Not just that, the hotel only takes up a small part of the former asylum and the empty asylum, with cobwebs and abandoned wheelchairs along dusty corridors, remains as is either side of it. It’s fascinating. But I stayed there and never got a bad vibe. It’s actually kind of cosy but full of character.
In this context, ignorance is bliss. I intend to stay that way.
Not specifically tied to a hotel.
There was a story of this one person who came back from the dead and have been haunting us for almost 2000 years.
Stop putting yourself down. That's our job. And yes, it does feel like you've been around 2000 years too long..
Are you the baptist or apostle?
Either, I can't take credit for being your messiah. I'm not.
I'm just here to enlighten brainwashed hypocrites.
If I'm really a supreme being, I won't run dark experiment on my subjects and call it a test of faith or part my bigger plans.
I can guarantee you Trump or Biden for sure isn't part of my plans.
I love old historic hotels, warts and all and knowing full well, like humans they have an important past. I also try never to dwelling on unfortunate events. Bally's in Vegas ( once the MGM grand had a fire that killed a lot of people ) and I stayed there many times untroubled. However if one is looking for haunted, try the Glacier Park Lodge in Montana. My stay included doors that would open and...
I love old historic hotels, warts and all and knowing full well, like humans they have an important past. I also try never to dwelling on unfortunate events. Bally's in Vegas ( once the MGM grand had a fire that killed a lot of people ) and I stayed there many times untroubled. However if one is looking for haunted, try the Glacier Park Lodge in Montana. My stay included doors that would open and close without human help. After a few days a cleansing ritual was quietly held by by the Blackfeet tribe employees for another room. Not mine. I have wondered what the heck went on there!
I do believe that some places (and people) give off a negative vibe that's just our sensitivity to things you cannot articulate. Likely an atavistic vestige.
Sounds like you've met Montana's wendigo (or at the very least, a good prankster).
I've stayed in a (gorgeous) Shangri La Colombo recently and on my third night while eating breakfast with my family decided to actually read about the hotel. Turns out it was a sight of a massive terror attack with dozens killed (the breakfast area was blown to shreds at 9am on the Easter Sunday). The days I was reading that was two days before Easter and, while there was no logical reason for that, I've...
I've stayed in a (gorgeous) Shangri La Colombo recently and on my third night while eating breakfast with my family decided to actually read about the hotel. Turns out it was a sight of a massive terror attack with dozens killed (the breakfast area was blown to shreds at 9am on the Easter Sunday). The days I was reading that was two days before Easter and, while there was no logical reason for that, I've spent the next few days feeling really uncomfortable about going to breakfast. So can totally relate to Ben's sentiment.
I've stayed at the Taj in Mumbai a few times since the 2008 terrorist incident, and haven't been bothered in the least.
Would I stay in a haunted hotel? If it's cheap enough, I'll happily haunt it myself!
I would not stay in a haunted hotel, because I could not. No such thing has been shown to exist.
Don't Cross The Streams.
This was a fun read. It reminds me of a meme I saw recently asking why ghosts are always 7 year old Victorian-era girls wailing in the night. And why we never see early 2000s ghosts dressed for the club screaming "IT'S BRITNEY B*TCH!"
Honestly, if I knew a hotel was haunted by the latter ghost, I'd be much more likely to stay there.
PS - in all seriousness, I've stayed in plenty of...
This was a fun read. It reminds me of a meme I saw recently asking why ghosts are always 7 year old Victorian-era girls wailing in the night. And why we never see early 2000s ghosts dressed for the club screaming "IT'S BRITNEY B*TCH!"
Honestly, if I knew a hotel was haunted by the latter ghost, I'd be much more likely to stay there.
PS - in all seriousness, I've stayed in plenty of "haunted" hotels (mostly in Europe) and never once felt bad juju or energy or whatever. I will actively avoid hotels where gruesome things have happened, though.
I've stayed multiple times at the Skirvin Hilton in OKC - which is purported to be haunted. It's a beautiful old hotel.
Multiple sports teams have had interesting things happen there though. And many teams will not stay there as a result. Ron Artest (of NBA fame) has the most bizarre experience. Look it up.
I fully confess that I Google hotels that I have never stayed at prior to check if any gruesome things have occurred there in the past. I recall staying in the past quite a bit at the Fairmont in Newport Beach (formerly Sutton Place Hotel) and discovering that a man who had stayed for a few months had been keeping dead bodies in the bathroom. Needless to say, I never went back again.
I realize this is most likely irrational - but there it is.
Think how it would feel if you were the hotel owner?
Or (and this happened to a friend of mine) - you come back to your house to find that someone broke their way in and then committed suicide. Should your house now be worth significantly less?
It would be cool to expand on this. Run some stories about hotels that do have an interesting history.
Wasntnt one of the hotels on orchard road singapore, might have been the former hilton, supposed to have installed some statues to ward of spirits after a number of murders/deaths?
I don't like to stay at The Liberty Hotel in Boston for this reason. It makes me uncomfortable to have fun in a building where so many people suffered.
I also learned about the fatal collapse at the Sheraton Kansas City (back when it was the Hyatt Regency) after staying there but probably would avoid it in the future as a result.
This summarizes my approach too. I don't hold any structured spiritual views but I do relate to the idea of perceiving some kind of 'energy'. Fortunately, I've never felt any kind of bad energy coming from a specific place (e.g., a room). Although, I have met people whose energy have struck me as negative in a really...
This summarizes my approach too. I don't hold any structured spiritual views but I do relate to the idea of perceiving some kind of 'energy'. Fortunately, I've never felt any kind of bad energy coming from a specific place (e.g., a room). Although, I have met people whose energy have struck me as negative in a really eerie way.
There's also the issue of other unfortunate events happening that one might never learn about. For example, the very sad instances of people taking their own lives at their hotel rooms. This is why I try not to give much thought to these things because the more we think about them, the easier it is to go down the rabbit hole.
I highly favor hotels that are very, very quite. No noise from the hallways or other rooms. As long as the ghosts are quite I'm perfectly ok with them.
The Hong Kong Ritz Carlton is one infamous for multiple gruesome murders and suicides, it is infamously known for being a cursed hotel. Yet it has a fantastic view from the room ( easily one of the best in the world) and amazing breakfast so I consistently like staying there during leisure visits
I also checked into a room once where at night there was loud banging and moaning coming from the room next door :D
I've actually stayed at the Hotel Cecil in LA (during it's time under "Stay on Main" branding) several times when I was still a high school and college student. That was before that poor girl with severe mental issues wandered her way into the water tank, but I also had no idea when we first booked it that it had the pre-2000s history it did. The hotel was weird in a lot of ways, but...
I've actually stayed at the Hotel Cecil in LA (during it's time under "Stay on Main" branding) several times when I was still a high school and college student. That was before that poor girl with severe mental issues wandered her way into the water tank, but I also had no idea when we first booked it that it had the pre-2000s history it did. The hotel was weird in a lot of ways, but none in the spiritual or ghostly sense from my experience. Not knowing anything other than the price helped a lot lol, we were on a tight budget and wanted to be relatively close to the convention center, and the Cecil was the best deal around.
I avoid hotels with bad wifi, does that count, cos its pretty scary! :D
*This* is the spirit I'm concerned about!
Brilliant piece, Ben :-) I'm totally with you on skipping a night in murder suites or places where the wallpaper has absorbed more screams than steam. But now you've got us all curious (and perhaps slightly paranoid)… Might I cheekily suggest a follow-up? A “OMAAT Blacklist” of hotels to absolutely avoid if one prefers their sheets ghost-free — and for the more adventurous souls, a companion “Boo-tique Collection” for those who fancy a whispering presence...
Brilliant piece, Ben :-) I'm totally with you on skipping a night in murder suites or places where the wallpaper has absorbed more screams than steam. But now you've got us all curious (and perhaps slightly paranoid)… Might I cheekily suggest a follow-up? A “OMAAT Blacklist” of hotels to absolutely avoid if one prefers their sheets ghost-free — and for the more adventurous souls, a companion “Boo-tique Collection” for those who fancy a whispering presence or a spectral spooning during the night ...LOL
You could even add a spirit-rating system:
= Mild haunting (friendly Victorian child giggles)
= Full-blown séance (bring sage and spare underwear)
Think of it as a public service... or at least a very entertaining cautionary tale.
I had a client tell me he was certain that part of the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku was haunted and this man is in no way theatrical or dramatic so I did believe him. Regaridng gruesome crimes, does anyone know if the Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok is making the pool villa available from the cyanide poisonings last year? That would absolutely be a no go for me. Same for the Ritz Carlton HKG and...
I had a client tell me he was certain that part of the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku was haunted and this man is in no way theatrical or dramatic so I did believe him. Regaridng gruesome crimes, does anyone know if the Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok is making the pool villa available from the cyanide poisonings last year? That would absolutely be a no go for me. Same for the Ritz Carlton HKG and Bali. Both had terrible things happen there as well. On the flip side many people want to stay in the room at the former Ritz Double Bay where Michael Hutchencense (sp?) past. Very weird but defo not on my list of places to stay.
In 1983, a famous actor named Masaya Oki jumped to his death from the 47th floor of the Keio Plaza Hotel. people have reported seeing a figure falling from the window, as well as various faces floating on the walls and floor of the basement parking lot
just came back from my stay in Keio Plaza Shinjuku of 5 nights.... glad I didn't read this comment before staying!
... or a Marriott (yikes)?!