The curious appeal of haunted hotels
AlamyEvery year around Halloween, countless hotels around the world tout their allegedly haunted status to guests – so why are both sceptics and believers booking them?
Comedienne and writer Joanna Hausmann did not believe in ghosts. She was an extreme sceptic who thought that there was a logical explanation for any supposedly supernatural phenomenon – that is, until she spent the night in the Biltmore Hotel, purportedly one of the most haunted places in Miami.
After a terrifying night, which she said included voices in the adjoining room of her suite and multiple televisions and a hair dryer that randomly turned on, her outlook on the supernatural shifted. Ever since, she pores through online forums to make sure guests have never experienced an otherworldly encounter before staying at any hotel.
"Ghosts and hauntings and that kind of thing – I did not believe in any of that," Hausmann insisted. "I'm not even joking [that this experience] literally altered my life. I felt like there was someone in there. I don't know what it was, but it did change me forever."
Every year around Halloween, countless hotels and attractions around the world, like the Hotel del Coranado in California or The Clermont in London, tout their allegedly haunted status to visitors looking for a spine-tingling way to spend the holiday. However, for people like Hausmann who have had a spooky encounter, the question of why anyone would want to experience a similarly frightening episode by staying at a haunted hotel is baffling.
AlamyThe Historic Hotels of America lists dozens of haunted hotels within its ranks. According to Katherine Orr, the group's director of marketing strategy and communications, these properties attract a wide range of visitors. "I would say there's a couple different kinds of guests at the haunted hotel. One would be a thrill-seeker, someone who gets excited about the idea of ghosts, maybe wants to have that kind of experience," she said. "Then I think there's another kind of guest that's more interested in the storytelling aspect of it. Because the lore, the ghost story, they're really part of what make these hotels unique."
According to Orr, exactly how a hotel manages its reputation for being haunted is very much a marketing decision. "Hotels have to find a good balance in telling those stories and finding the niche where they can reach the right audience," she said. "Then also toning down those stories when they think that their target audience wouldn't be interested."
Some establishments, like the Lord Baltimore Hotel in Maryland, embrace their haunted notoriety year round – they even employ Vince Wilson as an on-staff ghost hunter and entertainer. According to Wilson, guests have reported seeing the child ghost known as "Molly" playing with a ball in the hallways of the hotel, a lift that randomly takes itself to the 19th floor and a ghostly couple dancing silently in the ballroom. Wilson also hosts regular ghost tours that explore the hotel's spooky history, noting that the popularity (and the cost) of these tours goes up as Halloween approaches each year.
On the other hand, hotels like the Hassayampa Inn in Prescott, Arizona, keep their hauntings mostly under wraps. Though Penny Alpin, director of sales and marketing at the inn, describes the hotel's resident ghost as "very friendly" (she apparently likes to cuddle up with male guests and borrow the compact mirrors of female guests), these experiences are not something that she generally advertises outside of spooky season.
"[Halloween is] the only time I promote it," said Alpin. "A haunting is not one of the things I want to promote… why would you want to scare people?"
AlamyLee Johnson-Lowe, director of sales and marketing at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, thinks most guests of the property are either sceptics or thrill-seekers. "[There are] two kinds of people that generally go to a haunted hotel or [haunted] venue of any type," he said "[Those who say], 'I don't believe in ghosts, I need a place to stay, and this place is a luxury hotel', and people that are like 'This place is haunted? I am definitely staying there now!'"
Interestingly, even the hotel's resident ghost hunter is unsure whether ghosts are real. "I've been to some of the most haunted places in the world," said Wilson. "And I've certainly had weird, spooky, even scary experiences, but I can also look back and say, 'you know what, that could have been my imagination'."
Whether apparitions appear or not, travellers continue to seek out haunted hotels each autumn, with Johnson-Lowe noting that bookings for the Lord Baltimore spike every year as Halloween nears.
"What I always tell people who are nervous about certain locations, who do not want to have anything to do with hauntings, my opinion on that is that there's no way to avoid it so you might as well embrace it."
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