Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

[Willow]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

EVERYTHING IN THE FOLLOWING POST IS TRUE.

 

I've only read the first two pages of this thread, but I have to chime in. Apologizes if any of this info has been scooped.

 

I work full time at a hotel. Specifically, I work the night audit: in addition to running some vital paperwork, I watch the front desk from 11 PM to 7 AM. During these hours, I am the only staff member in the hotel. Yes, that means I get to deal with the crazies.

 

(Caveat to all of this: I work at a good-quality hotel- a Best Western.)

 

Here's some general principles for use of hotels.

 

They have your name on file.

 

You can't legally rent a hotel room without a legal ID. (That doesn't mean the hotel will have IDs for everyone on the room on file.) If you're paying cash, expect to have a photocopy of your drivers liscence on file in the hotel, and if you're using a credit card, they'll have an imprint. In addition, those records are fairly long term- for tax purposes, the hotel has to keep those files for at least seven years.

 

Of course, the degree of discipline in this access is another story. As the quality and price of the hotel increases, you can generally expect higher accounting discipline. Getting around this with a bribe will probably only work at lower quality hotels, or with paranormally high powers of bribery and suggestion.

 

People don't really live in hotels.

 

This is a tax purposes thing; hotels are zoned for short-term residence, not long-term residence. There are ways around this, but living in a hotel is ultimately hideously expensive. At the hotel I work at, our long term rate is usually $50 a night- which comes out to a montly rent of roughly $1500, about two to three times what a single bedroom apartment runs here in town. Sure, it comes with free room service and a free meal once a day, but it's not a good deal. Anyone living in a hotel for months at a time is both desperate, and has money to blow.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if towns that are convergences of the weird would have lax laws governing this sort of thing, allowing hotels to actually have long-term clients.

 

Hotel rooms are not particularly vampire-friendly.

 

It's hard to block out all the light (I'm a light sleeper, I've tried.) Any room modification will be poorly-looked upon by staff. Plus a vampire looking for a, say, 5 AM checkin and 7 PM checkout is potentially looking at paying for two nights, not one, or one plus a hefty surcharge, depending on the hotel's specific policies.

 

Revolving Door Staff

 

Hotel clerks require little training, and don't get paid very well. The competent ones easily find better work elsewhere should they choose to pursue it. The incompetent ones don't last either. In the last year I've trained 12 people to do my job part-time for my days off. I'd put the average job-life at around 3 months. Significantly less if you live in a supernatural world. You can have a different employee working everytime the players come in, and chalk it up to the job market- absolutly nothing sinister required! A great red herring.

 

The staff will talk.

 

If there's weird guests in the hotel, chances are the staff will gossip about them. Occasionally, even in earshot of other guests.

 

I'm on a first name basis with Johnny Law.

 

I know several night-shift policemen by name, and vice versa. If something vaguely criminal or violent goes down, I'm calling the police. (This is less likely to apply in seedier hotels that may be operating less than legally, or in places where the police is corrupt, either supernaturally or mundanely. But don't pick a fight in a nice hotel and expect no one to notice.)

 

I'll have some real life creepy guest anecdotes soon, but I just wanted to share some pearls of wisdom.

[Willow]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

THE FOLLOWING PERSON IS REAL.

 

The downright strangest guest I've ever encounted was 'Robin.' I don't know her last name, and if I did, I wouldn't share it. We didn't have any kind of official documentation on file for her.

 

How'd she manage that one? The room was being paid for by someone else- alledgedly her employer. We had a credit card imprint and photocopy of an ID on file for him, and the room was in his name.

 

Anyway, Robin was staying day-to-day. She didn't seem sure of when she was going to check out, and everyday would come down with $69 in cash to register her room for another night.

 

(I doubt very much she was a prostitute, btw.)

 

Here's some general oddities about her.

 

*Nobody was really sure what her last name was. She had called herself by multiple different last names, and I could never really remember what it was.

*Nobody was really sure exactly why she was staying there. Alledgedly it had something to do with her work setting up a new office, and her needing a place to stay. It's my opinion that she wasn't mentally stable enough to hold any kind of extended job. There were also stories of problems with her family.

*She was constantly recieving incoming phone calls, from multiple different people. (I know because they have to be routed through the front desk at our hotel.)

*She was occasionally accusing random guests, or people who may or may not be imaginary of stalking her. She'd often call down to say that someone was outside her room, or a strange vehicle was outside her window. When I checked, there wouldn't be anything.

*General high wierdness in any conversation with her.

*I was called up to her room once to kick some random guy out of her room. He was just about as wierd as she was.

*She once asked me if it was a full moon, and seem relieved when I said I thought it wasn't.

*She once asked me very nervously if I was familiar with 'remote viewing.' I told her I was familiar with the term. She then got very quiet.

*She often told me she had psychic powers. She would occasionally tell me that she was having a good feeling or a bad feeling about something.

*She confessed to me once that she wasn't taking her medications. I told her she should go back on them, and she acted surprised and said, "you know, that's a wise idea." The next morning I called the guy who was paying for the room and told him that if she didn't go back on her meds, she'd be kicked out of the hotel. He was pretty concerned.

 

She FINALLY ended up getting kicked out because she got behind on her room payments and we had to bill her alledged employer's credit card for the balance. He freaked out and threatened to sue us. It's our policy not to rent rooms to people who threaten us with lawsuits.

 

She ended up checking into a hotel owned by the same owners (not a Best Western), and with some of the same staff. Apparently that hotel *does* have a policy of renting rooms to people that threaten us with lawsuits.

[Mike Dean]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

THE FOLLOWING PERSON IS REAL.

 

Sounds like more than a few of the hangers-on from my old gaming club...

 

Mike

[McCoy]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

It's our policy not to rent rooms to people who threaten us with lawsuits.

If you don't want to be sued, I recomend against advertising that you discriminate against people who pursue their First Amendment Rights (" . . . the right of the people . . . to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.)

 

She ended up checking into a hotel owned by the same owners (not a Best Western)' date=' and with some of the same staff. Apparently that hotel *does* have a policy of renting rooms to people that threaten us with lawsuits. [/quote']

So your defense would be that it's not actually a policy.

[McCoy]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

People don't really live in hotels.

 

This is a tax purposes thing; hotels are zoned for short-term residence, not long-term residence. There are ways around this, but living in a hotel is ultimately hideously expensive. At the hotel I work at, our long term rate is usually $50 a night- which comes out to a montly rent of roughly $1500, about two to three times what a single bedroom apartment runs here in town. Sure, it comes with free room service and a free meal once a day, but it's not a good deal. Anyone living in a hotel for months at a time is both desperate, and has money to blow.

Yet in many cities there are "Residence Hotels," and people willing to pay above market for the housekeeping and upgraded security. Like Number Three Son, who just renewed his year's lease on his Fourth Avenue hotel room. (Personally, I think the room would make a nice walk in closet. I could see it as a pied à terre, but not as a primary residence.)

["V"]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

John

 

Arrived in the hotel just a few days ago. Although he gives his name as John Smith he is quite obviously of Middle Eastern extraction, a heavily set man in his late middle age, with closely cropped dark hair. Thick stubble shows he is capable of growing a good beard but it looks recently shaved. He is currently more or less confined to a wheelchair, wearing a surgical neck brace, and is attended to every other day by a pair of unapproachable Americans who deflect any and all questions about the new guest other than to say he suffered a spinal injury and is recuperating.

 

John is obviously reluctant to talk to members of the hotel staff and pretty much abuses them until they leave his room on the odd occasion that there has been a need to take something to him when his carers aren't present.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

I wouldn't be surprised if towns that are convergences of the weird would have lax laws governing this sort of thing' date=' allowing hotels to actually have long-term clients.[/quote']Or there are more businesses such as Extended Stay America http://www.extendedstayamerica.com/ (It wouldn't surprise me if, even in our reality, they're under a different tax code than 'real' hotels).

 

Plus a vampire looking for a' date=' say, 5 AM checkin and 7 PM checkout is potentially looking at paying for two nights, not one, or one plus a hefty surcharge, depending on the hotel's specific policies.[/quote']Heh. I've managed the 5am checkin by coming in on a day the hotel was not overbooked and asking nicely (it's amazing what a difference tone makes). I've never managed a 7pm checkout without being charged for an additional day. The best you can generally do is get them to agree to lock up your luggage until you come get it.

 

Revolving Door Staff

 

Hotel clerks require little training, and don't get paid very well. The competent ones easily find better work elsewhere should they choose to pursue it. The incompetent ones don't last either. In the last year I've trained 12 people to do my job part-time for my days off. I'd put the average job-life at around 3 months. Significantly less if you live in a supernatural world. You can have a different employee working every time the players come in, and chalk it up to the job market- absolutely nothing sinister required! A great red herring.

Out of curiosity, does that hold for management as well? I can't count how many times conventions I've been associated with have lost hotels because management rotated without warning and the new manager freaked out/refused to honor the signed contract/etc/. It almost seems like you can never deal with the same hotel management for more than three years running?

 

If you don't want to be sued' date=' I recommend against advertising that you discriminate against people who pursue their First Amendment Rights (" . . . the right of the people . . . to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.)[/quote']

 

I suspect the policy is to avoid renting to folks who threaten to sue over the hotel exercising its legal rights (such as billing a credit card number after the owner signed it as a payment guarantee.) You know, lawsuit threats on this general order. If a potential customer has already announced once that he does not intend to honor his signed contract, I think the hotel is right to be wary.

[Curufea]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

96 guests in the hotel now

["V"]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Peter Simmons

 

An elderly man who, though now frailer than in his youth, shows that he once had a good physique. He dresses conservatively but not ostentatiously and is relatively social - happy to mix with other guests in the public areas of the hotel. He never seems to go out, but is happy to talk with almost anyone - in fact he's a bit of a fishing bore so anyone with the slightest interest in angling is likely to get buttonholed for hours on end. He also enjoys tv sports including wrestling ("Of course it's not real, but it's very good," he will say happily, "I think Stone Cold Steve Austin should run for president. Heh heh."). He drinks socially in the bar, but never to excess. He has a gift of making people feel comfortable about him largely because of his forthright (but never rude) manner.

 

In fact there seems to be very little unusual about him, except his occasional visitors. Every so often a bewildered individual will approach the hotel nervously and ask to speak with Peter. Peter will grumble his way down from whatever he was doing and greet the newcomer warmly, asking his/her name but never shaking their hand. He'll then ask the porter on duty for his "bag" from the hotel safe and, this received, will enter the elevator with the visitor.

 

What happens next is largely a mystery, but the newcomer doesn't come downstairs again. Peter does, some time later, and hands his bag (a long leather pouch containing something hard) over to the porter on duty again. Then he goes back to business as usual.

 

Some hints: Other patrons have occasionally caught glimpses of what happens next. One entered the elevator interrupting a conversation between Peter and his guest about a man who fell from a high building. Another saw Peter taking his visitor through a door marked "Staff Only" on the very top floor (which they were later unable to locate themselves). One of the porters in defiance of strict policy peeked inside the leather bag and found it contained a long iron key. Oh, and the day of the nasty automobile pile up on the nearest freeway a whole minibus of people arrived for Peter.

 

--

 

 

Peter is of course Saint Peter, or possibly just a local franchise psychopomp (escorter of the dead) - the Pearly Gates (or their local connection) are located at the top of the hotel and the keys thereof are stored in the night safe. Mischief could abound if the keys fell into the wrong hands. What would Peter do if someone stole that big old book of names from his room? And why is there a similarly elusive door in the basement near the furnace?

 

 

NB- I just woke up with this idea and thought I'd contribute it - so far I haven't read all the entries, so if mine is similar to something already suggested I apologise

[Willow]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Out of curiosity, does that hold for management as well? I can't count how many times conventions I've been associated with have lost hotels because management rotated without warning and the new manager freaked out/refused to honor the signed contract/etc/. It almost seems like you can never deal with the same hotel management for more than three years running?

 

Not to the extent it will for front desk personnel. But the hospitality industry does not pay very well.

 

To pull some numbers out of my personal experience, which may not be representative of the industry as a whole, the average front desk manager lasts about eight months to a year, the average cafe manager lasts a few years. I suspect general managers are like professional sports coaches- they last either a few years, or they're there as long as they like. Our accountant has worked here forever. I can't count the number of maintenance supervisors we've gone through.

 

The housekeepers, who are all hispanic, have remarkably steady employment.

[oroborous]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

The Rain Man: a fellow in his early 30's rather ordinary looking. It's just that every time he goes out the hotel's doors, he get hit with water. It can be a suddenly-broken hydrant, a splashed puddle, kids playing with water pistols, --- whatever. He'll get wet. Maybe a sprikle, maybe a drenching. It always happens.

 

Unless it's already raining; in that case, the rain stops until he's no longer visible from the hotel's front windows. Then the rain starts back up.

 

He doesn't seem to care if he gets wet, and if the "coincidence" is pointed out to him, he'll seem surprised but uninterested.

 

BTW, if it's snowing when he goes out the door, the snow suddenly turns to rain. Ditto hail/sleet.

 

Wasn't there a guy like this in the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy or one of those other Douglas Adams books?

[Curufea]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Wasn't there a guy like this in the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy or one of those other Douglas Adams books?

 

I believe he was in Dirk Gently's Hollistic Detective Agency book.

[oroborous]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

I just thought of a creepy reoccuring event:

 

In the area where they have their continental breakfast, there is one table that has a brownish stain on it. When the PC notices it, it looks vaguely like a handprint, and has the consistancy of a coffee stain. If the PC tries to wash it away, it comes up with a little elbow grease, but the next day it is back, possibly a little darker. If someone takes the initiative to cover it with a light-colored tablecloth, the portion of the tablecloth over the stain is immediately saturated with fresh blood.

[Lucius]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

I just thought of a creepy reoccuring event:

 

In the area where they have their continental breakfast, there is one table that has a brownish stain on it. When the PC notices it, it looks vaguely like a handprint, and has the consistancy of a coffee stain. If the PC tries to wash it away, it comes up with a little elbow grease, but the next day it is back, possibly a little darker. If someone takes the initiative to cover it with a light-colored tablecloth, the portion of the tablecloth over the stain is immediately saturated with fresh blood.

 

Which explains why the staff never cover that table with a tablecloth...

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Following the footprints of a palindromedary

[The Mad GM]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Has everyone seen the trailer for 1408?

 

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31366

[Curufea]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Looks good. Also reminds me of Silent Hill 4.

[Susano]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Has everyone seen the trailer for 1408?

 

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31366

 

Uhm.... uhm....

 

yeah....

[AlHazred]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Uhm.... uhm....

 

yeah....

I'm going to have to go with Mike on this one.

 

Uhm... Yeah...

[Susano]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

I'm going to have to go with Mike on this one.

 

Uhm... Yeah...

 

I will admit, 1408 is one of the most unsettling things I have ever read.

[Curufea]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

I will admit' date=' [i']1408[/i] is one of the most unsettling things I have ever read.

 

I'm not a King fan (too unoriginal). However I thought Misery wasn't bad.

[Haven Walkur]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

I thought "1408" was one of the very few later works of Stephen King that still had the power to chill. The voice on the phone...that brought a little frisson of fright across the back of the neck, especially when I had to then get out of bed in the dark and walk to the bathroom.

 

That said, the promotional clip for the movie version of "1408" looks formulaic and overblown in the extreme. Go for neat effects when you have to pad a too-meagre storyline out to full movie length.

 

The preview of "1408" reminded me strongly of that recent abortion, the remake of "The Haunting."

 

The original 1960s version, in black-and-white, was based on a novel by Shirley Jackson, and was one of the most sheerly frightening horror movies I've ever seen. Terror and suspense, the lines between reality and fantasy blurring -- and the blood, gore and body-count was precisely ZERO.

 

The movie didn't need any of that.

 

Not when the slow turning of a doorknob with a cherub's face on it -- coupled with a sudden cry from one of the heroines; "Oh my God, did you lock the door? Did you lock the door?" -- was all you needed to practically make you wet yourself -- because you didn't know if that door was locked either.

 

The remake was farcical. Lumbering special effects monsters rampaging all over the house, hordes of "sweet little innocent spirits" bound to the big baddie that must be saved, blood, guts and gore in all directions -- and no hint of the delicate, terrifying "bad place" haunting that appeared in the book and the first movie.

 

The remake featured plot complications, nonsense extraneous features and plot holes like the Crater Lake (only not as scenic). And when the poor abused house finally perished in a CGI orgy of destruction, you could almost hear Hill House's sigh of relief..."At lasssst the pain is over...."

 

I confidently expect to see all of those sterling techniques showcased so successfully {a little sarcasm there, for you literal-minded readers} in the remake of "The Haunting" employed again in the movie version of "1408".

 

Oh come ON! Extraneous subplot involving tragically dead little girl and obsessed and grief-stricken father; reappearance of daughter's innocent little spirit inside the cursed hotel room; major mobilization of CGI effects once inside the room; involvement of more and more people in the situation....

 

The great strength of the story version of "1408" was that it was about a man alone, completely isolated, and the effects he experienced were initially subtle, so subtle that he dismissed them. And even as the manifestations escalated, there was still the suggestion they might just have been delusions or hallucinations, the classic "stressed mind playing tricks on you." The terror of suggestion, of ambiguity, of things seen from the corner of the eye and dismissed -- that was what made the story so damn creepy.

 

That -- and the sense of "something coming", something hot and burning and buzzing like an electric razor given the power of speech; something coming THAT NEVER ACTUALLY GOT THERE!

 

That scared me.

 

But Hollywood these days doesn't believe in making the effort to create terror by means of the "something is coming" trope. No, Hollywood wants the full-on horror of "something's already here and boy is it pissed." Hollywood wants to give you an explicit look at "the thing" as it slashes -- shreds -- exsanguinates -- eviscerates -- and finally decapitates a horde of characters whose names the audience will never need to know.

 

Hey, that's entertainment, right?

 

Well, if you think that's the case, then I suspect you will thoroughly enjoy the movie version of "1408".

 

But if you, like me, still distinguish between terror and horror, between the shivers created by what is suggested and what is splattered all over the screen in glorious Technicolor CGI, then stay away from this one.

 

Oh, it might make a good popcorn movie or rental, and it might even make you jump a few times, but it won't scare you any more than the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man battle in "Ghostbusters" did...and that's a pretty pathetic commentary on a movie based on a very tense and creepy story.

 

 

Have you tried adding up the numerals in the the cursed hotel room's room number?

 

[Lucius]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

And some people don't think they're missing anything by not reading books.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

But just try creeping up behind a palindromedary....

[Susano]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Have you tried adding up the numerals in the the cursed hotel room's room number?

 

Been there, done that!

[Curufea]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

The great strength of the story version of "1408" was that it was about a man alone, completely isolated, and the effects he experienced were initially subtle, so subtle that he dismissed them. And even as the manifestations escalated, there was still the suggestion they might just have been delusions or hallucinations, the classic "stressed mind playing tricks on you." The terror of suggestion, of ambiguity, of things seen from the corner of the eye and dismissed -- that was what made the story so damn creepy.

 

That -- and the sense of "something coming", something hot and burning and buzzing like an electric razor given the power of speech; something coming THAT NEVER ACTUALLY GOT THERE!

 

That scared me.

 

Damnit! Now I'm going to have to go and read it!

[Susano]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Damnit! Now I'm going to have to go and read it!

 

You can find it in Everything's Eventual, which has several very fine short stories. The first one, about a boy who meets the devil while fishing, is also very good.