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Haunted Hotels & Hotel Ghost Encounters (IHTM)

Hmm dunno SB it was something I kind of like the low key stuff.
It must happen every day to people but they don’t notice it
 
We stayed in the Brecon Beacons a couple of years ago- the Castle Hotel was closed- this was during the pandemic. The only reference to it being haunted was in their literature, nothing in local guidebooks.

However the area around has a definite sense of ODD. there are some spectacular caves with a sort of history/archaeology park attached complete with some big dinosaurs in the bushes. Not being aware of this I had quite a shock walking the dog in the evening.
The History park has some life size figures, which seem to move during the night. I managed to almost convince myself it was the staff, tidying up, but still a bit unsettling.

There's a WW II bomber wreck on the hills nearby, very uneasy atmosphere around it. Glad we found the site, relieved to get away.

Definitely worth visit.
 
SimonBurchell said:
Over the last week I spent 3 nights with my wife at the reputedly-haunted Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton; it is a fine regency building built in 1826 and now a little worse-for-wear. We had been expecting foreign visitors to arrive early on Monday at Gatwick and had spent the night there - however, their last-leg flight in had been cancelled by Easyjet, so we were left in a quandary, not being able to stay at Gatwick again (the hotel had filled up), but wanting to be somewhere close enough to get there quickly. A few minutes on lastminute.com and I had booked a room at the Royal Albion for less than 50 quid, almost unheard of these days. Since it was a last minute room, we ended up in a basement room (not so bad at this time of year - we were on the seafront until gone 10pm, and out early in torrential rain to be back up to Gatwick by 8am to meet our incoming visitors). The basement, according to my books, is supposed to be the most haunted area. The room felt oppressive when I first entered, but this may have been down to slight feelings of claustrophobia. The feeling of oppression quickly faded, and we spent an uninterrupted night in the room. On Thursday, with our visitors due to fly out in the evening, I booked a room at the same hotel for another two nights (Thursday/Friday), and this time we hit jackpot with a fine and quirky room up in the attic level, with view over the pier and seafront, and a wooden staircase leading up to a little mezzanine with another bed and balcony railings. Again, nothing of note happened except the first morning when we headed out I turned off all the lights and double checked they were all off. A short while later I returned to the room (no more than 10 minutes or so), and the main light was switched on, which was a little odd, since the room was otherwise the same as I had left it and no staff were in evidence. So there you go, three nights in a haunted hotel, and nothing of note happened (unless you count the light switch).
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The Royal Albion Hotel is now looking even more worse-for-wear. It's currently on fire. 12 fire engines in attendance. It also had a major fire about 25 years ago.

I wonder what happens to the ghosts if the building burns down?
 
SimonBurchell said:
I was only there a week ago!
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The fire started on the 4th floor. Which floors did you stay on?

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23658165.brightons-royal-albion-hotel-fire/

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Paul_Exeter said:
Good grief the comments make for interesting reading... But apparently there was a fire there 16 years ago too...?
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It was 1998, not 2007.

The fire is still burning believe it or not. Now the building's facade is going to be knocked down in the morning. A sad end to a 200 year old building even though it was in desperate need of a renovation.

I do wonder what will happen too the ghosts that supposedly haunted the place? Do they simply carry on haunting the space where the building was?
 
There have been more than a few of the better hauntings and poltergeist cases that were in relatively modern buildings that had been built on farmland.

On the flip side, in the 1980s the owners of the Park Hotel in Barnstaple purchased the site of a former hospital wing to turn into a detached annexe of bedrooms , The housekeeping staff immediately reported malevolent poltergeist activity. No-one was fooling around here, they reported being pushed by unseen hands and doors and drawers slamming shut whilst they were on their own in the rooms. The owners discretely called in the church and I got the feeling it wasn't the first time one of their 10 hotels had thrown up this 'problem'.

So I guess there is no straightforward answer...!
 
Eyespy said:
Hotels are subject to pretty strict regulations for fire safety. Two serious fires in 16 years is not good.
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But when you consider the sheer number of people who are in and out (and factor in the general stupidity of the human race), I think it's a wonder that there aren't more fires from people smoking in rooms they aren't supposed to and therefore setting light to things, lighting candles, various other ridiculous things. Hotels have sprinkler systems and other fire precautions, but that doesn't mean they always work as they should. The Royal Clarence Hotel in Exeter (built around 1766) burned down in 2016, despite being a very expensive and well-regulated place - because the building next door caught fire and it swept through the two buildings.
 
catseye said:
But when you consider the sheer number of people who are in and out (and factor in the general stupidity of the human race), I think it's a wonder that there aren't more fires from people smoking in rooms they aren't supposed to and therefore setting light to things, lighting candles, various other ridiculous things. Hotels have sprinkler systems and other fire precautions, but that doesn't mean they always work as they should. The Royal Clarence Hotel in Exeter (built around 1766) burned down in 2016, despite being a very expensive and well-regulated place - because the building next door caught fire and it swept through the two buildings.
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All started by a builder's heat lamp in a room above the shop next door, rather like the Windsor Castle fire being started by a
an uplighter next to a curtain.

Yet try to light a charcoal barbecue with a can of lighter fluid and half a box of matches...
 
catseye said:
But when you consider the sheer number of people who are in and out (and factor in the general stupidity of the human race), I think it's a wonder that there aren't more fires from people smoking in rooms they aren't supposed to and therefore setting light to things, lighting candles, various other ridiculous things. Hotels have sprinkler systems and other fire precautions, but that doesn't mean they always work as they should. The Royal Clarence Hotel in Exeter (built around 1766) burned down in 2016, despite being a very expensive and well-regulated place - because the building next door caught fire and it swept through the two buildings.
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And the site is still a mess. They've finally decided to knock it down where previously they were trying to save at least the facade.
 
bugmum said:
And the site is still a mess. They've finally decided to knock it down where previously they were trying to save at least the facade.
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Oh that's sad. It was such a historic site, I guess it's just unsaveable.

My friend's brother used to be the pastry chef there and we sometimes used to get free coffees if we dodged in when he was working.
 
I've just seen this on Facebook.
It's a recent email exchange between a hotel guest and the management after the guest was told off by the hotel manager for making too much noise.

When the guest later apologised to a Reception staff member, they were told that no such manager had been on the premises.
Guest then emailed the hotel to ask about this in case someone was pretending to be a manager. The hotel replied that the encounter had been recorded on CCTV but the cameras had not found the 'manager' anywhere else on the premises.

We need to track this place down. If true, it's gold. :cool:

Edit - the full story is given a couple of posts further down.
WELL worth a read. :omg:

I'll add that CCTV is problematic when it comes to ghosts.
Sometimes a figure is recorded standing beside a person who can't see it: other times a figure has allegedly been seen by a reliable witness but isn't on the CCTV.
I've personally been given accounts of both these examples by people I trust.
 

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escargot said:
A Facebook comment says it's a branch of the Blackrose pub chain.
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Thanks - just arrived at that conclusion myself! (see edit above) - the link goes to a list of their pubs. Looking at the first letter, I would say either "The Lambton Arms", "The Lochside", or "The Elephant".
 
Here's the Facebook post, which I missed on my phone as I was so eager to look at the picture. Oops.

It's on the Facebook True Ghost Stories page.

A long one but I promise this is worth the read. It happened about a month ago.

Me and my boyfriend were staying at a pub-hotel in a market town in the north east of england. We had got into a little bit of an argument around 9pm-ish that lasted a few minutes, i walked to the door and stood half in the corridor half out the door telling my boyfriend i was leaving. So i went to go sit in my car in the carpark.

When I returned to the room after 5 minutes my boyfriend told me that we were in trouble with the manager for being noisy.

He told me that as soon as I had left the room the manager had knocked and told him off for making a noise, saying that he had received two different complaints from other guests about the noise we had been making.

Before we'd checked out the next morning, i was looking out the window and saw a young couple also leaving and wondered if it had been them who we'd annoyed and who had complained. We went out for breakfast and things about the complaint didnt add up to me.

For one thing, we werent THAT loud and hadnt been arguing for even that long before i went out to my car. So how had 2 people managed to complain and for that complaint to go straight to the manager all in the space of the minute or so that the manager knocked on our door?

I concluded to my boyfriend that the manager must've just heard us himself and made it up that two different guests had complained.

Fast forward to the afternoon of the day we checked out and we unexpectedly needed to book another night at this pub/hotel as trains were cancelled. While i was out somewhere my boyfriend went back to the pub and checked us in for another night. He apologised for us being noisy the night before to the woman who was checking us in again.

The woman said she hadnt known about us having made a noise and my boyfriend told her that the manager had knocked on our door last night and told him off. The woman member of staff said that it was odd because the only staff they have on at night was the chef and the young male bartender, and neither of them go upstairs, and that their manager was a woman with blonde hair - not a man. The man who knocked on our door had looked in his 60s with gelled back salt and pepper hair and was a bit mean.

The female member of staff said she doesnt know who this man was, none of the staff do, but that other guests have also told her the same - that a man had knocked on their door complaining about the noise, implying to be the manager.

My boyfriend asked who else had stayed there but was told that us and the other young couple i saw leaving were the only guests last night. This left us questioning who on earth the man was who knocked on our door pretending to be the manager...

So that night we were feeling quite creeped out. We were in a different room that was just opposite the one we'd previously stayed in. Anyway, we forgot about it all eventually and were having a bit of a laugh again when a really hard knock on our door rang out. We both stared at each other in silence for a second.

My heart sank and i was telling my bf not to answer because it was that man again. He of course answered anyway. The door was about 2-3ft from the bed we were on. He opened the door to an empty corridor- of which we were at the very end of. It was a long straight creaky corridor. Well, we were terrified by now.

The next day - last thursday - my boyfriend emailed the pub explaining the situation and saying we were concerned a weird stranger was knocking on doors in their hotel. We gave them the exact times of both incidents and asked them to check their cctv cameras - one of which was right next to both rooms we'd stayed in. A few days later the manageress replied to his email with this.
 
escargot said:
Here's the Facebook post, which I missed on my phone as I was so eager to look at the picture. Oops.

It's on the Facebook True Ghost Stories page.

A long one but I promise this is worth the read. It happened about a month ago.

Me and my boyfriend were staying at a pub-hotel in a market town in the north east of england. We had got into a little bit of an argument around 9pm-ish that lasted a few minutes, i walked to the door and stood half in the corridor half out the door telling my boyfriend i was leaving. So i went to go sit in my car in the carpark.

When I returned to the room after 5 minutes my boyfriend told me that we were in trouble with the manager for being noisy.

He told me that as soon as I had left the room the manager had knocked and told him off for making a noise, saying that he had received two different complaints from other guests about the noise we had been making.

Before we'd checked out the next morning, i was looking out the window and saw a young couple also leaving and wondered if it had been them who we'd annoyed and who had complained. We went out for breakfast and things about the complaint didnt add up to me.

For one thing, we werent THAT loud and hadnt been arguing for even that long before i went out to my car. So how had 2 people managed to complain and for that complaint to go straight to the manager all in the space of the minute or so that the manager knocked on our door?

I concluded to my boyfriend that the manager must've just heard us himself and made it up that two different guests had complained.

Fast forward to the afternoon of the day we checked out and we unexpectedly needed to book another night at this pub/hotel as trains were cancelled. While i was out somewhere my boyfriend went back to the pub and checked us in for another night. He apologised for us being noisy the night before to the woman who was checking us in again.

The woman said she hadnt known about us having made a noise and my boyfriend told her that the manager had knocked on our door last night and told him off. The woman member of staff said that it was odd because the only staff they have on at night was the chef and the young male bartender, and neither of them go upstairs, and that their manager was a woman with blonde hair - not a man. The man who knocked on our door had looked in his 60s with gelled back salt and pepper hair and was a bit mean.

The female member of staff said she doesnt know who this man was, none of the staff do, but that other guests have also told her the same - that a man had knocked on their door complaining about the noise, implying to be the manager.

My boyfriend asked who else had stayed there but was told that us and the other young couple i saw leaving were the only guests last night. This left us questioning who on earth the man was who knocked on our door pretending to be the manager...

So that night we were feeling quite creeped out. We were in a different room that was just opposite the one we'd previously stayed in. Anyway, we forgot about it all eventually and were having a bit of a laugh again when a really hard knock on our door rang out. We both stared at each other in silence for a second.

My heart sank and i was telling my bf not to answer because it was that man again. He of course answered anyway. The door was about 2-3ft from the bed we were on. He opened the door to an empty corridor- of which we were at the very end of. It was a long straight creaky corridor. Well, we were terrified by now.

The next day - last thursday - my boyfriend emailed the pub explaining the situation and saying we were concerned a weird stranger was knocking on doors in their hotel. We gave them the exact times of both incidents and asked them to check their cctv cameras - one of which was right next to both rooms we'd stayed in. A few days later the manageress replied to his email with this.
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I had a shocking migraine yesterday so maybe I'm not reading this properly? Why could the 'complainant' not have been a guest staying somewhere on that corridor between the cameras, just pretending to be the manager because hotel guests are much more likely to take note of management (who have the power to throw them out) complaining about noise than just another (miserable, short tempered) guest? Anyone can knock on a door, say 'I'm the manager, we've had loads of complaints about you, shut up'. Especially if they are only a couple of rooms further down and can hear everything.

If they get up early, don't eat breakfast at the hotel and therefore don't run into the guests again, how would they know that the 'manager' was another guest? And the staff at the hotel may lack the time and inclination to investigate in full detail, other than 'he was there on the CCTV knocking and then we didn't see him again'?
 
catseye said:
I had a shocking migraine yesterday so maybe I'm not reading this properly? Why could the 'complainant' not have been a guest staying somewhere on that corridor between the cameras, just pretending to be the manager because hotel guests are much more likely to take note of management (who have the power to throw them out) complaining about noise than just another (miserable, short tempered) guest? Anyone can knock on a door, say 'I'm the manager, we've had loads of complaints about you, shut up'. Especially if they are only a couple of rooms further down and can hear everything.

If they get up early, don't eat breakfast at the hotel and therefore don't run into the guests again, how would they know that the 'manager' was another guest? And the staff at the hotel may lack the time and inclination to investigate in full detail, other than 'he was there on the CCTV knocking and then we didn't see him again'?
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My boyfriend asked who else had stayed there but was told that us and the other young couple i saw leaving were the only guests last night.
 
Floyd1 said:
My boyfriend asked who else had stayed there but was told that us and the other young couple i saw leaving were the only guests last night.
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Ah, yes, I missed that bit! But, of course, that doesn't mean it was true. Or that the other young couple being the only guests means that there was nobody else staying at the hotel - staff may have slept over, late admission guests, guests that the person saying 'there were only two sets of guests' didn't know about.

Edited to add that, having known a lot of 'backroom hotel workers', there are a lot of shenanigans that go on in hotels that the guests (and even sometimes some of the staff) don't know about - even to the extent of hotel workers letting friends sleep over in empty rooms.
 
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