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Hotel Encounters, Anyone?

Not exactly supernatural, but about a year ago I was staying at a Premier inn in the North of England on business - this is fairly routine for me.
I checked in and changed out of my work clothes then decided to go out for something to eat. Just as my room door closed I realised I had left my key on the table in the room. I stopped at reception and explained what had happened and arranged that on my way back from dinner I would collect the spare key from them to let myself back in the room then bring the spare key back to them.
When I got back to my room I found the lights not working. There was no power at all in the room. They were working previously. Knowing I would never find my original key in the dark I went back to reception, now beginning to feel like the guest from hell. One of the receptionists came back with me and reset the power trip.
I could not find my original key anywhere. It was not on me, and nowhere in the room. I imagined that the receptionist was getting a bit impatient by now, and I was worried that there was a key to my room floating around the hotel somewhere. I went back to reception with the intention of getting another room, but the receptionist found the spare key where it should have been, and the one she gave me 'as' the spare was in fact the original key.
How in the hell did I open the room up in the first place if that was the case?
I will never work that one out :?
 
Thought about putting this in IHTM, but this thread might be more appropriate!

In 2008 (I think, will have to check my dates) I went on holiday to Whitby with my partner. We stopped in a large old hotel on top of a cliff overlooking the harbour. Our room was on the first floor at the end of a long straight corridor. To reach it once you climbed the stairs from the lobby you had to walk down a corridor, through a set of fire doors and down another corridor. Our room was the very last, right against the outside wall of the hotel.

It was around mid-morning and we were going out for the day. When we got to the lobby I realised I'd left something back in the room so went back to fetch it.

When I left the room I started walking down the corridor and suddenly felt something behind me. You know that sensation you get when someone is standing right behind you? It was exactly like that. I told myself not to be silly- there was no one else in the corridor and physically no way anyone could be behind me. I ignored it and carried on walking. As I did the presence got heavier and heavier, until it felt like someone was literally looming over me. I kept telling myself it was nothing and nobody was there...but I couldn't bring myself to look round and started walking quite a bit faster! As soon as I went through the fire doors the presence vanished. I looked round at that point and the corridor was empty. Nobody was there.

A few days later we went on a ghost walk that took us all round the town and were told old myths and legends about Whitby. The last stop was right outside our hotel. According to our guide in the 19th century workmen had found a sealed off room containing human remains, believed to be that of a vanished maid in the 17th century who was thought to have run off with a man (turns out she was likely murdered and her body stashed there). Ever since the hotel has been haunted, the most common thing being "the staff often report the sensation of being followed!" :shock:

Made the next few nights in that hotel interesting!
 
Urvogel said:
A few days later we went on a ghost walk that took us all round the town and were told old myths and legends about Whitby. The last stop was right outside our hotel. According to our guide in the 19th century workmen had found a sealed off room containing human remains, believed to be that of a vanished maid in the 17th century who was thought to have run off with a man (turns out she was likely murdered and her body stashed there). Ever since the hotel has been haunted, the most common thing being "the staff often report the sensation of being followed!" :shock:

Made the next few nights in that hotel interesting!
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That sounds remarkably like the plot of a crime novel I read a few months ago! Not only was there an old murder associated with a place on a ghost tour, there was a modern one too, and the occupant of the particular room, and the leader of the ghost tour, got involved with it!

I won't name the book, not just to avoid spoilers, but because I've forgotten the name! :oops:

But I wonder if the author had a similar experience to yours, and so got the idea for the book?
 
Re: sounds familiar

bobandterry said:
lordmongrove said:
A few years ago my girlfriend and i were staying in a converted cottage in North Devon. It is part of a larger farm converted for holliday homes. I won't tell you the name as it belongs too a friend of a freind and she gets very defensive and frightened at the mention of anything strange in the cottage.
After a day out we came back and the owner asked us if we could remember to switch off all the light and the tv when we went out. I thought this was odd as i switched them all off befor we went out. I'm a bit anal about saving energy and always switch things off. Anyway the next time we went out my girlfriend and i double checked that everything was switched off. Lo and behold we came home to find it all switched on again.
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One of my family may have stayed in the same holiday home. This was a few years ago. Her experiences involved lights being switched on, hairdryer switched on by itself and telly but also radio switching on at full volume playing glenn miller music in the middle of the night. When the radio was tuned to a station which didnt play that style of music. The place was owned by a relative of someone from Time Team".
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No the place is not owned by anyone related to anybody on Time Team.
An American couple have just been staying there but did not experience anything.
 
It was back in the early 70's that I flew into Cleveland, Ohio, and got a room at the hotel at the airport terminal. It was around 1 am when I landed there, so that's why I got the room right there. I was tired and fell asleep in short order. It was a couple hours later I was rudely awakened by the bed shaking violently. Turned out it was a vibrating bed and if you would drop a quarter into the coin slot the bed would vibrate for awhile. Well, I unplugged it and wondered HOW the bed would suddenly start itself up in the middle of the night. I chalked it up to some sort of perverse vibrating bed malfunction.....but it's stuck in my mind as a very odd kind of thing. I didn't like that room.
 
There wasn't a couple in the room next to you, was there, Shoe? :lol:
 
I'm off to stay at a haunted hotel/hostel in a few weeks specifically with the purpose of investigation it's claim as one of the most paranormally active places in Sweden.

It's quite infamous in paranormal circles and to add to the drama, it's in the middle of nowhere, just next to the border with Norway.
 
Spudrick68 said:
Hope you let us know how you get on? :)
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I certainly will. I have an impending sense of doom regarding the whole thing. It already feels like the start to a horror Movie. "Hey guys, let's go and spend the night in an old haunted house, miles from civilisation. What could possibly go wrong?"
 
Ringo said:
I certainly will. I have an impending sense of doom regarding the whole thing. It already feels like the start to a horror Movie. "Hey guys, let's go and spend the night in an old haunted house, miles from civilisation. What could possibly go wrong?"
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A little over three years after the event, how did it go?
 
Krepostnoi said:
A little over three years after the event, how did it go?
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Unfortunately, it never happened. We were all booked in and ready to go when one of our group became ill. She is the group founder but has a few serious health issues so it didn't feel right to just leave her here and go without her. We like to work as a whole group anyway.

So we cancelled and the opportunity went by. We tend to be a bit crap at travelling to investigations. Someone is always ill, or has to work, or has other stuff going on. It takes a big chunk of time too and as I've got small children it's not always easy for me to get away for whole weekend to chase ghosts.
 
Ringo said:
Unfortunately, it never happened. We were all booked in and ready to go when one of our group became ill. She is the group founder but has a few serious health issues so it didn't feel right to just leave her here and go without her. We like to work as a whole group anyway.

So we cancelled and the opportunity went by. We tend to be a bit crap at travelling to investigations. Someone is always ill, or has to work, or has other stuff going on. It takes a big chunk of time too and as I've got small children it's not always easy for me to get away for whole weekend to chase ghosts.
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Shame - the trickster intervening again? Mind you, I hear you on the small children front, there's no chance I could get away for an afternoon, let alone a weekend. I've been back in the UK for 4 months, a matter of miles from the Brighouse Fever Hospital my former neighbour told such a hair-raising story about. Have I been able to go and check it out myself? We fly out again on Wednesday... :(
 
Brian Dunning recently published a short podcast about the reputedly haunted Stanley Hotel on his website : https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4834

Some people here will probably find his remarks about traditional ghost stories offensive, but he nevertheless points out a few interesting things :
  • He did not find any mentions of a haunting at the Stanley Hotel prior to the release of the movie "the Shining".
  • Acknowledging the number of "ghostly" pictures taken in the grand staircase of the hotel, he suggests that taking a picture of every participant to a "ghost tour" should be standard procedure as a means to keep note of who was wearing what at the time of the tour. Thereafter, if an uncanny figure pops'up on a picture taken during the tour, we would be able to check whether it was another participant to the tour. That seems sensible.
  • Regarding the ghost of room 217, he discovered that contrary to what is often told, the maid who caused the explosion of the room did not die from the accident (she simply got her ankles broken), and that her actual name was different from the one told in most "ghost books", which suggests the poor accuracy of these compilation of tales.
The main point of B. Dunning is that, usually, ghost books are poorly sourced. They simply take on older stories and embellish them. And when witnesses do intervene, it lacks factual and / or reproducible evidence (an issue common to almost all weird phenomena). So trying to explain something that may not have happened is something of a waste of time. I both a agree and disagree.

Worth the short read, overall. (but if you are a "believer", be warned : you will feel offended by the "evil":evil:skeptic).
 
AmStramGram said:
The main point of B. Dunning is that, usually, ghost books are poorly sourced. They simply take on older stories and embellish them. And when witnesses do intervene, it lacks factual and / or reproducible evidence (an issue common to almost all weird phenomena).
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Otherwise known as the 'it is said' syndrome. Nobody ever tries to check up on who it is said by, or the accuracy of the 'saying'.
 
That drives me bonkers. I always try and find sources of witnesses to paranormal events - not always with success as the stories are so old.

Here's an example: a local hotel is supposedly haunted by an ostler who died in a brawl with a co-worker. Even though there is a photo of the man and a very rough date (late 19th century) no one tried to check the story. It was simply repeated without verification.
Thanks to freebmd.org.uk I found a better date and then with the British Newspaper Archive I had the full story in less than 10 minutes. No one could be bothered to check. And it certainly wasn't "a fight to the death in the 17th/18th century" as the lady who runs the local ghost walk has variously said. Really pissed me off no end.
 
DrPaulLee said:
That drives me bonkers. I always try and find sources of witnesses to paranormal events - not always with success as the stories are so old.

Here's an example: a local hotel is supposedly haunted by an ostler who died in a brawl with a co-worker. Even though there is a photo of the man and a very rough date (late 19th century) no one tried to check the story. It was simply repeated without verification.
Thanks to freebmd.org.uk I found a better date and then with the British Newspaper Archive I had the full story in less than 10 minutes. No one could be bothered to check. And it certainly wasn't "a fight to the death in the 17th/18th century" as the lady who runs the local ghost walk has variously said. Really pissed me off no end.
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I was phoned when I was off duty at a hotel I was a night porter at because a ghost investigation team had asked if the place was haunted and I'd witnessed weird stuff there .. they went on to tell me that a ghost woman was following me around, ghost woman thought I was 'Billy' the bell boy from back when she was alive. She also theatrically liked to be on the balcony waiting for her husband who was away at war to return. The weird thing was that something that looked exactly like a black mass/vanta black woman shape walked in front of me one day there, extremely sharp in detail and not from the corner of the eye vision .. I was tired, it was the end of the night so I can't rule of that it was just a trick of the mind although a friend had previously taken a picture with his new phone, had told me he'd captured the shadow figure of a woman and then had accidently wiped the photo because it was a brand new phone to him. He also stated he'd seen a woman following me up the stairs from outside where he was standing but no one was with me, I was doing close down duties, I didn't give that much thought at the time until I saw what might have been a shadow woman walk directly in front of my line of sight and then later being told I was being mistaken for Billy the bell boy .. obviously this could all be a load of non paranormal bollocks in that I've built it all up in my head but that's what I experienced whatever the reasons.

edit: it should be noted that 6 days a week I was opening the place up for the staff at 7am, slept for a couple of hours afterwards mid day then was behind the bar sometimes until silly oclock if we had residents that thought they could drink forever (usually golfers) so I'd sometimes get about 5 hours sleep a night, sometimes more and sometimes less .. (the pay was great though).
 
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AmStramGram said:
Brian Dunning recently published a short podcast about the reputedly haunted Stanley Hotel on his website : https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4834

Some people here will probably find his remarks about traditional ghost stories offensive, but he nevertheless points out a few interesting things :
  • He did not find any mentions of a haunting at the Stanley Hotel prior to the release of the movie "the Shining".
  • Acknowledging the number of "ghostly" pictures taken in the grand staircase of the hotel, he suggests that taking a picture of every participant to a "ghost tour" should be standard procedure as a means to keep note of who was wearing what at the time of the tour. Thereafter, if an uncanny figure pops'up on a picture taken during the tour, we would be able to check whether it was another participant to the tour. That seems sensible.
  • Regarding the ghost of room 217, he discovered that contrary to what is often told, the maid who caused the explosion of the room did not die from the accident (she simply got her ankles broken), and that her actual name was different from the one told in most "ghost books", which suggests the poor accuracy of these compilation of tales.
The main point of B. Dunning is that, usually, ghost books are poorly sourced. They simply take on older stories and embellish them. And when witnesses do intervene, it lacks factual and / or reproducible evidence (an issue common to almost all weird phenomena). So trying to explain something that may not have happened is something of a waste of time. I both a agree and disagree.

Worth the short read, overall. (but if you are a "believer", be warned : you will feel offended by the "evil":evil:skeptic).
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He makes some good points.

The 'haunting becomes a local legend becomes a Chinese whisper' is not unique to this case. It presents a real problem when trying to investigate any particular haunting as facts, dates, names etc become obfuscated over time. I have known it to happen in haunted places where I have worked, too. Ultimately, this process evolves to one of those meaningless "Date unknown. This grey lady appears on this bridge at midnight on the Summer solstice and anyone who sees her will soon die" tales.

But this doesn't mean that there was an original haunting of merit, it is just that sometimes you have to dig a little deeper. This is one reason I like forum member Ruth Roper-Wylde's ghost investigations that she has published in book form as she gets out there, knocks on doors and finds actual witnesses and source sightings.
 
During my email spree of contacting haunted locations, I got so many "no" responses that I seriously doubt that there was ever anything there in the first place and it's all a case of rumours of Chinese whispers. As I've speculated in the past, the ghosts may have faded away or become dormant. Now I ponder if there was anything there at all.
 
We stayed at a hotel in Alnwick a couple of years ago. The room we were in seemed fine to us. One night my husband awoke and thought he heard me walking to the ensuite toilet as he heard footsteps, only to see me fast asleep in bed. In the morning he realised he couldn't have heard me anyway as the room was carpeted. He asked one of the staff if the hotel was haunted, she said it was not. Later he asked another member of staff about it and she related she was working late one night and decided to stayovernight. She heard something walk across her room. Oddly enough, it was the room next to ours. We are now listed on the coach companies clients as wanting to stay in haunted rooms in hotels. So far that is the only hotel room that has had any form of activity.
 
DrPaulLee said:
During my email spree of contacting haunted locations, I got so many "no" responses that I seriously doubt that there was ever anything there in the first place and it's all a case of rumours of Chinese whispers. As I've speculated in the past, the ghosts may have faded away or become dormant. Now I ponder if there was anything there at all.
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You don't have to be so pessimistic DrPaul :)

Most famously haunted locations have had the legend of the ghost/haunting exaggerated and exploited for commercial gain (mostly). There may have been only one genuine sighting in perhaps twenty, fifty or even a hundred years and yet the myth passed from employee to employee and then onto visitors becomes one of regular appearances by said ghost. Then Most Haunted roll up etc. and it becomes a bandwagon. We now have reality TV turning up at haunted locations and demanding that ghosts make an appearance as well as the accompanying self-styled mediums who claim to be making contact with all manner of spirits (but never any boring ones) and this obscures the fact that that ghosts are rarely seen and other haunting activity not at all commonplace, either.

Many if not most of the reputable ghost sightings, hauntings and poltergeists have been very rare or one-off experiences and usually connected with some form of disturbance and/or change. The one reputable sighting of the Dartington Hall 'grey lady' ghost took place in 1929 as the Great Hall and other buildings were being restored from a state of dereliction*. My job meant I was in that Hall at all times of day and night throughout the year and sometimes as late as 02.00 - 03.00am but I didn't see her and neither did any of the staff or visitors. Despite this, the legend of the grey lady was alive and well, featured in several books and was known by all the employees. There were a couple of dubious sightings within the gardens of a 'grey lady' but when I looked into these they were somewhat suspect.

Despite all of this, over the years there was other activity elsewhere within the buildings and grounds that included the apparition of an evil figure with a "Mr Punch-like face" in the old kitchens witnessed by a group of lecturers from the adjacent art college, a 1994 full body apparition of a figure in a cloak** and poltergeist activity experienced by multiple witnesses. But this was now nearly 30 years ago and the custodian of the building has moved on, so does their replacement know anything about these goings-on? Probably not, just the legend of the grey lady and that no-one has seen her lately. You see my point?

* The grand-daughter of the Elmhirts knew Kay Starr the grey lady witness and told me about her sighting, detailed here also:

https://www.dartington.org/kay-starr/

** I have posted about this apparition, which happened to a work colleague
 
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Paul_Exeter said:
You don't have to be so pessimistic DrPaul :)

Most famously haunted locations have had the legend of the ghost/haunting exaggerated and exploited for commercial gain (mostly). There may have been only one genuine sighting in perhaps twenty, fifty or even a hundred years and yet the myth passed from employee to employee and then onto visitors becomes one of regular appearances by said ghost. Then Most Haunted roll up etc. and it becomes a bandwagon. We now have reality TV turning up at haunted locations and demanding that ghosts make an appearance as well as the accompanying self-styled mediums who claim to be making contact with all manner of spirits (but never any boring ones) and this obscures the fact that that ghosts are rarely seen and other haunting activity not at all commonplace, either.

Many if not most of the reputable ghost sightings, hauntings and poltergeists have been very rare or one-off experiences and usually connected with some form of disturbance and/or change. The one reputable sighting of the Dartington Hall 'grey lady' ghost took place in 1929 as the Great Hall and other buildings were being restored from a state of dereliction*. My job meant I was in that Hall at all times of day and night throughout the year and sometimes as late as 02.00 - 03.00am but I didn't see her and neither did any of the staff or visitors. Despite this, the legend of the grey lady was alive and well, featured in several books and was known by all the employees. There were a couple of dubious sightings within the gardens of a 'grey lady' but when I looked into these they were somewhat suspect.

Despite all of this, over the years there was other activity elsewhere within the buildings and grounds that included the apparition of an evil figure with a "Mr Punch-like face" in the old kitchens witnessed by a group of lecturers from the adjacent art college, a 1994 full body apparition of a figure in a cloak** and poltergeist activity experienced by multiple witnesses. But this was now nearly 30 years ago and the custodian of the building has moved on, so does their replacement know anything about these goings-on? Probably not, just the legend of the grey lady and that no-one has seen her lately. You see my point?

* The grand-daughter of the Elmhirts knew Kay Starr the grey lady witness and told me about her sighting, detailed here also:

https://www.dartington.org/kay-starr/

** I have posted about this apparition, which happened to a work colleague
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A few years back, two couples paid the admission fee to visit Raynham Hall in Norfolk. The men split away from the women to locate the staircase where the famous photo of the brown lady was taken. Despite being told they wouldn't be allowed to film in there, they did anyway. I stumbled across their video on Youtube and could kick myself for not at least taking some screen grabs from it because the fellas discovered a natural trick of the light that re created the look of that photo almost exactly: a tall glowing female shape ..

I'm assuming the current owners of the hall ordered them to take this video down from Youtube, they make a tidy sum each Halloween charging people to explore the hall. Hopefully these guys will decide to re post the video at some point in the future.
 
@chrissho was it The White Swan?

Re: Raynham Hall. The Marchioness Townshend informs me that the Brown Lady hasn't been seen since the 1950s...but...last year I was in contact with a lady whose mum used to do cleaning at the Hall and she says the ghost was still seen to descend (but never ascend) the stairs as late as 1979.
 
DrPaulLee said:
@chrissho was it The White Swan?

Re: Raynham Hall. The Marchioness Townshend informs me that the Brown Lady hasn't been seen since the 1950s...but...last year I was in contact with a lady whose mum used to do cleaning at the Hall and she says the ghost was still seen to descend (but never ascend) the stairs as late as 1979.
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Yes it was the White Swan-good food and a ghost thrown in. The Castle cafe at the back does a nice scone. Wonder if the castle is haunted, it was shut when we went. hope we can go again when the Castle is open.
 
DrPaulLee said:
I know the White Swan very well, because of its Titanic connection!

As for the Castle... look here!
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Thank you. Maybe it is the Titanic connection ( the woodwork is wonderful) or perhaps a lost spirit trying to find the ship! I kind of assumed the castle might have some alleged ghosties but never bothered to look.
 
Also the Dirty Bottles Inn seems to have a story too. Don't know if its haunted or not. Didn't go in to find out. Apparently the bottles cannot be moved.
 
Eerie clip shows chair moving on itself in haunted hotel.


The historic hotel is said to have no less than 13 ghosts haunting the building.

The owners of a haunted hotel have released a chilling video of a rocking chair moving of its own accord. The footage documents the latest spookiness of theYe Olde Kings Head.


It's rumoured that the hotel is said to be home to 13 ghosts that haunt the building. It is believed to be haunted by the tormented souls of civil war soldiers, Roman soldiers, young children and even women who worked there when it was a brothel in the 17th century, Cheshire Live reports.


The foundations of the original building that the hotel is on are even older, having been constructed for Peter the clerk in 1208. Ye Olde Kings Head has gained such a reputation for its paranormal activity that it has featured on TV show Most Haunted and more recently on Sky Pick's Paranormal. It was also named spookiest hotel in the North West last year.


It was bought by paranormal enthusiast Harry Achilleos 15 years ago and his dream has been to turn it into a top dark tourism destination, due to its spooky reputation. Sightings over the years are said to range from eerie mists to full body apparitions, with poltergeist activity reported in the bar, including pints being knocked over.


It is one of a number of reputedly haunted buildings in Chester, with a thriving ghost tour industry built up around them. Harry has now installed a series of 16 infrared cameras around the Grade II Listed building in a bid to monitor any unusual activity.
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(C) WoL. '22
 
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