Haunted Hotels

Joanne Wotypka is a branch library assistant in the Cameron Library and
the University of Alberta.

Hotels are perfect places for ghosts. The illicit romances, the grand
passions, the anonymity of signing in as Mr. and Mrs. John Doe. Haunted
Hotels takes the reader through hotels both grand and humble, with an
array of ghosts ranging from the interesting to the terrifying.

The hotels featured in this book are located in Canada, the United
States, and the United Kingdom, and the ghostly phenomena reported by
hotel guests and staff are “typical”: apparitions, objects that move
by themselves, electrical appliances that operate on their own.

Interestingly, some hotels, such as Manresa Castle in Port Townsend,
Washington, have made their haunted rooms (302 and 306) part of the
charm of their establishments, and guests queue up to stay in them.
Other hotels no longer rent out certain rooms due to the terrifying
experiences that have taken place within. Then there are the hotels that
do not exist, despite the fact that travelers have reported staying at
them.

There is something inherently creepy about hotel rooms: who knows what
has gone on in them? As one who is a bit of a cynic about haunted houses
but more willing to believe in haunted hotels, I found this collection
of tales to be entirely believable and deliciously spooky.