In Abandoned Hotels, Your Paradise Vacation Turns To Hell
“Don’t worry, I’ll find us a luxurious hotel for our vacation,” I told my wife a few months ago. She had been pressuring me to find a hotel for a long time, but I forgot about it, and there weren’t too many options anymore. Then I saw this hotel in an internet search and decided to go there without a reservation (because it didn’t have a website and wasn’t available on Booking.com). “I found us a superb hotel. We’ll be alone there, as calm and romantic as possible,” I proudly announced. “A hotel that used to be one of the best.”
When we arrived at the hotel, my wife’s eyes darkened. “What the hell is that?” she said as we tried to make our way through the wild vegetation, passing by the empty and dusty pool, careful not to step on dinosaur corpses. “Um… an abandoned hotel?” I stammered as we entered the hotel, hoping things would improve. But the elevator in the lobby was pouring blood, furniture was scattered everywhere, and apart from the sound of a tennis ball, there was deathly silence. Before I got a suitcase on my head and passed out, the last thing I remember was something that looked like the ghost of a chambermaid and two scary twins in the lobby who invited us to play.
Even if you disagree (for some reason) about the level of truth in this fictional story, we cannot ignore one thing: there are many abandoned hotels all across the globe, and they can undoubtedly be scary as hell. You can tell it by the fact we also call them ghost hotels, as most abandoned places do.
In the following review, we will explain why hotels are abandoned in the first place, what is so scary about them, what attracts people to these places, and whether they are legitimate tourist attractions or dangerous experiences that may be against the law.
What Is A Ghost Hotel?
People usually see hotels as a symbol of indulgence, wealth, and luxury. The problem is that hotels can be exactly that for a long time but stop operating for various reasons, and this shift changes everything, as we can learn from ghost hotels meaning.
Abandoned hotels have become sad, mysterious, and scary places. You will see in them the signs that we identify with abandoned places as a whole, for example, eerie silence, vegetation that has taken over every good part of it, acts of vandalism, and most importantly, a contrast between what once was or what should have been, and the current situation. This contrast makes visiting the hotels a horrifying experience.
The Death Causes Of Hotels
Every abandoned hotel has its own story, and sometimes, it is hard to point out a specific reason that caused the “death” of a hotel. In general, however, ghost hotels are usually born for quite a few reasons, including:
🏨 Budgetary and management problems – You don’t need a degree in hotel management to know that maintaining and managing a hotel is not easy, especially in recent years. Many hotels suffer from poor management or an inability to generate enough profits to make the hotel’s continued operation worthwhile. Sometimes, you can find abandoned hotels for sale or invest in some to make them come back to life; in some cases, they are demolished, and in others, there is no other choice than to abandon them.
🏨 Catastrophes – Hotels are the primary victims of unusual events and wars, certainly in the current reality of many war and conflict areas in the world: global crises such as the Covid-19 virus, natural disasters, wars, and other factors harm the ability of hotels to operate, or at least attract tourists. The costs of restoring hotels are incredibly high. When this happens, the hotel has difficulty continuing to operate, undoubtedly due to its astronomical costs, and the people behind it may decide to abandon the dream at some point.
🏨 Competition – Many hotels are located in areas that attract tourists, for example, near the beach, in the heart of bustling cities, close to tourist attractions, and more. The problem is the enormous competition that characterizes the field, which may make it difficult for everyone. Many hotels do not survive this competition because there are not enough tourists to visit all the hotels equally. Some hotels, therefore, may be left behind or closed.
🏨 Legal disputes and bureaucracy – Quite a few hotels in the world have fallen victim to “bureaucracy” on an issue, including conflicts between property owners, bankruptcies, violations of local laws, and so on. There are cases where this legal delay causes the properties to remain abandoned, while their current holders can’t use or even sell them.
🏨 Planning problems – there have been luxury hotels worldwide, and even luxury resort complexes, closed early or not opened at all for the simple reason that their planning was flawed. For example, hotels whose construction costs were higher than planned, and the developers did not have the financial capacity to continue the mission.
The Fear Factor Of Abandoned Hotels
The question we need to ask on our site, which focuses mainly on horror in all shapes and kinds, is what about ghost hotels that can be scary and cause those who accidentally come to them to get a suitcase on their heads (oops!).
The first reason is that if you examine the hotels visually – the sights you should see in them – you may get something that looks like a set of a horror movie: lush vegetation, neglect, broken furniture, graffiti, and the like. If you consider the contrast between the image of the hotels, or even between what used to be and the current situation, the feelings of discomfort and horror may increase. Think, for example, of a situation where you are standing in front of an empty pool, trying to imagine that once upon a time, crowds of children danced in it, for some reason, to the tune of “Baby Shark.” Well, there are cases in which a hotel can be scarier when it is full of tourists, but you should get the point by now.
We must not ignore the fact that abandoned hotels can be dangerous. Visiting them is often only allowed as part of a guided tour of certain hotel parts or after obtaining special permits. The reason is that some hotels pose physical dangers to visitors beyond their psychological aspect: collapsing parts of the structure, instability, rust, harmful animals, and so on.
Around some hotels, as you have probably seen in several horror films, an entire mythology of horror has developed. In some cases, abandoned places become fertile ground for horror stories, even ghosts. After all, neglected and abandoned places spark the imagination of some of us.
Famous Abandoned Hotels Around The World
Around the world, you will find a long and impressive list of abandoned hotels. Some of them were supposed to be or even served as extraordinary tourist attractions for years until life circumstances came into play.
In short, the list of famous ghost hotels in the world includes:
🏨 Pripyat Hotel – was supposed to be one of the highlights of Pripyat, the city that was ultimately abandoned following the Chornobyl disaster. Today, of course, it is impossible to visit here due to the still high radiation levels, and one must get special permits.
🏨 Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, was built in the 1980s to make it the tallest in the world. They never finished the construction, and Ryugyong Hotel remains an impressive but unfinished architectural structure.
🏨 The Burj Al Babas Hotel in Turkey is undoubtedly one of the most bombastic projects on this list. The plan was to build 587 luxurious mini “Disney” castles (!) here, right on the shores of the Black Sea. Following the 2008 economic crisis, the project never got to the finish line.
🏨 Hotel Pelegrin, in a Croatian village on the Adriatic coast, was a massive hit in the 19,0s: At first among military personnel and then among the wider tourist audience. The siege of Dubrovnik in 1991 caused repeated shelling of the hotel, some of which it never recovered from. At first, it served as a base and temporary shelter for Croatian army soldiers, but since 2000, it has been completely abandoned.
🏨 Belvedere Hotel in Furka Pass, Switzerland – At its best, this luxurious hotel overlooked the Rhone Glacier on one of Switzerland’s most winding and spectacular mountain roads. The problem is that the glacier has lost much of its charm over the years. Global warming has caused it to lose about 1.3 square kilometers of its area, and the future seems even more horrific. As a result, the number of tourists in the area has decreased significantly over the years. In 2006, the hotel was closed.
Why Do People Visit Abandoned Hotels?
Abandoned hotels have become a popular tourist destination in recent years for travelers looking for unique, even scary experiences – yes, as part of what is known as “Dark Tourism.” Many tourists find these buildings fascinating, thanks to their history and the feeling that they convey a unique story, even if, in many cases, they are somewhat sad. Of course, photographers and other artists also come to these places, which can provide sights that can be breathtaking.
In many countries worldwide, tours of abandoned buildings, including hotels, are held under the supervision of the relevant authorities. Along with this, some people prefer to enter hotels without permission or even “sneak” into them, and there are cases where such a step is dangerous.
Not Just The Shining: Abandoned Hotels In Horror Movies
Hotels in general, and abandoned hotels in particular, have starred in quite a few horror films – especially ghost stories. It’s not hard to understand why, given the setting of these stories, with their quiet hallways, dark rooms, neglect (combined with grandeur), and the feeling that the past is still present here to some extent.
Of course, the most famous film in this context is Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece “The Shining.” In the movie, based on a Stephen King film, a writer named Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson in one of his life’s roles) arrives with his family at an isolated Overlook hotel to find the peace to work on his last work. The problem is that bizarre events occur at the hotel, such as blood in the elevator, a scary old lady in the bathtub, and two creepy twins. Jack loses his sanity, and the entire family is in danger.
Stephen King got his inspiration from the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where he spent a night with his wife. In fact, the book “The Shining” was initially supposed to take place in an amusement park, but after that night at the hotel, King rethought the itinerary. Today, the Stanley Hotel is fully operational. It attracts tourists, many fans of Stephen King or grew up with “The Shining.” It offers various activities inspired by the film, including a Guided Shining Tour.
In “1408,” also based on a short story by Stephen King, a skeptical writer (John Cusack) who focuses on supernatural places receives a postcard inviting him to a specific hotel in New York. The hotel is open, but there is one room (1408, of course) you are not supposed to enter. Our guy enters the room, hoping to spend the night in it to prove the stories are false. However, he discovers that if there is an abandoned or even deserted room in the hotel – there can be good reasons for this.
Of course, in other cases, we discover that the hotel is operating but is relatively remote, which causes strange cases of ghosts, murders, and other nonsense. The most classic example is “Psycho,” Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece from 1960, about a man who lives with his “mother” in an isolated motel, where it is better to avoid showers (but not for the reason you think).
We have also seen some charming films in recent years about remote hotels or motels, such as “Vacancy” with Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson, “Hostel” which shows that there are hostels that are worth staying away from to avoid torture porn, the enjoyable “Night Shift” with Phoebe Tonkin and more.
So the next time you’re looking for a hotel, check first to see if it’s occupied. Otherwise, you’ll have a vacation that feels like it came out of a horror movie.
