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People Who Work In Haunted Hotels Share Their Spookiest Experience

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

If that sounds familiar, then you remember what it felt like watching The Shining for the first time and seeing poor Wendy Torrance discover the pages of her mad husband's novel for the first time. It's an unsettling scene, one of the creepiest ever filmed.

If you've read the novel as well as watched the movie, then you know the hotel––and it's ghostly inhabitants––drove Jack Torrance insane. After Redditor theoriginaltommygirl asked the online community, "People of Reddit who work in 'haunted hotels,' what are your stories?" people from several different professions came forward with the tales that still send chills up their spines.


"The place was starting to show its age..."

My grandmother worked as a night time cleaning lady for an older historic hotel in her hometown for a while in the early 80's.

The place was starting to show its age, and it glory days (1890's-1920's) were certainly behind it. During prohibition there had been a speakeasy in the basement only the movers and shakers in town had been able to get into. No real scary stories in it's past, save for one suicide. It was just a large, old hotel.

Anyway, there was a man that she saw several times. A figure other people had seen as well. The earliest sightings started in at least in the 60's.

Each floor, the elevator was at the end of a long, straight hallway. On the third, there were times when people would come out of a room and see a man in a long coat and hat carrying a small dog under his arm either heading towards the elevator and disappearing, or they would catch a glimpse of him on the elevator as the door closed.

No one really knew who he was supposed to be. It wasn't the suicide. It wasn't the original owner, not one of the staff anyone could remember. No one was really scared of him. It was sort of a right of passage working there to finally see him.

TalxianNeckbeard

"When he brought it up with his manager..."

My brother did housecleaning at an historic inn downtown. He would see shapes dart out of the corner of his eye when he looked in mirrors, and the beds would untuck themselves after he'd made crisp corners. Some days he heard footsteps up behind him on the narrow stairs, and his hair stood on end.

Add to that his vacuum being constantly unplugged when the cord was completely slack and toilets flushing themselves.

When he brought it up with his manager, she said, "Oh, don't mind that. It's happened since I can remember."

KnifeFaceMcFistyTits

I worked in IT for a guy named Mike Milken and every year he puts on this huge conference that brings world leaders and billionaires together for, uhh, conferencing, called, Global Conference...

https://milkeninstitute.org/events/global-conference-2020

We would rent out pretty much all of the Beverly Hilton for a full 7 days. You can go to this if you like, it just costs thousands of dollars to do so.

I, like OP, also am interested in hotel staff and hauntings so I asked every staff member I could about any other worldly experiences. I heard a couple of people talk about Merv Griffin, the Game Show Creator/Host/Composer. He bought the place in the 80's and loved to hang out there after he retired. After he died, the staff said they would see him, not as a ghostly shape, but as actual Merv, walking down one of the hallways near the kitchens occasionally.

Ultimately though, the cleaning staff was terrified of the 8th floor. It's not a tall hotel, and the 8th floor was a party type room. It was a medium sized banquet type area with a low ceiling. It has a bathroom and a view of Beverly Hills with rounded red leather couches and maroon velour sided walls. There is a curved bar and glass tables with razor blade marks on them from the copious amounts of cocaine that had been chopped up for consumption. I know you see this room in your head skull right now.

The story goes that there was a lady that would go up there and clean the place by herself after the parties were over. One night she was almost done and finishing up in the bathrooms cleaning the sinks. She heard a girl behind her, then something brush across her shoulder. She turned quickly around and no one was there. She turned back to the sink and there was a piece of gum where there had previously been none.

She swore there was no gum in the sink prior as she was cleaning the sink when it happened so that was her focus. After that the cleaning staff would not go up there unless they had to at night, and then they would go in doubles. They also started to clean the floor in the morning, again with two people.

My buddy/co-worker and I had to go up and check this out. We were getting chills listening to the story and had to see for ourselves. So, at about 9pm we went up there as it was vacant for the night and we pretty much had run of the hotel.

Right before we went up though, we saw one of the cleaning staff, and told him we were going up. And he got this look like, "you're an idiot."

We head up, check the whole room out and take it in like I described above. We go over to the little bathroom where the gum incident happened, and we recreated the scene.

I stood at the sink, my buddy brushed my shoulder and I turned around. Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. We didn't feel coldness or freakiness, just plain old us on the top floor.

We were a bit disappointed and were saying things like, "What did we expect?" type conversation. We noticed the weird music on the speaker in the elevator that we hadn't noticed coming up. It was a girl kind of singing/laughing, very eclectic stuff.

When we got off we saw the cleaning dude from earlier and told him that we saw nothing. There was no ghost up there.

Then my buddy mentioned the interesting choice of music in the elevator. The cleaning guy said, "What music?" And we replied, "The music in the elevator..."

He then pointed out that there is no speaker in the elevator, never has been.........

We s*** our pants, went back into the elevator, cautiously, because we couldn't believe that what we were hearing was not coming from a speaker. Being "IT experts" we knew how to look for wires and speaker covers and such, and there were none. It was an old elevator that just wasn't wired for that.

We noped the hell outta that elevator and tried to avoid it the rest of the time we worked there.

Pavementaled

"One time..."

I work in a haunted house during Halloween time. One time one of the actors had a heart attack and died and everybody thought the body was supposed to be there. We didn't find out what had happened until we were closing for the day.

thisbillgates

"I worked in a hotel..."

I worked in a hotel and we used to joke about the 3rd floor being haunted. Then one day I was assigned rooms on the 3rd floor and while cleaning had the TV in one of the rooms turn on by itself.

MissCat58

"There's so many stories I could tell..."

I worked as a housekeeper at a 'haunted hotel' for about a year.

There's many stories I could tell but there was this one room that f*cked me up mentally for months, still have nightmares about it now.

So the hotel is a grade two listed building, a Manor House that was converted into a hotel. It's said that the family who built and lived there had their bedrooms where room 1,2 and 3 now are. The rooms are out of the way and down a dark corridor which gives them an eerie feeling but they're decent rooms. Number 2 is one of the biggest and luxurious rooms to stay in.

However, it's rumoured that when the house was being converted that the builders found a skeleton of a child in the fireplace, the fireplace that's still in that room. The room opens up to a long corridor, the bathroom on the left and a super king bed in a huge living area looking over the gardens.

I never felt right in there, but things got worse a few months in when I started having nightmares that I was being chased down the rooms corridor. I'd never see what was chasing me but I'd be filled with terror. The corridor would just keep going for what seemed like forever but when I'd reach the door, there'd be no handle. I had that dream every night for months, my teeth got damaged from all the grinding and so exhausted that I could barely do the job. In the end the place got me so depressed I was self harming again, something I'd been clean of since I was a teen.

Since quitting the job that dream and my mental health improving, the dream became much less frequent but I still get it from time to time when things are bad. The whole hotel is toxic but that one room still continues to haunt me.

ikklegrim

"I noticed all the internals..."

Worked in a "haunted" hotel for about 3 months. I noticed all the internals were from the time the house was built, which is why there's occasionally issues with electrical equipment or a sense of unease, the building itself is generating a small electromagnetic force, but apparently explaining that to people is grounds for getting fired.

DME2DMU

"The dog walked all the way down the corridor..."

My aunt lives on the Isle of Arran, a small island in Scotland. She used to work in Brodick castle and everyone who works or has worked there will tell you it's haunted, and you get told all the classics like hearing footsteps and seeing doors slam. One story always stuck out to me about a dog and its owner staying the night.

The owner wakes up realising the dog isn't in the room, so the owner runs out into the hallway to find the dog calming walking down the dark stretch of hallway of the castle, but the dog was looking up at nothing while strolling as if it was side by side with someone and looking up at them. The dog walked all the way down the corridor completely ignoring it's owner. Just seeing your dog walk into pitch black with this invisible entity gets me creeped.

I've been to that castle myself and it's hella spooky.

12Noodle12

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Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

lottery tickets
Erik Mclean on Unsplash

A lot of workers daydream about some day winning the lottery and being able to say goodbye to their job.

Far too many workers are unhappy with their job duties, workplace dynamics or company culture.

But with a taste for luxuries like housing and food, they keep plugging away, year after year.

However not everyone feels that way about their job.

So what are these compelling careers?

Keep reading... Show less
Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?