Tip Tuesday: Always Ask the Concierge

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We don’t always stay in hotels with concierges, but when we do we often utilize their knowledge. In addition to food, sightseeing and transportation recommendations, they know other things too. Like the hotel’s history if it’s old enough to have one.  And ghost lore, if (a) the hotel is rumored to have any, and (b) they’re open about it.

I love trying to sneak in a stay at a haunted hotel when we travel. I say “sneak” because if it was up to my husband, we’d stay nowhere near anywhere with alleged ghosts.  Luckily the ghosts seem to respect this and haven’t made any appearances for him or that’d be it. My hotel booking duties would forever be revoked.

Although to be fair, he’s a good sport. Like on a recent jaunt to Boston. I’d booked us into the Omni Parker House Hotel.

OMG, it was right up my alley. Old. Historic. Full of vintage charm mixed with modern comforts.

Oh yeah, and I did mention it was haunted, didn’t I?

Better yet, it was open about its ghosts. And it was all thanks to my husband that I discovered that.

Room 303

I knew from research that one of the most haunted rooms was 303.

Legend has it that a man staying in Room 303 died there. But here’s where some accounts get skewed.

Some reports say he killed himself by mixing whiskey with barbiturates, suggesting it was suicide. The hotel’s account says he was a longtime resident of the hotel, but doesn’t mention how he died.

Guests have allegedly reported seeing strange shadows, experiencing the water turning on by itself, smelling cigar smoke and whiskey, and hearing laughter. Some online accounts say there were so many complaints of paranormal activity the room was closed off and turned into a storage closet.

It reminded me of the possessive potty ghost at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage. In that case, there were so many reports from alarmed women using that stall and encountering something that the hotel permanently locked the last stall on the left.

That one was easy to verify. I just hopped up on the toilet seat in the stall next to it to see if a bar was placed across the door like I’d heard. Yep.

But what about Room 303?

Storage Closet or Room?

On our third and last night in the hotel, I finally went to scope out Room 303 as best I could. Which was tantamount to just walking to it.

It didn’t look like a storage closet to me. We had a linen closet across from the room we stayed in. It was clearly marked as such. This looked like any other guestroom.

Also, as I was waiting for an up elevator to head back to my room, a father and his young son got off on the third floor. The son said something about not being afraid as he bid goodbye to the people remaining in the elevator.

“You can’t say stuff like that,” the dad scolded him.

In the way only a kid could, the boy responded, “What? The ghost’s not in their room. They shouldn’t be afraid.”

Wait…what?

Do you know how tempted I was to spy on them to see if they went into room 303? They turned down the hallway where it was located. (I felt that would be too creepy, so I restrained myself.)

However, that’s when I got to thinking, “Is it just a rumor that the room is closed?”

I mentioned it to my husband, and he suggested we ask the concierge. So we did.

Ghost Sheet

Sadly, we didn’t exactly get an answer about whether or not the room is still a room, or if it is a storage closet. They didn’t know, but they were familiar with that rumor too.

They did hand me a ghost fact sheet, though.

It mentions Room 303, but judging from that –and what I saw when I went to see if it was blocked off in any way –it appears like it’s still a room.

The majority of the activity seems to happen on the 10th floor. I had learned about the reports of activity in Room 1012 from my online research, so after checking out Room 303, I’d gone to check it out. But I didn’t have any experiences.

I didn’t know about Room 1040, though, until the visit to the concierge. So before we checked out, I went to see Room 1040. However, just as I had when I went to investigate that floor the night before, I didn’t have any experiences. No orbs. No phantom smells or sounds.

It’s always a bit disappointing when I don’t get to experience activity. However, I realize it’s a privilege when it happens. It was also a privilege to stay at the Omni Parker House Hotel. It was a great location and the concierges were super. All the staff was. Ghosts would’ve been a bonus.

Check-In

Let me know if you’ve ever stayed at the Omni Parker House Hotel. And what about concierges…do you ask them about ghosts and paranormal activity when you stay in a haunted hotel?

Sources:

• Is the Omni Parker House Haunted? – https://historyofmassachusetts.org/omni-parker-house-haunted/
• Haunted Guide to the Omni Parker House Hotel – https://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/boston/omni-parker-house