Line #201 Main/HellHotel


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4	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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9	%% Image replaced per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1294429212031060100
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12	[[quoteright:345:[[Film/{{Psycho}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bates_Motel_8596.jpg]]]]
13	[[caption-width-right:345: [[BlatantLies A lovely family establishment]].]]
14
15	->''"Hotel rooms are lonely. All the craziness that you avoid in the day-to-day business of life come to you in hotel rooms and eat your mind. The people they find dead in hotel rooms wouldn't have killed themselves at home. Hotel rooms don't care if you live or die."''
16	-->-- '''Foxglove''', ''ComicBook/DeathTheTimeOfYourLife''
17
18	Know the HauntedHouse? Well, this is similar: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a hotel that is scary.]] Often, it's abandoned, and if it isn't, you have a good chance of being killed by your host. Similar to AbandonedHospital and InnOfNoReturn. The NoTellMotel may be one.
19
20	This trope stems mostly from the fact that many hotels, even the really nice ones, have an underlying [[ParanoiaFuel disturbing feel.]] Like hospitals, they're [[CreepyCleanliness insanely clean and kept in perfect order]], giving the entire facility a [[AsceticAesthetic sterile, inhuman atmosphere.]] Every room and floor is identical or near-identical, like a lavishly furnished chicken coop. It's so quiet, the employees are always smiling or out of sight, and the rooms are always tidied up when you're not looking. Then there's knowing you're [[DeadlyRoadTrip far from home where no one will notice if you disappear]].
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22	While hotels are certainly disturbing by themselves, it gets even worse when they're NOT what a hotel should look like (dirty, disorganized, etc.). ApartmentComplexOfHorrors often shares many features of the HellHotel, except that permanent residence is expected.
23
24	Sometimes characters in a series aren't completely stupid. They know something is wrong with this hotel — maybe the guy at the front desk is more than a touch creepy, or they've overheard the townspeople talk about how they [[TownWithADarkSecret hate outsiders]], or that the hotel is supposed to be almost fully booked but [[EverybodysDeadDave no one is around]].
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26	But they all know that they don't have a choice. Staying in a hotel with a lockable door is much more preferable than taking their chances sleeping in the car, or maybe they don't have a car at all. Maybe they even outright know that something might try to get them during the night, but staying outside is pure suicide. Either way, they're taking those room keys with a quiet sense of dread.
27
28	Characters with these suspicions are usually smart enough to remain wary as they settle down for the night, but sometimes they'll completely forget and decide to [[TooDumbToLive take a long shower]].
29
30	Title is the name of an obscure Music/TheyMightBeGiants song. Like, obscure even for them.
31
32	Not to be confused with a HotelHellion, or ''Series/HotelHell'', a Gordon Ramsay series in the style of ''Series/KitchenNightmares'' (which, curiously, uses ''another'' obscure song as its TitleThemeTune, but one called "Hotel Hell" instead of "Hell Hotel") in which he solves the problems of ailing hotels, though some of the hotels featured may be approaching this level. There's also the equally obscure [[Ride/HotelHell haunted house]] of the same name from Ride/UniversalStudios' 1997 ''Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights''. Also, not to be confused with when Hell ''is'' a hotel, which is MundaneAfterlife.
33	----
34	!!Examples:
35
36	[[foldercontrol]]
37
38	[[folder:Advertising]]
39	* Spoofed in some of Verizon's many "dead zone" commercials.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
43	* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': The Eternity Devil turns the eighth floor of a hotel into a [[UnnaturallyLoopingLocation looping area]]. The Devil Hunters, no matter what manner of exit they find, always find themselves back on the eight floor whenever they enter from another side of the room.
44	* ''Anime/GregoryHorrorShow'' takes place inside "Gregory House". The caretaker is trying to keep the guest there for all eternity, the ''other'' guests and staff alternate between trying to maim/kill the guest and drive them to insanity, and Gregory's [[EvilMatriarch mother]] wants to steal and eat the guest's soul. Oh and [[spoiler:apparently once you sign in, true escape is impossible]]. Well, not quite true... [[spoiler:the Guests ''could'' have escaped, but they deliberately chose not to as they couldn't bring themselves to face reality.]]
45	* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', the heroes stop by a hotel managed by Enya, who is [[BigBad DIO]]'s [[TheDragon confidante]]. She soon reveals that she's turned the whole town into zombies with her Stand, Justice, whom she controls to attack the group, starting with Polnareff.
46	* ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' has a few instances with scary but harmless ones, and then the Tomibiki High kids encounter a real one when Mendo, Ataru and Ten get love messages in a bottle asking them to rendezvous at a hotel in Cockle Inlet. Despite being warned by locals that it's haunted by the evil ghosts of an old woman, a giant man and a beautiful girl (they're actually evil clam fairies), the guys still go -- dragging Lum and Shinobu along with them. This being ''Urusei Yatsura'' the "ghosts" were lucky to [[VillainsWantMercy escape with their lives]] though it took a bit of begging.
47	* ''Manga/TheVoynichHotel'' has a lot of fun playing with this, as the title hotel is on a wartorn island populated by witches, undead witches, yakuza, ex-yakuza, yakuza ghosts, luchador hotel managers, suicidal chefs, Mafioso, assassins, drug dealers, government agents-turned-drug dealers, overly-curious children, demons, tigers, and a perverted robot detective.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Comic Books]]
51	* ''ComicBook/GhostRider'': In ''ComicBook/GhostRider2022'', Johnny wanders across one in Issue #2 and decides to work there for a bit to earn money for his ongoing travel expenses. He soon discovers that the innkeeper is secretly an evil man who kidnaps his own tenants, offering them as sacrifices to a nightmarish demon living in the mines hidden deep within the premises in exchange for the demon's stash of priceless gemstones. In the end, Ghost Rider makes the innkeeper and his demonic patron pay dearly for their crimes, then burns their wretched motel to the ground for added measure.
52	* ''Hotell'' is a mini-series by John Lees (of ''ComicBook/{{Sink}}'' and ''ComicBook/AndThenEmilyWasGone'' fame) centered around the "Pierrot Courts Hotel", a motel by the side of Route 66 where every guest is forced to confront their demons -- figurative or literal, when not both. Creepy nightmares, serial killers, ghosts, hallucinations and a Pierrot painting that moves when you're not looking are among the many treats awaiting the lost souls that end up in this bizarre place. And no need trying to look for it, because no motel by the name of Pierrot Courts actually exists on Route 66... Guests don't find the hotel, the hotel ''finds them''. [[spoiler:And then arrives the eclipse, when the real owner of the motel makes a visit.]]
53	** Its sequel, ''Hotell Volume 2'', makes the place even creepier. [[spoiler:There's an ancient Lovecraftian temple underneath, the place can give people dangerous supernatural powers, and apparently it is sentient and feeding off people's negative emotions]]. Though it is nuanced, as [[spoiler:it is also made clear that the place has "rules" and that if you manage to fight your literal/figurative demons, you are free to leave with a better appreciation of life.]] If not... Let's just say there's a reason the motel needs someone to "clean up" behind the guests.
54	* ''ComicBook/InspectorCanardo'': The desert motel in ''The Girl Who Dreamed of the Horizon'' doesn't look ''too'' bad, aside from being worn-down, but Canardo doesn't take long to figure out that the two owners have been disposing of several visitors to steal their belongings. It turns out they [[MuggingTheMonster bit off more than they could chew]] when they killed a member of Rasputin's gang to take the drugs he was transporting.
55	* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'': Hotel Shade has this quality, as lampshaded by Kathy and Lenny before they knew they were doomed to fight madness there. It didn't help that the first living tenant was a serial torture-killer, or the second one appeared to be a raving lunatic (he explained that he was a writer; they weren't reassured.) Corpses animated from the nearby graveyard, because that was the only way the Angels could communicate with Shade, but no one had any idea what was animating the hotel staff.
56	* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'': One StoryArc involved a Hell Hotel, caused by the residents of an Apartment Complex being freed of personal restraint by [[spoiler:The Violator]].
57	* ''ComicBook/{{Superlopez}}'': The aptly named "Hotel Pánico". López, Luisa, and Jaime have to spend a night there when surprised by a storm on the road, and plenty of scary things happen to them. [[spoiler:Eventually, Superlópez discovers that the whole thing was an idea of the owner, who wanted to spread the rumor of the weird incidents in the hotel to attract thrill-seeking customers, so this results in [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the closure of the hotel]], [[DownerEnding which leaves all its staff jobless]].]]
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Fan Works]]
61	* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheresNoOneLikeYou'', [[spoiler:The Siren Hotel. It's the site of a child sex ring run by Odalia Blight and Philip Wittebane, catering to rich businesspeople from all over America. [[LoveInterest Amity]], Hunter, and numerous other children are victims of it. It has a motif of various monsters such as manticores, and most of the "clients" wear monstrous masks that add to the horror. The children are forced to partake in the clients' most depraved fetishes, and are supplied with drugs that prevent them from remembering the hotel's horrors. [[TheHero Luz]]'s infiltration of the Siren Hotel in order to save Amity and take down Odalia forms the climax of the story.]]
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
65	* Room ''Film/FourteenOhEight''. Good lord, ''1408'', but ''only'' room 1408. The rest of the Dolphin Hotel is quite nice.
66	* Downplayed with the Hotel Luxor in ''Film/Die1000AugenDesDrMabuse'', which is run by a criminal gang who aren't (usually) directly killing the guests, but spying on them so that they can plot crimes to be committed elsewhere.
67	* The Hotel Earle from ''Film/BartonFink''. Starting with the name.
68	* ''Film/TheBoy2015'' has this kind of hotel as its main setting, though the murders are not the fault of anything supernatural. The titular boy is responsible for them.
69	* ''Film/Cadaver2020'': The hotel in which most of the movie is set is one where large numbers of people are invited for dinner and an unconventional show, wherein the actors move about the hotel with the guests following the ones they find most interesting. [[spoiler:In truth, it's all a trap, where the guests are dropped into catacombs beneath the rooms, where they're then grabbed by large people in white suits who kill them, and [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies make them into food]]. Most of the actors may not have been aware of this, and are revolted when they find out.]]
70	* The eponymous B&B from ''Film/DeadAndBreakfast'', which is home to a SealedEvilInACan that touches off a ZombieApocalypse.
71	* In ''Film/CannibalGirls'', [[SinisterMinister the Reverend]] and his mistresses use the local bed and breakfast as their base of operations.
72	* ''Film/{{The Dead Pool}}'' briefly features a literal example, seen in a promotional poster for one of Peter Swan's low-budget horror movies: ''Hotel Satan (You check in. You die.)''
73	%% Needs context * Exactly where Barbara goes to look for help in ''Film/{{Dagon}}''.
74	* The horror movie ''Followed (2018)'' is a found-footage movie covering the disappearance of the horror podcaster ''Drop The Mike'' while filming a Halloween vlog at the haunted Lennox Hotel. The Lennox Hotel itself is an Expy of the real-life Cecil Hotel, with its own versions of the cases of Richard Ramirez and Elisa Lam. Except here the haunts and devil-worship are real... And things get worse when the Korean UrbanLegend of the "Elevator Game Ritual" gets involved.
75	* ''Film/HellHouseLLC'' is set in the fictional Abaddon Hotel which is rumored to be this and is converted into a haunted house attraction. In the sequel ''Film/HellHouseLLCIITheAbaddonHotel'', it's definitely gotten worse [[spoiler:and is revealed there's a portal to Hell in the basement.]]
76	* ''Film/{{Hostel}}'' has a backpacker hostel in Eastern Europe that is the front for a secret criminal organisation that allows wealthy international sadists to rape, torture, and murder the guests.
77	* {{Inverted\|Trope}} in the film ''Film/HotelRwanda'', where the hotel is the relatively safe place, and Hell is outside.
78	* ''Film/{{Identity}}'' was set in a motel no character could leave. They then proceed to fall victim to a killer in their midst, one by one.
79	* ''Film/TheInnkeepers'' focuses on the Yankee Pedlar Inn, a purportedly haunted hotel in Connecticut, as two employees try to find proof of ghosts in the days before the inn is closed down for good.
80	* The Pickman Hotel in ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness''. The place is creepy even before [[spoiler:its clerk turns into a monster and butchers her husband.]]
81	%%* The hotel in ''Film/TheLostBoys''
82	* ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'': The Place of which Torgo takes care while The Master is away.
83	* ''Film/MotelHell'', where [[spoiler:stranded travelers are rendered mute, 'planted' up to their necks in a garden behind the motel, then processed into smoked meats.]]
84	* The Bates Motel from ''Film/{{Psycho}}'', which is overseen by Norman Bates. [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable And his Mother of course.]]
85	* The CrossesTheLineTwice shootout finale of ''Film/PunisherWarZone'' takes place at one of these.
86	* ''Film/TheRedInn'', name of five movies (between 1951 and 2007). In that hostel, the customers are killed at nighttime and their money stolen while the bodies are buried in the garden.
87	* The abandoned desert motel from ''Film/ResidentEvilExtinction''.
88	* The Bramford Apartment Complex in ''Film/RosemarysBaby'', is not particularly frightening on its own. It does become scary when you learn that [[spoiler:almost every one of its residents worships Satan and the Antichrist.]]
89	* The hotel in ''Film/SeeNoEvil'' is inhabited by an AxCrazy serial killer with a penchant for ripping out people's eyes.
90	* The Overlook Hotel in ''Film/TheShining''. Perhaps uniquely, the entire layout of the Overlook Hotel -- once you notice it, anyway -- is a startling case of {{Bizarrchitecture}} in film, by design. Creator/StanleyKubrick laid the set out intentionally to mess with viewers' (and actors') perceptions.
91	* The hotel in ''Film/SilentHill'' is where the BigBad is staying.
92	* The Hollywood Tower Hotel in the MadeForTVMovie ''Film/TowerOfTerror'', based, of course, and actually partially filmed using the exteriors of [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Hollywood Studios]] ride.
93	* ''Film/{{Vacancy}}'' sees a bickering couple stay at a seedy motel whose guests end up becoming the stars of [[SnuffFilm snuff films]] made by the motel's proprietors.
94	* The organ traffickers in ''Film/{{Fleisch}}'' use the local fleabag hotel to capture their victims.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Gamebooks]]
98	* The ''Literature/GiveYourselfGoosebumps'' book "Literature/CheckoutTimeAtTheDeadEndHotel". For starters, the mint on your pillow makes you a ghost. [[FridgeLogic Somehow]].
99	* ''Horror Hotel'' from the lesser-known ''Plot-Your-Own Horror Stories'' series, is, unsurprisingly, all about this.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Literature]]
103	!!!Creators
104	* Creator/StephenKing:
105	** ''Literature/TheShining'': The Overlook Hotel, a remote hotel in the mountains plagued by evil ghosts. King describes the place as follows: "This inhuman place makes human monsters." It's actually a pretty normal hotel for most of the year -- the trouble comes when it shuts down for the winter, leaving a single caretaker family snowed in for months.
106	** ''Literature/FourteenOhEight'': Downplayed with Room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Only one room is actually a portal to something hellish, the rest of the hotel is quite pleasant, and the manager tries his damnedest to make sure no one but he and a select few of the staff ever go into that room.
107
108	!!!Individual Works
109	* There's the motel at "the centre" (the central point of the continental United States) in ''Literature/AmericanGods''. That's a pretty creepy place. It is abandoned, but not technically haunted.
110	* Even more so in the game, ''Dark Corners of the Earth'', where the innkeeper's diary reveals that he routinely tortures and murders his customers [[ForTheEvulz for lulz]].
111	* Creator/SarahMonette's short story "The Devil in Gaylord's Creek" features one of these.
112	* The Three Cousins Motel in ''Literature/FeliksNetAndNika: The Third Cousin''. It's a creepy place in the middle of nowhere with paintings that paint themselves and rooms that change their dimensions a la ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves''. And the owners are ''two'' cousins that are creepy, old women [[spoiler:(Actually witches. And the third one is the witch too.) that kidnap young women to have new bodies]]. ''Third Cousin'' is easily the scariest book in the series.
113	%%* Creator/FrankHerbert's short story "Gambling Device".%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
114	* In ''Literature/HalfWorld'', by Hiromi Goto, the sinister Mr. Glueskin is keeping Melanie's mother hostage in a creepy hotel.
115	* The ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' series has the Lotus Hotel and Casino, a modernized version of [[LotusEaterMachine the Island of the Lotus Eaters]] from ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. People go in, get sucked into the awesome food and activities, and lose all track of time[[note]][[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Sound familiar?]][[/note]] -- when Percy, Annabeth, and Grover finally escape, they discover that [[YearOutsideHourInside what seemed like a few hours to them was in fact five days outside.]] Most people aren't that lucky, and they end up trapped for years.
116	* The Hotel Denouement in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' is a variant. Although it's not especially creepy or unpleasant for the guests, the protagonists are employed there (under the bizarre or nonexistent child labor laws of their universe) as concierges. The hotel is organised by the Dewey Decimal System[[note]]There really ''is'' [[http://www.libraryhotel.com/ a hotel like this.]] It is not an example of this trope.[[/note]] for reasons which aren't explained until much later, and no index exist (the staff seem to be expected to memorize it). Also, the children are not given breaks, even for sleeping, they just have to kind of doze at the concierge desk.
117	* The ''Literature/ShiversMDSpenser'' book, "The Thing in Room 601", is set in the haunted Hotel Marlowe, though only the titular room contains spirits. No prizes guessing which room the main characters get to sleep in.
118	* In "Right Inn", one of the ''Literature/TalesForTheMidnightHour'', a very set-in-his-routine salesman is forced by circumstances to spend the night in the eponymous motel, where he is subjected to a series of increasingly uncanny experiences and eventually passes out from the sheer horror. [[spoiler:It turns out that the inn's sign was on the fritz and it's actually The ''Fright'' Inn, a theme motel for horror buffs.]]
119	%% Needs context * The Gilman House, in Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''.
120	* ''Literature/TheTalisman'', co-written by Stephen King and Peter Straub, had two of these, one at the start where Lilly slowly died of cancer and then one at the end where the Talisman was held.
121	* The sub-trope of "only one room" being haunted goes back to F. Marion Crawford's short story ''The Upper Berth (1894)'' where the haunting is not just in just one cabin on a ship, but mostly confined to the upper berth, leaving the person in the lower berth alone.
122	* Parodied in the animal fantasy novel ''Literature/WelkinWeasels: Vampire Voles!'', in which Scruff, for a prank, tricks Maudlin into thinking that their host is a serial killer.
123	* The Inn of the Hungry Crocodile, in Egypt around 80 BCE, in Steven Saylor's ''Raiders of the Nile.'' The proprietor introduces himself as the Hungry Crocodile, explaining that what he's hungry for is money. [[spoiler:He has an arrangement with bandits for them to kill and rob his guests.]]
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
127	* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryHotel'' runs with this with the Hotel Cortez. Founded by a clear {{Expy}} of H. H. Holmes, then taken over by his vampire wife after his "mysterious disappearance." If her habit for fresh blood wasn't enough to add to the reputation, he still haunts the hotel and regularly has the ghosts of other serial killers over on Halloween.
128	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': The Hyperion Hotel was abandoned and haunted for several decades by a demon that fed off people's fear. Later a vampire and other assorted beings killed the demon and took control of the hotel themselves -- but since [[UrbanFantasy they're the heroes]], it probably doesn't count anymore.
129	* The ''Series/BatesMotel'' is the mysterious motel on the highway where Norman Bates gained his StartOfDarkness and hides his family's screwed-up secrets. It naturally has a high number of mysterious disappearances surrounding it as well. It really doesn't help that throughout the series it always appears abandoned despite the vacancy sign reading open for new guests every day.
130	* ''Series/CrimeSceneTheVanishingAtTheCecilHotel'': The four-part Creator/{{Netflix}} docu-series explores the dark history of Los Angeles's Cecil Hotel including the supernatural mythology that surrounds the hotel, especially with respect to the 2013 disappearance and death of Canadian tourist Elisa Lam. The show firmly asserts that the hotel's location on Skid Row and its function as low-income housing for the indigent is what is responsible for the many dark incidents there.
131	* ''Series/CriminalMinds'':
132	** The episode "Paradise" had a small roadside motel that was run by a serial rapist and killer, who would trap patrons in their room and psychologically and physically torture them before beating them to death.
133	** The episode "Alchemy" was about men being drugged and killed in a mountain resort; the drugs given to one of the victims in the opening scene make him imagine the hotel walls turning into MeatMoss and sucking him in before he passes out.
134	* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': In the episode "Check In and Check Out", the team investigates multiple deadly incidents linked together by one specific room in a motel. [[spoiler:It turns out that the air freshener dispenser in the bathroom of that room has been set up by the motel owner to dose the guests in that room with LSD so he can watch them tear each other apart.]]
135	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E11TheGodComplex "The God Complex"]] has the Doctor, Amy, and Rory landing in an alien-created duplicate of a tacky '80s hotel where various people have been mysteriously transported as food for an EmotionEater alien minotaur, with their greatest fears in the rooms. [[spoiler:It's a hell for the minotaur, too.]]
136	%%* The Candlewick Inn from ''Series/HarpersIsland''.
137	%%* The Sunshine Motel from ''Series/TheLostRoom'' could be considered this.
138	* ''Series/TheMrPotatoHeadShow'': After getting depressed, thinking his friends no longer needed him, Mr. Potato Head stays at a run-down hotel in a dangerous neighborhood to mope.
139	* Played with in ''Series/MurderSheWrote''. It's not an actual motel that is the centre of a murder mystery, it's a movie set... of the [[ShoutOut Bates]] [[Film/{{Psycho}} Motel]]. Well, the house overlooking the motel, but it plays both the house and motel for maximum suspense.
140	* An episode of ''Series/{{Newhart}}'' had Dick and Joanna traveling through a very rural area, only to stop at a small motel. [[SignsOfDisrepair The M in the Motel sign had burned out]], prompting Dick to call it "Otel Hell"
141	* ''Series/TheResort'' in both mood (there's thundering and rain) and a supernatural sense.
142	* Parodied in the "Jolly Boys' Outing" episode of ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses''. The Trotters become stranded in Margate, but cannot find anywhere to stay the night, so they end up in a terrifying-looking guest house which in Rodney's words "looks like Series/TheMunsters' weekend place".
143	* Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's ''Solstrom'' had an often-humorous version of this as the setting for an episode, "Howling Winds". An aging hotel is suddenly transformed into a HauntedCastle-esque one with a vampire waiter, an ogre bellboy, etc. -- but a pair of newlyweds on their honeymoon, being SickeninglySweethearts, don't notice what's happened until it's far too late. Meanwhile, the confused owner tries to conduct business as usual despite the fact that he's slowly turning into a wolfman. Even Death takes a holiday here!
144	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
145	** "Playthings" featured a haunted hotel.
146	** "Hammer of the Gods" featured a hotel that had been taken over by pagan gods as a trap for the Winchesters and had locked the surviving guests in the larder.
147	* Played with on ''Series/TeenWolf''. "Motel California" is set in a motel whose creepy owner boasts about having the highest suicide rate of any hotel in America, and most of the main characters experience terrifying apparitions and try to kill themselves. However, the suicide rate is noted (when someone stops to do the maths) as not being that statistically unusual and the visions and self-harm attempts are caused by a mixture of hallucinogenic poison and psychic suggestion from a villain totally unrelated to the motel, and in one case by a character (unknown to themselves) being a banshee who is extra-sensitive to places where people have died.
148	* ''{{Series/Timeless}}'': H. H. Holmes and his "Murder Castle" appear in "The World's Columbian Expedition". Flynn cruelly leads an unwitting Wyatt and Rufus to check in there during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, where they're put in danger. Lucy has to enlist the help of Creator/HarryHoudini in their rescue.
149	* ''Series/TruthSeekers'': Double-subverted with the Portland Beacon, 'the only horror-themed hotel on Dorset's Jurassic coast'. Gus considers it to be banal and tacky, and wrote a derisive review of it in the ''White Sheet''. It turns out that one of the rooms ''is'' haunted, but the management had closed it to visitors because of what they believed to be faulty wiring.
150	* The {{trope nam\|ers}}ing song is inspired by "A Nice Place To Visit", an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959''.
151	[[/folder]]
152
153	[[folder:Music]]
154	* The video for "The Kill" by [[Music/ThirtySecondsToMars 30 Seconds to Mars]] is a direct homage to ''The Shining''--specifically, Kubrick's film version. In the video, the band members wander the corridors of an otherwise deserted hotel, encountering various ghostly inhabitants before respectively coming face-to-face with [[spoiler:their own evil, tuxedoed dopplegangers]].
155	** In the same vein, the video for "Spit It Out" by Slipknot is also an homage to ''The Shining.'' The band wanders around the hotel, encounters the twins, and gets lost in a human maze.
156	* The song "Vertigo Motel" by Dog Fashion Disco.
157	* "Music/HotelCalifornia", by The Music/{{Eagles}}. The "Hotel" is apparently an allegory for the Southern California music industry of the mid-Seventies, or drug addiction, or who knows, just Southern California. On the surface, the song describes the tale of a weary traveler who becomes trapped in a nightmarish luxury hotel that, at first, appeared inviting and tempting. This is an example where the hotel [[AmbiguousSituation may or may not actually be Hell.]]
158	--> "You can check out any time you like/''But you can never leave''."
159	** On a related note, Music/CledusTJudd's parody of this song, "Motel Californie." The titular motel really is an awful place, in serious disrepair and filthy, but it gets worse near the end when he's trying to get clean linens and [[spoiler:finds the proprietor stabbed to death.]]
160	* "Home By The Sea" by {{Music/Genesis\|Band}}, complete with inhuman spectres wandering around. Although unclear whether the building in question is really a hotel -- it may be a retirement home.
161	* Homer and Jethro's song "Hart-Brake Motel," parody of Music/ElvisPresley's "Heartbreak Hotel."
162	** And for that matter, [[Music/VelvetUnderground John Cale]]'s [[CarefulWithThatAxe cover]] of "Heartbreak Hotel".
163	* The music video for Music/{{Opeth}}'s song "Porcelain Heart" takes place in a hotel that looks eerily like the hotel from ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''.
164	* The [[DerangedAnimation video]] for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzWGkgFcTU "The Ghost of Stephen Foster"]] by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, features the unbelievably creepy "Hotel Paradise", with [[{{Homage}} Betty Boop-style animation]]. Think of it as [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Max Fleischer]] [[JustForFun/XMeetsY presents]] ''Film/FourteenOhEight''.
165	* Music/{{Supertramp}}, "Gone Hollywood".
166	-->''I'm in this dumb motel\
167	Near the Taco Bell\
168	Without a hope in Hell\
169	I can't believe that I'm still around''
170	* The trope namer, "Hell Hotel", by Music/TheyMightBeGiants, from their 1985 Demo Tape. Supposedly based on the episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', "A Nice Place to Visit", except about a hotel.
171	* "Kross Roads Inn" by Music/{{Twiztid}} is about a legendary hotel that, due to an ancient pagan curse, kills anyone who spends one night there and traps their spirits in the hotel forever. Twiztid themselves play a couple of thrill-seeking ghost hunters who seek to disprove the myths and urban legends surrounding the place. As soon as they sign in, they're harassed by spirits. They try to leave, but [[GeniusLoci the building warps and alters to keep them there forever]].
172	[[/folder]]
173
174	[[folder:Roleplay]]
175	* ''Roleplay/NanQuest'' features a hotel that's both a TimeyWimeyBall and an EldritchLocation, trapping unsuspecting guests into a PocketDimension that's also home to a number of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s known as the "Uninvited Things" which, apparently, aren't all on the same side. [[spoiler:The hotel ''itself'', built from a holy place, is actually on the side of good, but can't do much to help.]]
176	* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' version 2 had one of these. It became one of the bloodiest places in the game -- no fewer than ''fifteen'' students met their ends somewhere within it. Escapades taking place there included (and were not limited to): murder (duh), castration, evisceration, and ''necrophilia''. The V2 hotel was ''not'' a fun place.
177	[[/folder]]
178
179	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
180	* The first adventure in the ''Agents of Edgewatch'' adventure path for ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' Second Edition is titled ''Devil at the Dreaming Palace'' and culminates in an exploration of a serial killer's [[DeathTrap deathtrap]]-laden hotel. As indicated by the name, the adventure is a homage to ''Devil In the White City'', a book about real-life killer H. H. Holmes (as seen in the Real Life section below).
181	[[/folder]]
182
183	[[folder:Theatre]]
184	* Hell in ''Theatre/NoExit'' is a hotel. [[InvertedTrope A rather normal looking hotel, at that]]. Except that roommates are specifically chosen to drive each other crazy, and they're locked in there forever. [[spoiler:But not really. The door isn't locked, but ''nobody'' has the strength of character necessary to leave, even when the door just pops open at the end]].
185	[[/folder]]
186
187	[[folder:Theme Parks]]
188	* ''[[Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror]]'' at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disney's various theme parks]] is built on this theme. "The Hollywood Tower Hotel" allegedly lost a lot of business after a bolt of lightning removed two or three whole "wings" from the front of the building and sent an elevator (plus its five occupants) to another dimension in 1939. That tends to look bad on any hotel's record. It's gotten an "Attractionistas" souvenir doll, Holly, a creepy bellhop.
189	* A real example, the "Legendary Years" wing of Walt Disney World's Pop Century Resort was abandoned in 2002 due to 9/11 related tourism dips. Since then, the economy roared and now once again whimpers, and in all that time the structures remained left behind, the only thing complete being the parking lot. In 2012, the empty resort finally opened as Disney's Art of Animation Resort, making this a subversion of the trope.
190	[[/folder]]
191
192	[[folder:Video Games]]
193	* ''VideoGame/AtDeadOfNight'' primarily takes place in the Sea View Hotel, where the protagonist and player character Maya is being chased around by Jimmy Hall.
194	* ''VideoGame/BugsBunnyLostInTime'': "The Greatest Escape" involves Bugs following Rocky and Mugsy into an old, condemned hotel full of hazards around each room.
195	* The Innsmouth hotel in ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth''. Not only is the hotel falling apart and owned by a [[TheCorruption decidedly creepy host]], but Jack finds a back office covered in blood and full of body parts, with a log book detailing how the owner has been torturing guests to death and eating them. And then, to round out the overall experience, he has a [[spoiler:surprise 'wake-up call' by a mob of the town's residents in the middle of the night and has to escape]].
196	* The third chapter of ''VideoGame/{{Celeste}}'' takes place in the Celestial Resort, a once-proud hotel that has fallen into disrepair and become infested with [[LivingDustBunnies spectral dust bunnies]] that cover nearly every surface and kill Madeline on contact. The ghost of the hotel's owner, Mr Oshiro, seems completely oblivious to the state of things [[spoiler:despite the dust bunnies being [[YourMindMakesItReal manifestations of his anxiety and self-doubt]]]] and wants her to have a stay in the presidential suite. [[spoiler:After Madeline helps Oshiro clean up and follows him to the suite, [[EnemyWithout Badeline]] appears and [[BrutalHonesty tells him in no uncertain terms that the hotel sucks]], which enrages him so much that he transforms into the chapter's boss.]]
197	* The setting of the third chapter in the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' series, ''Trilby's Notes''. At first, it seems that the hotel is rather normal, but then the protagonist begins warping into a much darker and messed up version.
198	* ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' has the Oceanview Motel & Casino, an EldritchLocation that can only be teleported to by pulling randomly placed lightswitches three times and can only be exited by solving strange puzzles in its rooms. While [[PlayerCharacter Jesse]] is never in any personal danger in it, there are still creepy things implied to be happening, such as a pool of blood developing from under one of the doors after a scream is heard. It's suggested to be a sort of shared dream, rather than a physical location... but then one time you go to it you can hear a husband and wife outside wondering why the hell this motel is locked up tight in the middle of the day, which complicates things even more.
199	* ''Videogame/TheCrookedMan'' has Hotel Ruenheim, a run-down abandoned hotel, where you meet a girl named Sissi... and also where you first encounter the titular Crooked Man.
200	* The Dowerton Station Hotel in ''VideoGame/DarkFall'' is really haunted and disturbingly clean, so much that two ghost hunters came down to find out. Its sequel version in ''Lost Souls'', though, fits this trope to a T.
201	* The Edisons' motel in ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle''. It's pretty normal right now, but it used to be called "VideoGame/ManiacMansion" before, and its owner Dr. Fred Edison was a brainwashed MadDoctor before the protagonists restored him to normal. Remnants of its creepy past are still there: they include a mummified Cousin Ted who stands nearby the hotel as a decorative statue, Dr. Fred's lab in the basement, and two alien tentacles (Green and Purple) who still reside in the building.
202	* ''VideoGame/DeathComeTrue'': The main setting is a hotel unsettlingly empty besides a masked man who is trying to kill Makoto.
203	* The Quiet Haven Hotel from ''VideoGame/Downfall2009'', where the main character, Joe Davis, wakes up in the middle of the night to find out that his supposedly schizophrenic wife, Ivy's, visions of terror about the hotel have suddenly become far too real for his liking.
204	* The Victory Hotel in ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'' is particularly jarring if you played the original ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'' since it was formerly the friendly, cheerful safe haven for April…
205	* One of the last levels of ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' is named "Hotel Hell". Of course, the actual hotel in the level would probably be perfectly nice if not filled with aliens trying to kill you.
206	* ''VideoGame/EternalEvil'' has the ghoul-infested Cross Hotel which is Hank's first area, filled with assorted monsters including a GiantSpider boss and a tank-sized [[ScaryScorpions scorpion]].
207	* ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'':
208	** The Statesman Hotel in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' is filled to the brim with Super Mutants, Centaurs, and mines. You can come here for an optional sidequest to save the Riley's Rangers. The Homestead Motel from ''Point Lookout'' is closer to the trope. There are three explorable rooms. 1D holds a dead Chinese spy killed before he could start his mission. 1G holds the skeletons of two bank robbers who died in a gunfight with each over about how to split the cash. Finally, [[RoomFullOfCrazy 1K holds]] a [[MonsterClown Clown Masked serial killer]]'s [[BlackMagic bloody satanic altar]] made of body parts.
209	** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' brings us the El Rey Motel. Every bit as ramshackle as the Statesman, but populated with angry drug addicts instead of Super Mutants.
210	*** Also in ''New Vegas'', the Lucky 38 casino is a milder example. While not actually dangerous (unless you betray the Mr. House and he sicks his robots on you), it has a very strong Hell Hotel atmosphere, being a once-popular and successful casino that no living being has entered in over 200 years. It's mostly unlit and eerily silent, but otherwise completely untouched by anything except time. The place would probably become ''[[NothingIsScarier less creepy]]'' if there were any actual dangerous critters living there. Also, the player ''lives there'' for the later half of the game. And no, you can't redecorate to make it a bit more inviting.
211	*** Of course, perhaps the ultimate example of a Hell Hotel in ''New Vegas'' is the Sierra Madre, the centerpiece of the Dead Money expansion. A sprawling, labyrinthine villa, the Sierra Madre exists somewhere in the desert, though no one is quite sure where it is. A red, poisonous fog permeates the area. Ghostly figures wander the streets, attacking anyone who comes their way. Radios murmur to no one and put out signals that might interfere with your ExplosiveLeash. And, of course, there are lots and lots of ApocalypticLogs to find (including ones that are hologram recordings of many guests' final moments when the bombs fell, doomed to repeat for eternity).
212	*** There's also a minor example in the Mesquite Mountain Crater, an isolated and heavily irradiated crater in the far west of the map, guarded by several [[EliteMooks Feral Ghoul Reavers]]. Around the crater, there's a small building which, upon entering, you can find a dead [[OurZombiesAreDifferent ghoul]] named Dr. Rotson and a hostile robot. What it has to do with this trope? Well, the interior of the building is literally named ''Hell's Motel''.
213	* There's a fake haunted hotel in the Golden Saucer in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', where Cloud and his party can rest up.
214	* ''VideoGame/FobiaStDinfnaHotel'' has the titular location, a hotel used by an ancient cult for converting tourists into ''materials'' for their experiments. It's basement is notably filled with giant monsters.
215	* ''Videogame/FurFighters'' has a literal hotel inside of Hell itself. While inside Hell, the player will be forced to play through every character's personal hell including: climbing back into a nest that the character likely fell out of as a baby and is significantly larger in memory, running through the streets naked while attacked by the military, dealing with undead alligators in a quarry, navigating a maze in which you can see all of the enemies, but none of the walls, shooting insane children trying to kill you at a dinner party, and reliving old war memories. Despite how silly some of these may seem, the game treats every single one with a sinister tone. Throughout the hotel, besides the six rooms you are forced to enter just to clear the stage, you can see dozens and dozens of doors with bear motifs above them implying that each room is made for each bear in Hell. Additionally, while waltzing about the hallway, you'll be shot at by bears who seemingly appear from nowhere.
216	* Stage C of ''VideoGame/{{Galerians}}'' is set entirely in the Babylon Hotel, a crumbling, noir-ish place that prostitutes, would-be terrorists, and (of course) drug dealers appear to call home. Only two of the characters that turn up in the hotel leave it alive.
217	* The Sedgewick Hotel in ''VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame'', not in the first time when you're sent there, but when you visit it the 2nd time around...
218	* The ''VideoGame/GoldenKroneHotel'' is filled with vampires and other monsters.
219	* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'':
220	** ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2'' provides a variation with its frighteningly intense Inn battle.
221	** Following up directly from the above, ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' has the Northern Star Hotel, which is in City 17's quarantine zone, is in a dreadful state of disrepair, and infested with a lot of Zen wildlife (especially Headcrabs). Alyx has to go in in order to rescue a Vortigaunt being kept there, and even when she's done with the inside of the hotel and completed her objective, the hotel's courtyard still becomes the site of an immediate firefight as Combine troopers move in to try and take her out. In general, a hotel in this series does not portend to a good time.
222	* ''VideoGame/HauntedHotel'' is a {{hidden object game}} series that runs on this trope. Each game takes place in a hotel or resort which is usually either abandoned, haunted, or both, and the protagonists have to survive. Some of the locations also appear in the CrisisCrossover spinoff series ''VideoGame/DetectivesUnited''.
223	* ''VideoGame/HitmanContracts'': In one mission, when 47 is signing in at the hotel reception, one of the rooms on the signature pad is listed as [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]], even though the hotel only has around 310 rooms. In the northeast corner of the Hotel Gallard, a ghost can be found floating in the hallways of the restricted wing. It is assumed that this is the spirit of the deceased guest, whose corpse can be found in one of the nearby rooms.
224	* ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack: Trivia Murder Party 2'' takes place in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Murder Hotel]], where the poor souls that book a night are held hostage by a SerialKiller and forced to play a DeadlyGame... [[MundaneMadeAwesome of trivia]].
225	-->'''[REDACTED]:''' This is your wake up call! ''{{Prepare to die}}!''
226	* ''VideoGame/JohnnyBazookatone'' has Hotel Demonique, the second level of the game. It features several elevators, an attic, and a disco where you must defeat the Concierge and rescue the captive Soul Guy.
227	* ''VideoGame/{{Lisa}}'' has the Resort Island, an island hotel populated by several non-hostile mutants with deformed faces who seems to idolize a crudely-made giant sculpture of a trumpet. While it's not a dangerous place, it's definitely disturbing.
228	* The venerable, historic hotel in ''VideoGame/MaxPayne''. Max, an undercover cop, has free reign to climb all the way to the penthouse suite; however, once his cover is blown, the fire escapes are locked and the hopeless elevators aren't buzzing to life anytime soon. Max has to blast his way back to the lobby. The hotel itself is falling apart, as the only customers are drug dealers and johns.
229	* ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'':
230	** In ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'', the hotel in Spookane is similarly run by a Starman who attacks if the party tries to stay the night there. Unlike the above example, the Spookane hotel never returns to "normal" and is abandoned for the rest of the game.
231	** In ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', the Threed hotel briefly becomes one of these when Ness and Paula are LuredIntoATrap and get sent to a confined area.
232	* ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Rewind'' begins with The Master Detective being trapped in the weird and very creepy Hotel Victory with many characters from his past (and we mean that ''literally'', as they all have been brought here from the past via TimeTravel).
233	* ''VideoGame/{{Nightmare}}'' mostly takes place in one of these, it's abandoned and smeared with blood in places.
234	* The indie adventure/hidden object game ''VideoGame/{{Phantasmat}}'' has the delightfully-named "Drowned Dead Hotel", perched on a cliff above a flooded town, complete with requisite creepy owner and residents.
235	* Cairo-Stewart Hotel in ''VideoGame/PharaohRebirth'' should be a normal luxury hotel, but one bad guy turned all of the staff against you, there are falling chandeliers and deadly spikes everywhere, one elevator is haunted and infested with the spirits of the dead, and to top it off the same bad guy is trying to murder us with a KillSat! The bonus level added to the Steam version of the game is another example: Anubis took over the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, turned the staff into humanoid animals, and put even more deadly spikes everywhere.
236	* The Old Chateau and Canalave Inn, [[spoiler:which are both haunted]], in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''.
237	* ''VideoGame/{{Propagation}}: Paradise Hotel'' is set in one infested by zombies and assorted monsters, including a fearsome maneater called the Brute who stalks the vents. Your character is a chambermaid trapped in it, and becomes an ActionSurvivor.
238	* Stage 3-3 from ''VideoGame/{{Purple}}'' is a hotel that is riddled with spikes, inhabited by bats, has ''very'' low-quality rooms ''and'' it has only one toilet which is the only way to access the second building. Who would be ''[[MalevolentArchitecture this]]'' sadist is a question for anyone.
239	* The Apple Inn of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilOutbreak'', which was both packed with monsters and ''on fire''.
240	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilREVisited'', a FanGame, starts its opening act with Trent arriving at a motel that doubles as a secret entrance to the Spencer Mansion Lab. Unfortunately, the lab's T-Virus outbreak spread out and infected both Umbrella personnel and unwitting normal customers.
241	* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' provides a literal example of this trope, with a hotel that contains portals to hell.
242	* The Lakeview Hotel from ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' is the final area of the game and the location of TheReveal.
243	* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
244	** ''VideoGame/HotelMario'' is an entire game built around this concept, where Mario and Luigi have to rescue Princess Peach, who has become a permanent guest at Bowser's seven Koopa hotels. [[MemeticMutation If you need instructions on how to get through the hotels, check out the enclosed instruction book.]]
245	** The very aptly named Hotel Horror from ''VideoGame/WarioLand4'', complete with AxCrazy ghosts.
246	** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'': There's only one luxury hotel on Isle Delfino, and it's haunted by Boos.
247	** ''VideoGame/MarioParty5'': The "Hotel Goomba" mini-game involves the players trying to make it to the top floor of a hotel populated by Goombas. As the Goombas block the paths, the player needs to punch them to move them. The first player to make it to the top floor wins.
248	** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'': The Dark Bloo Inn is a {{Haunted\|House}} Hotel unknowingly cursed by ghostly Toads. The whole level is a GroundhogDayLoop puzzle, and completing it restores the place to its former glory.
249	** ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' takes place in one of these called the [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Last Resort]], with Luigi needing to rescue Mario, Peach, and a number of Toads from the ghosts that plague it.
250	* The Timberline Hotel in ''VideoGame/TheSuicideOfRachelFoster'' was a neat mountain hotel in its heyday, accommodating hikers and skiers alike. However, since Rachel's death 10 years ago, it doesn't fare well financially, leading to its slow deterioration. The second floor experiences serious water damage, and an entire wing lacking windows because of an aborted renovation, making that part completely falling apart. To add to the creepiness of the place, the hotel has recently closed down due to the death of the owner, making Nichole being alone in the whole building (or not, but the alternate scenario is probably even worse).
251	* ''VideoGame/TimeSplittersFuturePerfect'':
252	** There's an arcade-mode map that's set in a creepy, run-down hotel with flickering lights, a misty outside 'arena', and the recommended AI-controlled characters are mostly zombies. And [[HellIsThatNoise the music makes it so much worse…]]
253	** The map editor allows the player to essentially create their own haunted hotel by using the hotel map tileset. Within, the player can use standard creepy furniture and even dungeon tiles for possibly a deadly basement.
254	* ''VideoGame/UrbanRivals'' the [[TheBerserker Berzerks]] reside in the Red One Hotel where its occupants are afflicted by some gas that turns them into red-skinned, [[{{Series/Firefly}} hyper-aggressive]] people who'll pulverize anyone in arms reach.
255	* In ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', the player character must exorcise the two ghosts trapped in the Ocean House Hotel.
256	** Also, the Los Angeles Sabbat have taken up residence in the abandoned Hallowbrook Hotel, which the player character must also visit close to the end of the game; while most of it is a decrepit ruin used only for sheltering the Sabbat mooks from the sun, the basement has been converted into a slaughterhouse for their leader, Andrei the Tzimisce, filled with mutilated bodies and thick puddles of blood. This is also where [[spoiler:Heather Poe, your ghoul, can meet her unfortunate death, depending on your choices.]]
257	** What really makes the first hotel scary is the cleverest element about it. It builds up the tension throughout your progression through the building, relying on atmosphere and environment along with the build-up of this brutal murder story to make the player psych him/herself out. It keeps building and building, and you're waiting for something to happen--some monster to pop out and fight you. [[spoiler:There is no monster or any combat whatsoever in this level.]]
258	[[/folder]]
259
260	[[folder:Webcomics]]
261	* ''[[http://www.hell-hotel.com/lang-pref/en Hell Hotel]]'', obviously. A hotel is owned by the Devil's runaway son. PlayedForLaughs.
262	[[/folder]]
263
264	[[folder:Web Videos]]
265	* The ''WebVideo/{{Cultaholic}}'' team have inflicted this upon each other as part of forfeits for failing inter-office challenges. In particular, Adam was sent to spend the night in the lowest-rated hotel in Britain; he found used no2 canisters in the bedside table, blood (and more...) on the mattress, his bedroom door had no catch OR lock, and he was awoken at 1am by a couple loudly fornicating in a nearby room.
266	* ''Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos'':
267	** Season 2 of ''WebVideo/MarbleHornets'' opens in one, although its creepiness doesn't become apparent till a few episodes later when Jay realizes that he [[spoiler:and Jessica are the only customers in the hotel.]] Just when he decides to leave, [[spoiler:Masky shows up.]]
268	** The Halloween 2011 episode of ''WebVideo/TribeTwelve'' lands Noah in one. Unlike Jay, Noah barely has time to unpack before the creepiness starts.
269	[[/folder]]
270
271	[[folder:Western Animation]]
272	* Shake, Rattle and Roll, a segment of 1977's ''WesternAnimation/CBBears'', were three ghosts that ran a hotel for ghouls, ghosts, and monsters. Seeking to eliminate them was ghost exterminator Sidney Merciless.
273	* The Cobweb Hotel in a ''WesternAnimation/ColorClassics'' short of the same name. Well, it's a Hell Hotel to flies, anyway.
274	* ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'': The Hard Luck Hotel in the episode of the same name. The sign's falling apart, the whole place is a mess, the manager's a smarmy Jerkass, the "economy" rooms have no furniture or door locks, and the "complaints department" is a dog that eats guests who complain.
275	* Katz Motel from ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Staffed by what is the cruelest villain in the series, [[CatsAreMean Katz]] (that is until "Remembrance of Courage's Past" in which The Cruel Vet took that position). You'll be fed to spiders by morning (Oh, and No Dogs Allowed).
276	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', "The Sludge Monster", is set largely in a hotel haunted by the titular being.
277	* The Hotel Cabal from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''. Not actually haunted, but filled with {{death trap}}s designed to drive prisoners insane and impossible to leave without one of the special keys.
278	* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'', which is a literal [[HellOfATime hell hotel]] meant to [[AscendedDemon reform the damned]].
279	* The ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes2006'' episode "Fear Factory" features a space-station version that's a lot like a mysterious mansion, with the butler and being invited to dinner.
280	* One of Creator/ChuckJones' ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cartoons, "WesternAnimation/ClawsForAlarm", has WesternAnimation/PorkyPig and his pet cat Sylvester staying at a ghost town hotel populated by murderous mice. Sylvester is aware of the horrors, but, being a pet, is mute and can't orally communicate it to his oblivious master.
281	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' had a luxury hotel being haunted by the ghost of its founder.
282	* Every hotel ever visited by the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' gang. All of them were scary but for twenty-plus years none of them had real monsters. [[TakeThat Unless Sonny and Cher count]]. The ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndGuessWho'' episode "Too Many Dummies" has such a motel that's actually set up as an intentional reference to ''Film/{{Psycho}}''!
283	* The motel that Taz and Bushwacker Bob stay at in the ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' episode "A Midsummer Night's Scream". The desk clerk is an {{Expy}} of Creator/PeterLorre.
284	* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStoryOfTerror'' takes place in a motel. It's actually quite nice, and the manager is very friendly... if you're a human. If you're a toy, [[spoiler:he will send his pet iguana to capture you and sell you to unsuspecting internet bidders.]]
285	[[/folder]]
286
287	[[folder:Real Life]]
288	* [[https://www.history.com/topics/murder-castle H. H. Holmes' "Castle".]] Custom-designed by one of America's first {{Serial Killer}}s, it came complete with secret passages and a TortureCellar. It's not clear how many people he actually killed, since when he was caught, he just ran with it and started making victims up, including several people he claimed to have murdered that were still alive or who died in completely different circumstances. He claimed 200 and confessed to 27, but only nine were ever anything like confirmed (and four of those were after he left Chicago). The "hotel" part of the building was never actually completed, it was just a small apartment complex with storefronts on the first floor (making the higher numbers extremely unlikely). When he was executed, a vigilante set the place on fire, but the damage was limited enough that the building was repaired and stayed in use for another forty years before being replaced by a Post Office branch.
289	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Hotel_(Los_Angeles) The Ambassador Hotel]] in Los Angeles was like this for many years, as it went out of business after Robert F. Kennedy's assassination there. It was often used as a police training ground, as depicted in ''S.W.A.T.'', and as a filming location and backdrop for movies and television programs (e.g. Music/RoyOrbison chose it to film a TV special in 1988). It was ultimately demolished in 2005, and a complex of public schools were built in its place.
290	* Also located in Los Angeles is Stay on Main, more commonly known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Hotel_(Los_Angeles) Cecil Hotel]], which is notorious for its history of suicides and violent deaths, counting serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger among its guests, being linked to the "Black Dahlia" case, and for the mysterious demise of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam Elisa Lam]]. The hotel closed in 2017 but was renovated into an affordable housing complex in 2021.
291	** The Elisa Lam incident was notorious for making the hotel hell for ''all of the guests'' for days. In the days after she disappeared under mysterious circumstances, guests complained of problems with the hotel's running water. Namely, the water from the taps and showerheads would come out ''black'' and reportedly ''tasted funny''. Oh, and it also had [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking low pressure]]. When someone finally went to the hotel's water tank to check the problem, they found Lam's body inside. A 2021 docu-series, ''Series/CrimeSceneTheVanishingAtTheCecilHotel'', explored the mythology around the tragic incident, the history of the hotel, and the many online sleuths who became obsessed with the case.
292	* The abandoned [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Palms_Resort Coco Palms resort]] on Kauai in Hawaii. The resort was heavily damaged by Hurricane Iniki in 1994 and closed shortly afterwards. The property sat abandoned for eleven years until plans emerged to rebuild the resort. The projected opening date in 2018 came and went, the company that owned the land fell into financial difficulties and was forced to sell, once again throwing the resort's fate into uncertainty.
293	* Many of the [[https://www.oyster.com/articles/55071-creepy-abandoned-hotels-across-the-u-s/ abandoned hotels]] dotting the United States could fall under this.
294	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HellHotel