'Hotel Paranormal' Episode 7: Guests and employees are attacked by malicious spirits in hotel rooms
In haunted hotels, entities can either have the whole property to themselves or be trapped in one specific location. Something binds them to a place, where they are confined for what seems like an eternity. What happens when you barge in on their space and make it yours? These four people learned it the hard way that spirits don't like it when their homes are encroached upon by strangers. In a brand new episode of Travel Channel's 'Hotel Paranormal', Tripp and Shiba Gorman, Mia Thompson and Nathan Loerke recount their one-time encounters with confined hotel spirits.
Tripp and Shiba Gorman — foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, 2019
The grandiose hotel stands in all its historic glory, sporting period architecture decor from the early 20th century. A large lobby, high ceilings, dim lights and a great ambiance, it is a physical embodiment of the lavish 1920s. Tripp and Shiba Gorman embarked on an adventure of a lifetime after receiving an email from the hotel. The notification said that guests could sign-up for an otherworldly experience spanning five days and five nights in the hotel's most haunted room, 312. The room was off-limits to guests for several years and only the hotel staff knew the reason behind it.
The Gormans found out from the bartender, a long-time employee at the hotel, that a woman had been murdered by her husband in that room after he found out that she was having an extra-marital affair. Shiba had always wanted to experience the paranormal in a hotel room, while Tripp was a non-believer. The moment they entered room 312, Shiba described the atmosphere as being ominous and a foreboding feeling set in. She sensed that something was stirred by the Gormans' presence in the room. Tripp, ever the skeptic, didn't feel a difference in the air and just perceived the room to be a regular hotel room.
Suddenly Shiba felt something grab her arm in a tight hold, while Tripp only attributed it to her hyperactive imagination. However, they were later rendered shocked after discovering a nasty bruise on Shiba's arm. This happened at the spot where she had felt something grab on to her. As the night unfolded, the crippling fear didn't let Shiba have a good night's rest. Soon the activity picked up in the room, with an old radio automatically switching on, lights flickering and shadows on the wall. She also came to the staggering realization that the room was home to more than one spirit and one of them was definitely malevolent.
Trying to convince Tripp about her terrifying experience was rather difficult because he refused to believe that there was something supernatural in the room. So, Shiba practically appealed to the spirits in the room to show him proof of their existence and they obliged. An old dresser in the room repeatedly pulled open its doors by itself, and Tripp was left shocked at the occurrence. The experience made a believer out of him.
Mia Thompson — New England, 2019
Mia Thompson had just been hired to work at a historic hotel in a small town in New England. Still a college student, she worked the evening shift while also using her new job as a distraction from a recent tragedy she experienced. Her stepdad had recently died and she was having a hard time grieving over him. A guest had come to her, asking for a fresh bucket of ice which Mia assured she would get for her from the kitchen. But as soon as she got in there and opened the ice machine, the light went off a few times. However, she only assumed it was a weird wire or a faulty switch until it turned back on, on its own.
She felt like she was being toyed with and as if something was trying to get a rise out of her. For a couple of weeks following the incident, things were pretty much quiet and nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. The hotel then undertook renovations for some of its infrastructures and informed its staff that they could pick up some of the furniture that they planned to dispose of. On her night off, Mia and her husband came by to pick up said furniture and noticed that the hotel was eerily quiet.
As they began to scour the floor where the furniture was laid out to see what they would like to take with them, they saw the lights flicker and heard the loud ticking of an old grandfather clock from one of the rooms. Terrified, the husband and wife fled the scene and into one of the other corridors. Mia later learned that the spirit was that of a man who had jumped out of the room, where she felt the negative energy, many decades ago.
Nathan Loerke — Western US, 2004
Nathan Loerke was a security guard at a posh hotel that has welcomed Hollywood guests and jet setters since the early 20th century. On the day he was hired, he was told by the manager that the security guard who had been working there before him had just quit the previous night because he saw something while on his regular rounds. Loerke, a skeptic, wasn't fazed by the news and took on his role effortlessly. On his rounds that night, he started hearing some unusual sounds like a jarring bang, which took him to room 311. This was the same room that forced his predecessor to quit his job not just on the property, but with the entire company.
Loerke ventured into the room to inspect it, as his job description required him to. He could not shake the feeling that he wasn't the only one in that room. Moments later he heard a static-like noise come from the phone and a door slammed shut next to him, which was enough to scare him and send him running out of the room. He was trying to find a valid explanation to what had just happened and decided to go back in to investigate, only to experience more activity that left him terrified. He never went back into the room throughout his stint as a security guard in the hotel.
'Hotel Paranormal' airs on Saturdays at 10/9c on Travel Channel.