Hotels are leaning into their spookier sides to sell 'rooms with a boo'

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MOAB — Like many hotels, Red Cliffs Lodge, in the outskirts of Moab, provides guests with complimentary items like maps, in-room toiletries and, upon request, dental kits stocked with oft-forgotten toothbrushes and toothpaste.

But in the fall of 2023, the property began lending some guests a decidedly different kind of kit: one for hunting ghosts.

It comes with a digital recorder, an electro-magnetic field (or EMF) meter, and a radio device known as a ghost box – all apparatus that some believe can detect paranormal phenomena. Also included is a booklet with more information on the area's centuries-old history and the property's trio of specters.

"We know you're going to see stuff if you're here, and we do have three very well seen spirits: the smoking cowboy, the headless lady, and the drowned person that walks along the banks of the Colorado (River)," general manager Brian Hunnings told CNN Travel. "Chances are, if you're attuned to that stuff, you're probably going to see them. So let's prepare you for it."

As mainstream interest in the paranormal continues to grow, thrill-seeking travelers are more eager than ever to bunk up at places where things go bump in the night. To meet that demand, many hotels have added spine-tingling seasonal packages and programming in the lead up to Halloween, while scores of others, like Red Cliffs Lodge, now showcase their resident spirits and haunted histories year round.

"It's another market segment, and the paranormal is very, very big right now," hospitality expert and television personality Anthony Melchiorri told CNN Travel. "Our industry, it's about experiences. This is just another way to create an experience."

Melchiorri, who's host of the popular Travel Channel series "Hotel Impossible," says the prospect for guests to have an eerie encounter can help properties set themselves apart in an increasingly competitive market.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more and more hotels are happy to show off their spookier side as a result. Since 2018, Historic Hotels of America has released an annual list of its top 25 most haunted historic hotels, which has become one of the organization's most popular website pages, according to Katherine Orr, director of marketing strategy and communications.

Hospitality giants have joined the freak-out fun as well. Certain properties in the World of Hyatt portfolio openly advertise their reputations as paranormal hotspots on their landing pages, and Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, a blog for Marriott's loyalty program, shares a list of several haunted properties in the brand's Autograph Collection.

Sonesta International Hotels, meanwhile, also is responding to "a growing number of travelers looking specifically for spooky season experiences that combine hair-raising local lore with the possibility of paranormal encounters within the hotel walls," chief brand officer Elizabeth Harlow said via email.

To meet that new demand, Sonesta is "encouraging properties across the portfolio to lean into the thrill of the season with more proactive storytelling, partnerships with local sites/tour operators specializing in ghost or other spooky tales, seasonal packages, and even costume parades."

Like Halloween — which is expected to generate some $11.6 billion in consumer sales in 2024, according to the National Retail Federation — "haunted tourism" is increasingly big business.

At Red Cliffs Lodge, presenting the resident spirits as just one aspect of the storied heritage of the site, whose inhabitants have included many Native American tribes, pioneer settlers, cattle ranchers and Western film industry pioneers, Hunnings said.

That backstory is detailed at the property's onsite Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage, a small space filled with historic photographs and a few artifacts that, along with the lodge itself, opened in 2002. More recently, the property has partnered with local psychic mediums for various events.

But during a two-week period in 2023, two separate psychics had the same message for management: "Your spirits really, really want you to tell their story," Hunnings said – a "one-two punch" that was impossible to ignore.

"That's when we were like, 'Why are we trying to hide it?'" he said. "You know, we have a museum in the basement where we're talking about their history. Let's be accurate and true to it. And that was really kind of the tipping point."

'Something that goes bump in the night'

According to researchers of a 2020 study published in "Cornell Hospitality Quarterly," haunted tourism can be a key driver in helping maintain aging buildings with spooky histories, such as abandoned schools, prisons or hospitals, by bringing in necessary funds for improvements and renovations.

But researchers also warned that "site curators may struggle with preserving the real history" – in other words, making sure the facts don't become overshadowed by rumors and hearsay. Hotels aiming to share their histories, haunted or not, face similar challenges: avoiding sensationalism, especially if a tragedy or violent death is involved, and focusing on authentic, fact-based storytelling that's also culturally sensitive.

A hotel's specific clientele can play a key role in shaping strategies, too. According to Hunnings, the guest demographic at Red Cliffs Lodge — "off the beaten path, looking for these kinds of experiences" — is a good fit for the property's unconventional extras like the ghost hunting kit. Activities like sound bathing and palm reading also are included in the resort fee.

Guests are "really looking for a reason to dig into the history, dig into the culture," Hunnings said. "So it works for us. It wouldn't work in every hotel."

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