Weird and Vaguely Terrifying Hotel Corridors: What’s Up with This?

 

Corridors of hotels – even pricey ones – have become more and more dimly lit with more and more disturbing design elements.

While people scoping out their honeymoon stay will be shown photos of the lavish entryways, lobbies and the suites themselves, rarely are the hallways ever mentioned. Ditto for the casual traveler, or the monthly corporate commuter.

Some of us have physical situations where it is easy to be put off balance by the latest in decor. Those people who suffer from Meniere’s disease, have had a stroke, or taken a bad fall have enough to deal with without the latest in decor bad choices: rugs that look like their center opens into a  vortex to hell right there in your close friend’s living room.

But the following photos were taken off of a social media account where even “normal” people were appalled:

Number 1: This first is a hallway leading to a honeymoon suite in South America.

Number Two: This photo was taken by a career woman forced to travel a lot.

Number Three: Here was a similar atrocity, but features a weird blue penguin in the background:

People who replied to the thread noted how one key element of the badly designed Hotel From Hell series was missing:

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  1. Brian Wyneken Member
    Brian Wyneken
    @BrianWyneken

    From travel experience I’d say it looks a bit Scandinavian, but I never really wondered when travelling why some of these hotels overseas decided on this look (so I can’t answer the question). I do think a hologram of a penguin would be fun.

    • #1
  2. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    The middle one isn’t so bad. Last summer we stayed one night in an old woolen mill that has been converted into a hotel. (Hotel Millwright in the Amana Colonies in Iowa.)  It had an industrial motif, including a lot of the old industrial equipment in the hallways, rather cleaned up.   The other two are a little creepy, I suppose, but not common.  My wife and I stay in hotels quite often, but never in a place with hallways like those.  (Of course our preferred price point is probably too low for those, anyway.  There are a lot more hotels that are more expensive than the ones we stay in than those that are cheaper.) 

    • #2
  3. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    I should add that the main thing that’s creepy about the first one is that the hallway is so narrow.

    • #3
  4. Mackinder Coolidge
    Mackinder
    @Mackinder

    This one really creeped me out also. It’s a new hotel in orbit around Alderaan for a few hours.

    • #4
  5. Marjorie Reynolds Coolidge
    Marjorie Reynolds
    @MarjorieReynolds

    It reminds me of a strange video I watched on YouTube about some internet phenomenon about liminal spaces.

    • #5
  6. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    I don’t see the problem with #2.  You’re not going to get windows in a hotel hallway, except maybe at the end.  There’s only so much you can do with a long enclosed space.

     

    Agree that the problem  with #1 is it’s too narrow.  #3 has super-weird lighting.

    • #6
  7. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    What a weird, fun post.

    • #7
  8. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    Carol, if these corridors are in California, there is a simple answer why they are dimly lit – the idiotic California Green Code  has systemically reducing light coverage virtually everywhere so everywhere is very dark. 

    One of my big bugaboos is that street and freeway lighting has been so reduced that yes you can see a little light coming out of the street light ( when they are operating) but that street/freeway light never really actually illuminates the ground so it is virtually ineffective, leaving nearly everywhere in the  dark.  It is very dangerous particularly on the freeways where if there are people walking around a stopped car you cannot see them. What makes it worse is that our now seemingly so self absorbed braindead and brainwashed population doesn’t realize you can’t just walk out on a very dimly lit freeway lane or in the middle of a very dimly lit street street in front of on coming traffic; too many people now have no sense whatsoever.  The other day I was driving home at night and I came across my normal totally unlit freeway exit and I could vaguely  see that a car had parked off to the right off the road or so I thought  but until I got about 30 or 40 feet away and saw that this idiot had parked his car diagonally across the freeway exit, covering most of it  and was walking around his car on the exposed side. If I hadn’t slammed on my brakes very hard and almost run off the road  I would have killed him. 

    What also infuriates me is that most California freeway signs are now not lit at night so you can’t read them. I have gotta believe there have been a huge amount of accidents from this policy alone. 

    But I guess I shouldn’t complain for our Elite Betters absolutely know what is best for us bitter clingers  and this must be it. 

    • #8
  9. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Dotorimuk (View Comment):

    What a weird, fun post.

    Especially for people who might be booking hotel rooms in higher atmospheres of Alderaan. (With thanks to comment 4)

    • #9
  10. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    In September, JY and I got stuck in a hotel near Heathrow after we’d missed our connecting flight to LA.

    We are seldom in hotels, so I can’t compare. But it was the creepiest, biggest hotels I’ve ever seen. Long hallways with geometric carpet. Many, many turns to find your way out.

    • #10
  11. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    There’s at least something good about straight corridors.  Curved corridors, like the Watergate, seem to go on forever and you just about have to count your steps to know where a stairway door would be.  (Whereas with straight corridors you can at least see the end.)  Fortunately I was there for a Star Trek convention and the curved corridors were so Trekkie it made us feel right at home.

    • #11
  12. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Very creepy – what made you post about it?

    • #12
  13. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Very creepy – what made you post about it?

    On the one hand, the topic is a bit more lightweight than my usual focus. So if the person reading it is not on their phone stuck in some endless series of hallways trying to figure out how to leave, it is rather fun.

    I also cannot fathom why this is happening in so many places all at once. Even the hotels that have not descended to this level of the macabre have created a lot of twists and turns for most people to deal with.(As Annefy pointed out in her comment above.)

    I have a well trained service dog, and she uses scent to get us from the elevator over to the door of our hotel room.

    @annefy

     

    • #13
  14. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):

    It reminds me of a strange video I watched on YouTube about some internet phenomenon about liminal spaces.

    I can understand why. For instance, there is no way to know what this place, below, is used for.

    If it is office space, and the stuff on the sides are blinds that can be pulled up, it might not be that weird.

    If it is for someone who went all in on the industrial decor idea, and this will be a living space, it’s creepy:

    • #14
  15. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):

    It reminds me of a strange video I watched on YouTube about some internet phenomenon about liminal spaces.

    There is this strange liminal space:

    The mosaic patterning on the walls is attractive, but if I tried walking down the pink stairs, I would be dizzy the whole way down.

    On the other hand, this liminal space is fetching, especially if it was for a little girl’s bedroom or feminine-styled family room:

    • #15
  16. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Annefy (View Comment):

    In September, JY and I got stuck in a hotel near Heathrow after we’d missed our connecting flight to LA.

    We are seldom in hotels, so I can’t compare. But it was the creepiest, biggest hotels I’ve ever seen. Long hallways with geometric carpet. Many, many turns to find your way out.

    Boy do I feel your agony.

    I imagine geologists and prospectors feel right at home handling such an exploration. But why is this inflicted on the rest of us?

    At least so far, hotels have not bought into the idea that some of us might be amused by snakes.

    Because, fer sure, some of us aren’t:

    • #16
  17. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    I remember seeing the floor plan of an ER which was terrible.  It was a square of open hallways 45 degrees rotated within another square of hallways, and it took three times the time just to walk through it to get from one point to another.  And the three exits went off at odd angles. You could see where you wanted to go, but you could never get there directly.

    It turns out that the design firm had specialized in malls, which were designed to have people walk out of their ways in order to pass as many store fronts as possible.  It appears this weird psychology may now be being applied to hotels.

    PS: Oh, and in the center of the inner square was an enclosed square room, again rotated 45 degrees from the square that it was within.

    • #17
  18. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    The hotel we stayed in was so weird I made note of it in one of my Scotland posts. The hotel was very wide and not so tall. Just huge sprawling floors.

    This is the best I remember. The blue star was where our room was; the hall dead ended into a wall. There was another long hall which also dead ended (which we found out the hard way by making our left early). There were dozens and dozens of rooms on each side of the hallways. I’m assuming a similar layout was on the other side of the elevator; thank God we never made the wrong turn upon exiting the elevator or we might be there still. 

    As mentioned, the carpeting was geometric and busy enough to be disconcerting. The actual room was small and decorated in what I call ugly modern.

    I assume the hotel only serves people like JY and I who have a one-night layover, or have been stranded at Heathrow. Maybe a 15 minute drive to the airport. It definitely had a Shining vibe.

    • #18
  19. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Annefy (View Comment):

    The hotel we stayed in was so weird I made note of it in one of my Scotland posts. The hotel was very wide and not so tall. Just huge sprawling floors.

    This is the best I remember. The blue star was where our room was; the hall dead ended into a wall. There was another long hall which also dead ended (which we found out the hard way by making our left early). There were dozens and dozens of rooms on each side of the hallways. I’m assuming a similar layout was on the other side of the elevator; thank God we never made the wrong turn upon exiting the elevator or we might be there still.

    As mentioned, the carpeting was geometric and busy enough to be disconcerting. The actual room was small and decorated in what I call ugly modern.

    I assume the hotel only serves people like JY and I who have a one-night layover, or have been stranded at Heathrow. Maybe a 15 minute drive to the airport. It definitely had a Shining vibe.

    Your report makes me doubly glad you returned from Scotland.

    I missed your posts and comments while you were gone.

    But to think of you and JY eternally circling the maze of the corridor, subsisting on whatever room service items were left for housekeeping to take away, would not be pleasant.

     

    • #19
  20. Douglas Pratt Coolidge
    Douglas Pratt
    @DouglasPratt

    Wow. My galloping claustrophobia would be triggered by any of them.

    • #20
  21. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Unsk (View Comment):

    Carol, if these corridors are in California, there is a simple answer why they are dimly lit – the idiotic California Green Code has systemically reducing light coverage virtually everywhere so everywhere is very dark.

    One of my big bugaboos is that street and freeway lighting has been so reduced that yes you can see a little light coming out of the street light ( when they are operating) but that street/freeway light never really actually illuminates the ground so it is virtually ineffective, leaving nearly everywhere in the dark. It is very dangerous particularly on the freeways where if there are people walking around a stopped car you cannot see them. What makes it worse is that our now seemingly so self absorbed braindead and brainwashed population doesn’t realize you can’t just walk out on a very dimly lit freeway lane or in the middle of a very dimly lit street street in front of on coming traffic; too many people now have no sense whatsoever. The other day I was driving home at night and I came across my normal totally unlit freeway exit and I could vaguely see that a car had parked off to the right off the road or so I thought but until I got about 30 or 40 feet away and saw that this idiot had parked his car diagonally across the freeway exit, covering most of it and was walking around his car on the exposed side. If I hadn’t slammed on my brakes very hard and almost run off the road I would have killed him.

    What also infuriates me is that most California freeway signs are now not lit at night so you can’t read them. I have gotta believe there have been a huge amount of accidents from this policy alone.

    But I guess I shouldn’t complain for our Elite Betters absolutely know what is best for us bitter clingers and this must be it.

    I’m surprised by your report of reduced outdoor lighting. I find myself annoyed by too-bright lighting in and around places where I drive my car at night. The lighting is so bright that it makes it hard to see what is next to the light. One category is police cars at the side of the road. I understand they want lots of lights to make sure I don’t run into them, but they are now so bright that I can’t see what’s in the lanes beside them where I’m supposed to drive (rather like an oncoming car with its high beam headlights on). Some businesses along the road also have such bright lighting that the contrast with the surrounding darkness makes it hard to see in the surrounding darkness.  

    • #21
  22. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Flicker (View Comment):

    There’s at least something good about straight corridors. Curved corridors, like the Watergate, seem to go on forever and you just about have to count your steps to know where a stairway door would be. (Whereas with straight corridors you can at least see the end.) Fortunately I was there for a Star Trek convention and the curved corridors were so Trekkie it made us feel right at home.

    Last summer we stayed one night in a hotel that had apparently been going for a spaceship vibe when it was built in the 1960s. Three wings spread out from a central elevator core, but each wing was curved. And there was no window at the ends of the hallways. And there was an “inner loop” hallway went all the way around the elevator core. So when near the elevator core it was very confusing where we were in relation to where our room was. The curved wings also meant that the rooms were not rectangular, which we found a bit disconcerting.

    A couple photos on Google Maps (I can’t figure out how to get the photos themselves):

    https://goo.gl/maps/usLHCf56BnGFwGQi7 

    https://goo.gl/maps/nCfZ6gaj4vNJozvV7

    • #22
  23. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    There’s at least something good about straight corridors. Curved corridors, like the Watergate, seem to go on forever and you just about have to count your steps to know where a stairway door would be. (Whereas with straight corridors you can at least see the end.) Fortunately I was there for a Star Trek convention and the curved corridors were so Trekkie it made us feel right at home.

    Last summer we stayed one night in a hotel that had apparently been going for a spaceship vibe when it was built in the 1960s. Three wings spread out from a central elevator core, but each wing was curved. And there was no window at the ends of the hallways. And there was an “inner loop” hallway went all the way around the elevator core. So when near the elevator core it was very confusing where we were in relation to where our room was. The curved wings also meant that the rooms were not rectangular, which we found a bit disconcerting.

    A couple photos on Google Maps (I can’t figure out how to get the photos themselves):

    https://goo.gl/maps/usLHCf56BnGFwGQi7

    https://goo.gl/maps/nCfZ6gaj4vNJozvV7

    If this ship is in Arizona, that’s the one I arrived on.

    • #23
  24. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    There’s at least something good about straight corridors. Curved corridors, like the Watergate, seem to go on forever and you just about have to count your steps to know where a stairway door would be. (Whereas with straight corridors you can at least see the end.) Fortunately I was there for a Star Trek convention and the curved corridors were so Trekkie it made us feel right at home.

    Last summer we stayed one night in a hotel that had apparently been going for a spaceship vibe when it was built in the 1960s. Three wings spread out from a central elevator core, but each wing was curved. And there was no window at the ends of the hallways. And there was an “inner loop” hallway went all the way around the elevator core. So when near the elevator core it was very confusing where we were in relation to where our room was. The curved wings also meant that the rooms were not rectangular, which we found a bit disconcerting.

    A couple photos on Google Maps (I can’t figure out how to get the photos themselves):

    https://goo.gl/maps/usLHCf56BnGFwGQi7

    https://goo.gl/maps/nCfZ6gaj4vNJozvV7

    That place looks awful.

    • #24
  25. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Annefy (View Comment):

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    There’s at least something good about straight corridors. Curved corridors, like the Watergate, seem to go on forever and you just about have to count your steps to know where a stairway door would be. (Whereas with straight corridors you can at least see the end.) Fortunately I was there for a Star Trek convention and the curved corridors were so Trekkie it made us feel right at home.

    Last summer we stayed one night in a hotel that had apparently been going for a spaceship vibe when it was built in the 1960s. Three wings spread out from a central elevator core, but each wing was curved. And there was no window at the ends of the hallways. And there was an “inner loop” hallway went all the way around the elevator core. So when near the elevator core it was very confusing where we were in relation to where our room was. The curved wings also meant that the rooms were not rectangular, which we found a bit disconcerting.

    A couple photos on Google Maps (I can’t figure out how to get the photos themselves):

    https://goo.gl/maps/usLHCf56BnGFwGQi7

    https://goo.gl/maps/nCfZ6gaj4vNJozvV7

    That place looks awful.

    It looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since 1963.

    • #25
  26. Marjorie Reynolds Coolidge
    Marjorie Reynolds
    @MarjorieReynolds

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):

    It reminds me of a strange video I watched on YouTube about some internet phenomenon about liminal spaces.

    There is this strange liminal space:

    The mosaic patterning on the walls is attractive, but if I tried walking down the pink stairs, I would be dizzy the whole way down.

    On the other hand, this liminal space is fetching, especially if it was for a little girl’s bedroom or feminine-styled family room:

    I’m going to have to come back to this, because I don’t know what I’m trying to say and the book I need to look at is in a different house. I was at a talk given by an eminent theologian who lives near enough to me. He’s just written a new book on liturgy and he was talking about liminality. I have to look up the context. 

    • #26
  27. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):
    He’s just written a new book on liturgy and he was talking about liminality. I have to look up the context. 

    I had to look up the term as I wasn’t familiar with it at all, even though I’ve heard the word.  But now that I have seen the quick one paragraph definition, I have to ask if it makes any sense at all to talk about liminal spaces without knowing what spaces you’re transitioning between.   In other words, without knowing the context. 

    • #27
  28. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):
    He’s just written a new book on liturgy and he was talking about liminality. I have to look up the context.

    I had to look up the term as I wasn’t familiar with it at all, even though I’ve heard the word. But now that I have seen the quick one paragraph definition, I have to ask if it makes any sense at all to talk about liminal spaces without knowing what spaces you’re transitioning between. In other words, without knowing the context.

    I’m not familiar enough with the term to know the answer to your question.

    Images that come up when I type  “liminal spaces” into a search engine can remind more of what used to be called “minimalist.”

    The preponderance of images were large white walls with an etching with a light cream colored background and a faded out light beige image as the actual picture.

    I have no idea if that is indeed what is meant by liminal.

    • #28
  29. Marjorie Reynolds Coolidge
    Marjorie Reynolds
    @MarjorieReynolds

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):
    He’s just written a new book on liturgy and he was talking about liminality. I have to look up the context.

    I had to look up the term as I wasn’t familiar with it at all, even though I’ve heard the word. But now that I have seen the quick one paragraph definition, I have to ask if it makes any sense at all to talk about liminal spaces without knowing what spaces you’re transitioning between. In other words, without knowing the context.

    I’m not familiar enough with the term to know the answer to your question.

    Images that come up when I type “liminal spaces” into a search engine can remind more of what used to be called “minimalist.”

    The preponderance of images were large white walls with an etching with a light cream colored background and a faded out light beige image as the actual picture.

    I have no idea if that is indeed what is meant by liminal.

    I think in the theology context it might have meant the liturgy was to help us transition in a sense from this world to spiritual world. I really wish I’d taken notes.

    In the context of the internet phenomenon of liminal spaces, some people seem to find comfort or enjoyment of some kind from looking at images of in between places like stairwells or hallways. I found some of the images a little unsettling 

    • #29
  30. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Marjorie Reynolds (View Comment):

    I think in the theology context it might have meant the liturgy was to help us transition in a sense from this world to spiritual world. I really wish I’d taken notes.

    That would be my guess. I had a class on Lutheran worship in college (just one credit, as I remember, and very abstract) and I don’t run away screaming when I’m in the presence of abstract discussion of liturgy, but if the word “liminal” was used in my presence it went in one ear and out the other.  

    In the context of the internet phenomenon of liminal spaces, some people seem to find comfort or enjoyment of some kind from looking at images of in between places like stairwells or hallways. I found some of the images a little unsettling 

    That sounds weird if the spaces they connect to are not part of it.  This reminds me of my pet peeves, though:  photography that doesn’t show the connections.  National Geography photography, for example. The old photos might show a village of mud huts in Africa, or anywhere else, but I want to see how that place connects physically to the world. I want to see the roads that people use to get from these places to the nearest McDonalds. I want to see the utility wires, and where they go.  I want to see what’s in the roadside ditches along the way.  On our first visit to Ireland in 1999 I probably took too much interest in how roads connected to driveways and how driveways connected to houses.  In fact, that may be when I was first aware that I had this interest. 

     

    • #30
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