13 Hotel Horror Books Keen to Welcome You
We hope you enjoy your stay
Spooky hotels and motels don’t always look like spooky hotels and motels.
But sometimes they do.
But what else can you do if you’re tired, or a storm sweeps in, or if you’re desperate for a job? Sometimes we don’t have a choice and we have to take what we can get.
Here are thirteen hotel horror books that are perfect to read if you’re travelling this holiday season. However, they may mean you don’t get much sleep. And not just because you stay awake to finish the book.
Don’t drive drowsy. Stop at a hotel or motel and shut your eyes for a while. We dare you.
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Table of Contents
Owl Eyes Motel – Barbara Avon
Motel horror collection
Owl Eyes Motel is a collection of short supernatural horror stories, all set in the same motel.
“Come in! Come in! Welcome to the Owl Eyes Motel. My name is Milton and I am the owner of this fine establishment, situated on Route Number 666. That’s six-hundred and sixty-six. Owl Eyes offers impeccable service. There is no lack of creature comforts at this here motel. At Owl Eyes, we pride ourselves on our attention to detail. Management kindly reminds you that we are not responsible for lost luggage…or souls.”
The year is 1985, and there’s a storm brewing. It’s the kind that forces even the derelicts to retreat to their gutters. Each room is its own unique story; each chapter, a room.
Check in at Owl Eyes and stay a spell, won’t you? There’s always room for the dead.
“Walter watched as the taxi driver sped away, anxious for his next dime. He picked up his one suitcase and entered the foyer of the motel, cringing as the bell on the door rattled endlessly.”
The Evergreen Motel – Marc Layton
Supernatural motel horror series
The Evergreen Motel is a five-book supernatural horror book series set in … you guessed it, The Evergreen Motel.
On the run after killing her abusive ex-boyfriend, Aly is desperate and needs somewhere to hide. She finds refuge in a motel, but soon discovers she’s not free from the terror she endured in her relationship.
The police are hunting her, but they’re not the only threat she faces. Her abusive ex lurks in the shadows, taunting her. His inexplicable presence isn’t the only otherworldly being who makes their presence known.
Rocked to her core, Aly knows it’s only a matter of time until the police, her past, or the evil that now surrounds her will catch up to her.
“A large, rectangular sign had been planted near the driveway, red neon letters reading The Evergreen Motel. A smaller sign hung from the larger one by two chains, and it glowed with pink letters, swaying slightly in the fall breeze. Vacancy.”
Hotel Destiny – Raymond Benson
Ghost noir hotel horror
Hotel Destiny is a ghost noir horror story set in the Hotel Destiny in Manhattan.
It’s 1985 and Cole Sackler is the night manager and self-proclaimed hotel detective for the transient Hotel Destiny, which has been plagued with scandals over the century, including several murders, gangster occupation and ownership, and fleabag status during the 1960s and 70s. Five recent slayings in the building have been attributed to one killer.
During the gala grand re-opening Halloween party, Cole himself is murdered by a masked man. But Cole “awakes” as a ghost, still in the hotel. Before his death, a woman had told him that hidden portals located throughout the building can lead to other time periods, and that the key to Cole’s destiny is in the hotel’s past and embedded in its many secrets.
Cole sets out to solve his own murder by dropping in on living characters throughout Hotel Destiny’s history and observing and/or interacting with them. His goal is to discover the identity of his killer, as well as learn the ironic truth about his own family, his heritage, and himself!
“He had been the night manager and self-proclaimed hotel detective since 1974. A fat lot of good he did, though. Not counting the slain maid found in the boiler room in 1972, which was before his time at the hotel, four more murders had occurred on his watch.”
Detox Hotel – Jonah Frick
Thriller hotel horror
Detox Hotel is a thriller horror story set in the, well, the Detox Hotel.
In 1973, a homeless drug addict is rescued from the streets of Detroit by a rich entrepreneur and offered sanctuary at the luxurious Detox Hotel.
In 2020, Trevor, a young heroin addict, is abducted by a masked stranger and forced to withdraw and face his demons at the same Detox Hotel, now haunted and abandoned.
Ninety miles away, an alcoholic business owner on the brink of bankruptcy and relapse leaves his hometown to find his brother Trevor after their father commits suicide under suspicious circumstances. He recruits Trevor’s girlfriend and best friend in a chaotic journey to find his lost brother in this twisted tale of conspiracy, time travel, murder, addiction, and recovery.
“When Randolph Grey was a child, his mother taught him to believe that people who use drugs and lived on the streets were mentally ill, lazy, or pure evil … If he ever kept a tally, today would have marked 3,650 days of not listening to a word of his mother’s advice.”
The Sun Down Motel – Simone St. James
Supernatural motel horror
The Sun Down Motel is a mystery horror story set in the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York.
Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel. But something isn’t right at the motel.
Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down Motel before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.
“She looked at the glowing blue and yellow sign, the two storeys of rooms in two long stripes in the shape of an L, and thought, I don’t want to go in there. But I will. She was ready, but she was still afraid. It was 10:59pm.”
The Devil’s Inn – David Watkins
Supernatural hotel horror
The Devil’s Inn is a supernatural horror story set in the Warren House Inn in Dartmoor.
There is a pub in the heart of Dartmoor where a fire has burned every day for over one hundred and fifty years.
It is said the fire never goes out.
It is said that if it does, the Devil will appear and claim the souls of all inside.
Tonight, seven strangers are stranded there during a fierce snowstorm.
Tonight, the fire will go out…
“On the day that Mark killed a man for the first – but not the last – time, he ended up being late to pick up his girlfriend.”
Hotel Megalodon – Rick Chesler
Animal hotel horror
Hotel Megalodon is an animal horror story set in an underwater luxury hotel.
An underwater luxury hotel on a tropical island is set for an extravagant opening weekend with the world watching. The only thing standing in the way of a first-rate experience for the jet-setting VIPs is an unscrupulous businessman and sixty feet of prehistoric shark.
As the underwater complex is besieged by a marauding behemoth, marine biologist Coco Keahi must face off against the ancient predator as it rises from the deep with a vengeance. Meanwhile, a human monster has decided he would be better off if Coco were one of the creature’s victims.
“But he had seen it, his father, too, bless his departed soul, and he spoke of it now. An animal that size likely lived a very long time. It could still be alive, he thought, down there somewhere, upset by the unnatural disturbances wrought by the foreigners tinkering with the reef.”
The Grand Hotel – Scott Kenemore
Supernatural hotel horror
The Grand Hotel is a supernatural horror story set in the Grand Hotel.
Welcome to the hotel where nobody checks out.
When a desk clerk welcomes a group of tourists into his mysterious and crumbling hotel, the last thing he expects is that a lone girl on his tour may hold the power to unravel the hidden mystery that has lain for untold centuries within the structure’s walls.
Enjoy this thrilling ride through an interconnected series of stories narrated by the desk clerk and the residents of the hotel itself. And while it is not known if the desk clerk is actually the devil incarnate, it is strange that so many visitors who come for a tour of the hotel have a way of never leaving.
“Past the staircase, we begin to encounter doors to private rooms. Each has a heavy brass knob and a single keyhole. (Contemporary hostelries have converted to keycards, true, but at the Grand Hotel we find the old ways are best.) Some doors still have visible room numbers, yet many bear no demarcation at all.”
The Sleep Tight Motel – Lisa Unger
Thriller motel horror
The Sleep Tight Motel is a thriller horror story set in the isolated Sleep Tight Motel and is part of the Amazon Original Dark Corners collection.
Eve has a fake ID, a .38, and is running from a violent lover. He’ll never find her at the isolated Sleep Tight Motel, and its kindly manager is happy to ease her fears.
But if Eve is the only guest, whom does she keep hearing on the other side of the wall? Eve won’t get a good night’s rest until she finds out.
“A low concrete line of a building, red doors in a tidy row. There’s a rocker out in front of each curtained window, a dim light on the wall, just above and to the left of each rocker.”
Purgatory Hotel – Anne-Marie Ormsby
Supernatural hotel horror
Purgatory Hotel is a supernatural horror story set in Purgatory.
Dakota Crow has been murdered and her body dumped in a lonely part of the woods. Nobody knows but her and her killer.
Stranded in Purgatory, a rotting hotel on the edge of forever, with no memory of her death, Dakota knows she must have done something bad to be stranded among murderers and rapists. To get to somewhere safer, she must hide from the shadowy stranger stalking her through the corridors of the hotel, and find out how to repent for her sins.
But first she must re-live her life.
Soon she will learn about her double life, a damaging love affair, terrible secrets, and lies that led to her violent death.
Dakota must face her own demons, and make amends for her own crimes before she can solve her murder and move on.
“Dakota was on the floor of a gloomy Victorian-looking hotel lobby. The blood that had been pouring from a wound in her head was now gone, as was the wound. The dark gloves of blood that had covered her hands had now disappeared and she was left confused by the illusion for a moment. Her confusion soon spread to her location. She had no idea how she came to be in a hotel lobby, or indeed where the hotel was.”
Death Lake Motel – Rod Little
Slasher motel horror
Death Lake Motel is a slasher horror novella set in the isolated Death Lake Motel.
On their way to a secluded lake in a rainstorm, three weekend fishermen pick up two girls stranded by the side of the road. In need of a landline and shelter from the storm, they take the girls to the nearest motel.
When they arrive, the check-in clerk is already dead. They search the rooms and find more blood, with all the guests as dead as the phones.
And one of the killers is still there.
When their car is stolen by a stranger, stranding them at the corpse-filled motel with little chance of help in the storm, they must search for clues to avoid the killer and stay alive. But the biggest clue is about to come after them. This was no robbery. These killings had a purpose.
“The headlights caught the glint of chrome and red flashers long before the wreckage came into view. When they reached the scene of the accident, Owen tapped the brakes and squinted past the sheet of rain. A small car had slid off the road and hit a tree head-on.”
The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice – Wilkie Collins
Mystery hotel horror
The Haunted Hotel is a mystery horror story set in the Palace Hotel in Venice.
A Countess is driven mad by a dark secret. An innocent woman is made the instrument of retribution. A murdered man’s fury reaches beyond the grave.
When Countess Narona marries Agnes Lockwood’s fiancé and takes him to live in a rundown Venetian palace, strange things start happening, a servant mysteriously vanishes, and the husband dies a recluse. But the dead won’t rest.
When the palace is transformed into a hotel the two women are drawn to its chambers, where a force stronger than death is waiting to wreak its vengeance.
“‘I want to know, if you please, whether I am in danger of going mad?’
“Some men might have been amused, and some might have been alarmed. Doctor Wybrow was only conscious of a sense of disappointment. Was this the rare case that he had anticipated, judging rashly by appearances? Was the new patient only a hypochondriacal woman, whose malady was a disordered stomach and whose misfortune was a weak brain?”
Deadfall Hotel – Steve Rasnic Tem
Supernatural hotel horror
Deadfall Hotel is a supernatural horror story set in the, yep, the Deadfall Hotel.
Recently widowed and unemployed, Richard Carter finds a new job, and a new life for him and his daughter Serena, as manager of the mysterious Deadfall Hotel.
Jacob Ascher, the caretaker, is there to show Richard the ropes, and to tell him the many rules and traditions, but from the beginning, their new world haunts and transforms them. It’s a terrible place.
As the seasons pass, the supernatural and the sublime become a part of life, as routine as a morning cup of coffee, but it’s not safe, by any means.
Deadfall Hotel is where Richard and Serena will rebuild the life that was taken from them, if it doesn’t kill them first.
“Deadfall Hotel. A curtain of gnarled, skeletal oak and pine hides it from the rest of the world. The hotel is not well-lit, there is no sign, and night comes early here. The main highway bypassed its access road nearly half a century ago. From the air (and a few private pilots still venture over, out of curiosity) the hotel appears to follow the jumbled line of a train wreck, cars thrown out at all angles and yet still attached in sequence.”
Published: 8 December 2022
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