The Haunted Hotel

This week I'm traveling to Shrewsbury where I will stay for three nights for work.  We have an 80 pound budget for hotels.  That means we have to find a hotel (and breakfast) for 80 quid or less per night.  It isn't always easy.  After a bit of research I found one hotel I thought looked rather nice and where I could get a room within budget: The Prince Rupert.

Last week I had a conference with the client in Shrewsbury and the client, not knowing what hotel I had booked, warned me that when I booked my hotel I had to make sure that I didn't book the Prince Rupert.  He told me it is haunted.  At first I thought he was joking, or at least he was joking in advising that I steer clear of the hotel.  But after consulting a few of his colleagues, I realised that he was serious.  In fact, everyone I spoke to in Shrewsbury warned me to stay away from the hotel. 

When I got back to the office, I googled the hotel.  Sure enough, I found the Guardian lists it as one of the top ten haunted hotels in the country.  I don't believe in ghosts.  However, I don't want to be proved wrong in that belief.  Particularly when I'm alone in my hotel room at three in the morning.

I made the mistake of telling my colleagues that I was changing my hotel because it was haunted.  This with some derision.   In fact, one of them rather tactlessly said that she might make that decision too, if she hit her head and turned into an irrational fool.  It very quickly became apparent that if I changed my hotel I would never hear the end of it.  So pride took over, and I have stuck with the Prince Rupert.  So that is where I will be staying and hoping not to see, as other guests have claimed to see, the spectre of a woman hanging from the ceiling or plates flying across the room. I will let you know next week whether or not I made the right decision.