The hotel I chose was in LA. Yelp was my best friend. Travelocity. The Stay on Main hostel website.
It is my duty as a travel journalist to find quality experiences. I felt I did well. It was a good time. I have nothing to be unhappy about. A little weirdness.
It was still fine because I paid the lowest rate possible per night in Downtown LA to attend the NATPE Conference. With a $60 nightly rate, I didn’t expect much.
You can also book on Agoda if you are brave enough.
Stay at Main LA’s Deadliest Hotel
Six months later, I came across the article about a mystery death at the Cecil Hotel. A 21-year-old woman tourist had been found dead inside the water tank. Guests complained that the water tasted strange and there was low pressure. The water was contaminated by her body.
I would like to clarify the fact that the Cecil Hotel and the stay on main are the same. The front desks are separate during the day but after 7pm, all SOM customers deal with Cecil’s staff because the two hotels share the same facility.
There is no direct access from the SOM entry to the rooms. All SOM rooms can be accessed via the Cecil elevators and stairwell. The Cecil Hotel is the Stay on Main with its hip, Scandinavian, Scandinavian-inspired decor.
Locally, the Cecil Hotel is known as LA’s Murder Hotel. It was a place people used to go commit suicide in mid-20th Century, and serial killers stayed ($14 per night for Richard Ramirez! The Cecil hotel is known as strong>LA’s Murder Hotel/strong>. It was a place where people committed suicide in the mid-20th century, and serial killers lived ($14 a night for Richard Ramirez, folks!
I’m not about to hash out my theories of what happened, as really my aim is to say that I stayed in this hotel, NOT knowing despite my research that the two were the same, NOT knowing as a tourist that the Cecil is a killing/paranormal or whatever-you-want-to-call-it “free-for-all”, nor were there any disclosure online to be had, connecting the SOM with the Elisa Lam incident that occurred only 3 months before my visit. One of the elevators in this hotel was not working all five days I stayed there.
The Stay on Main Hotel and The Cecil Hotel Are the Same
Once more, let me reiterate that The Cecil Hotel is Stay on Main dressed up in orange and blue polka dot flowers. Stay on Main is rated 3.6 to 4.5 stars on Yelp, and TripAdvisor. The Cecil Hotel has been rated 2-2.6 with a trailing conspiracy theorists.
The airport shuttle driver explained to me that at 10:30pm he would be dropping me at the Cecil Hotel.
What’s the purpose of Stay on Main, anyway? Art? Swanky design to attract hipster tourists. Is it a marketing scheme designed to hide the Cecil’s macabre and shady past?
Next time you are researching hostels for a new town, be sure to add’murders’, and’the bloated corpse’, in your search. It is important because it could be your life.
Noted.
Are you interested in knowing more about the Cecil Hotel’s history?
Netflix has a documentary called The Vanishing At the Cecil Hotel. This documentary tells the story of Elisa, a missing girl who was discovered dead in the water tank of the Cecil Hotel. It also traces the history of this hotel as well as many other deaths that have occurred over the years.