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The mysterious Room 322 in Houston’s luxurious Hotel ZaZa – unlisted private room looks like a snuff film set.

Houstin Hotel ZaZa room 322 2-way mirror

The foreboding Room 322 inside Houston’s Hotel ZaZa

Hotel ZaZa Houston arrow pointing to Room 322 (11th floor)

The mysterious Room 322 inside Hotel ZaZa in Houston, Texas is not listed for rent but was purportedly exposed in February 2013 when a travelling business customer was accidentally placed in the room by mistake and promptly took pictures of the room which, with cold dirty concrete floors, chains on the walls, skull and bones paintings, two-way mirrors, and plastic wrapped furniture, looks like the foreboding film set for a dark snuff movie.  Reddit user “joelikesmusic”, who recognized that the room differed from the hotel’s normally posh, stately rooms and thus, posted pictures of the bizarre room in the public forum, posed the question, “Does anyone know what’s up with this room?” and commenced describing his experience inside the unusual room.

“Hotel was booked solid, and my colleague managed to score a room unplanned. We all had normal Hotel ZaZa style rooms (swank) and he ended up in this goth dungeon closet. Seriously – the room had a chain holding the bed to wall, pictures of skulls and a creepy, incongruous portrait of an old man. Looking around it got a little weirder; there’s a skull and pictures of these large-eyed, long-necked characters. The room was about 1/3 the normal size with the furniture blocking part of the TV, bed, and window. The first thing that struck me was the lack of carpet; I thought it was unfinished.

We asked about it at the front desk and the clerk looked it up and said, ‘that room isn’t supposed to be rented’ and immediately moved him.”

The story grew even stranger when an anonymous forum user asked “Joe” to delete the thread about the strange, unlisted room. He was offered $1,000 to remove the thread from public view.  The original request read:

“In exchange for a sum of $1,000.00 wired to an account of your choice please delete your submission/respond to no further inquiries regarding the hotel matter. Payment shall be made in 15 days if the request is honored. Thank you.”

He refused the offer.

Room 322 is listed – then unlisted again

Houstin Hotel ZaZa room 322 bare concrete floors

Hotel ZaZa is a stylish hotel chain, known for its luxurious suites, with branches in Dallas and Houston, Texas. Room 322 in the Houston ZaZa hotel (which was constructed several years ago inside what used to be the old Warwick Building) is deeply unsettling with sinister paintings hanging from the walls, what looks like a two-way mirror next to the bed, and a portrait of Standford Financial Group President Jay Comeaux overlooking the entire creepy set.

When hotel management was contacted about the strange room, they stated that the unit, although not listed as a room available for rent at the time, was a “theme room” called “Hard Times”. Within days of the story breaking, the hidden room suddenly appeared on their website as a room available for rent to the public. Then as the story died down in the press, the room once again disappeared from Hotel ZaZa’s website (and as of late 2013, was still not listed as a unit in the property).

Clues emerge – what about all that weird stuff in Room 322?

Houston Hotel ZaZa room 322 chains holding bed to wall

Clues as to the room’s haunting décor then surfaced in public forums. Researchers have noted that Hotel ZaZas’ president, Benji Homesy, has college ties to Jay Comeaux, whose picture hangs on the wall of the dark room amongst paintings of grinning skulls and a two-headed, twisted-neck woman. Oddly enough, despite the room number, Room 322 is on the 11th floor. Some have connected Homesy and Comeaux’s common college fraternity to the infamous Yale Skull and Bones Society to which the number 322 is especially relevant (322 is related to the founding of the organization and is considered sacred by Skull and Bones members).

Hotel management remains reserved when questioned about the existence of the hidden room.  Vice Magazine followed up on the original story, called hotel management, and amongst the questions posed, asked about the paintings that hang from the room’s walls. The hotel’s response before the call abruptly ended?

“I’m sorry, I’m having trouble hearing you. I will get back to you on that.”

Other calls to the hotel, including one from the Houston Press, were initially ignored but returned after the newspaper published a story about the room. The responses from hotel management included the same canned response: “It’s a theme room intended to mimic a jail cell” to which the public responded, “Really? A jail cell with two-way mirrors, skull and bones decorations on the walls, plastic-covered furniture, and paintings of two-headed girls?”

Houston’s Hotel ZaZa Room 322 pictorial gallery

Check out the pictures below and decide for yourself. Is this some sort of Illuminati crash pad, a room for whacked out Skull and Bones members, a voyeuristic sex-dungeon for rich weirdoes, some sort of movie set for a snuff film, or just a stripped-down theme room with a large profit margin? Either way, I think we’ll all agree the room is the definition of “creepy” and the perfect place to bed a person you wish to traumatize for life.

Image Credits

In-Article Image Credits

Hotel ZaZa Houston arrow pointing to Room 322 (11th floor) via Booking.com with usage type - Fair use with modification
Skull and Bones theme in Hotel ZaZa room 322 Houston via Imgur by ZaZa with usage type - Creative Commons License. Per TOS, for personal, non-commercial purposes
Houston Hotel ZaZa room 322 chains holding bed to wall via Imgur by ZaZa with usage type - Creative Commons License. Per TOS, for personal, non-commercial purposes
Houstin Hotel ZaZa room 322 2-way mirror via Imgur by ZaZa with usage type - Creative Commons License. Per TOS, for personal, non-commercial purposes
Houstin Hotel ZaZa room 322 via Imgur by ZaZa with usage type - Creative Commons License. Per TOS, for personal, non-commercial purposes
Houstin Hotel ZaZa room 322 bare concrete floors via Imgur by ZaZa with usage type - Creative Commons License. Per TOS, for personal, non-commercial purposes

Featured Image Credit

Houstin Hotel ZaZa room 322 2-way mirror via Imgur by ZaZa with usage type - Creative Commons License. Per TOS, for personal, non-commercial purposes

 

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