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Why is there no 13th floor in some hotels?


ILikeNightmares

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The companies want to market to all audiences. To so many people worldwide, the #13 translates into bad luck. They literally won't sit in a row or live in an apartment/hotel if it's numbered "13" out of superstition.

Edited by Dark Qiviut
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Superstition. I don't know about planes but in many, many hotels Bad shit happens on the 13th floor, mainly because superstition.

 

Literally Google 13th floor. First page is wiki

Edited by CodeHell
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If you ever get a chance to look, you might also notice that hotels will often not have a room no. 13, either skipping over it or having a 12A and 12B. It's just the whole stigma in numerous cultures worldwide of 13 being unlucky. Likewise in some Asian countries I hear that some hotels charge a little extra on room no. 7 since 7 is a lucky number in many Asian cultures.

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Huh. I never knew this. It was sorta interesting to me, so I did some google searches on it. Apparently it all falls down to superstition, mostly. But the first site also mention triskaidekaphobia - the fear of the number 13. I couldn't guess who would have it in the scenario of building the place for them to not label it, but if the phobia was the meaning for a hotel not to have it, then someone did. If you want to read more about it, here's the places that I was reading it from.

Site 1

Site 2

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The companies want to market to all audiences. To so many Americans, the #13 translates into bad luck. They literally won't sit in a row or live in an apartment/hotel if it's numbered "13" out of superstition.

It's not just America. Many countries leave it out. Or rename it I should say.

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It's not just America. Many countries leave it out. Or rename it I should say.

 

I know for a fact that, coming from Britain and living in New Zealand, both countries do the same thing. Unlucky 13 generally seems to be a more Western world thing, though I am by no means 100% sure about that.

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well said@@Dark Qiviut, . as to why 13 is considered unlucky, that I'm not so sure about.

The origins are somewhat of a mystery. One considered reason is from religion, particularly Christianity (and possibly the tale of The Last Supper). Triskaidekaphobia is very real, and to live on the 13th floor can really trigger anxiety to those with the phobia.

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The belief of 13 being unluckly is widely believed to stem from Judas, who was the "13th" Disciple of Jesus. Also thoughout the ages a few bad things have just so happened to occur on the thirteenth so the myth just grew from there. 

 

I also believe King's Cross station once had no platform 13 because of the bad luck mythos XD

Edited by Malinter
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In downtown Denver, Colorado there is a library with no 6th floor.

 

I've inadvertently been to floor 13, and room 13 in two different buildings, and well...let's just say there's a good reason you can't go there the normal way. Some things you're just better off not thinking about...*trails off*

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It's a superstition thing, 13 is considered unlucky so you'll find 13th rows are missing, 13th floors, 13th rooms or house numbers. I've even had a case once of a delivery that refused to ship on Friday the 13th because it's bad luck :P

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  • 3 weeks later...

If you ever get a chance to look, you might also notice that hotels will often not have a room no. 13, either skipping over it or having a 12A and 12B. It's just the whole stigma in numerous cultures worldwide of 13 being unlucky. Likewise in some Asian countries I hear that some hotels charge a little extra on room no. 7 since 7 is a lucky number in many Asian cultures.

Likewise some hotels don't use the number 4, though it's usually in China; Taiwan, Japan, and Korea are mostly okay with it (though Taiwan bans using more than three 4s in a row in phone numbers).

 

Hell the phone number 777-7777 costs more than a million dollars in terms of USD.

 

Most of the time the number belief doesn't intrude on anything.

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Well, because of the whole superstition surrounding the number 13 and the claim it always brings bad luck. Remember the Friday the 13th movies? Well, there's the belief that Friday 13th is the day where all bad luck is much more free and bad things happen more constantly.

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The number thirteen is usually seen as bad luck, and people are scared of it enough not to put a 13th floor. In Japan and other countries in Asia, the numbers four and seven are also seen as bad luck, while the number 20 is seen as good luck. It's all because of superstition.

Edited by Namae
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The number thirteen is usually seen as bad luck, and people are scared of it enough not to put a 13th floor. In Japan and other countries in Asia, the numbers four and seven are also seen as bad luck, while the number 20 is seen as good luck. It's all because of superstition.

i've heard about 13 being considered bad by people. but i never heard of 4 and 7 being considered bad, nor 20 being consdiered good.

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i've heard about 13 being considered bad by people. but i never heard of 4 and 7 being considered bad, nor 20 being consdiered good.

I know this is true at least in Japan, although I have heard of 4 being unlucky in other countries, due to the pronunciation sounding similar to death in their language. They even have another way to say the word so it sounds different.

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They have that in airplanes too. When you're given a ticket, you are assigned a seat where the rows are numbered and each seat therein given a letter. I remember that one time my seat was on the fourteenth row and I was looking around all confused as it appeared there were people in my seat. Upon closer examination, I realized there was no 13th row. A real eye-roll moment.

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