Note: This article pertaining to Floored by Superstitions in Las Vegas. was originally published on Sunday, September 21, 2014 at 2:15 in the morning and has been updated.
In the elevator on my way up to Mix at the top floor of what was then known as the Delano hotel property in Las Vegas, I noticed that the buttons on the panel mysteriously skipped from 39 to 60; so I simply thought to myself that the elevator was an express between those floors…
Floored by Superstitions in Las Vegas.
…but the hotel property was only 43 stories tall. How can than be possible?!?
Apparently, I understand that the number four is considered bad luck to people from China; so no floors were numbered 40 through 49 to exacerbate that superstition. In addition, gamblers supposedly believe that a $50.00 bill is bad luck — which perhaps explains why no floors numbered 50 through 59 were at the Delano hotel property either.
Superstitions in travel are amazing sometimes, about which I wrote in this article. I have been a guest at many hotel properties which number floor number 13 as the fourteenth floor, as 13 is considered an unlucky number.
Gamblers are especially known to be superstitious, as all sorts of superstitions seem to apply in various aspects of betting in Las Vegas.
Final Boarding Call
The whole superstition about how a floor at a hotel is numbered is silly, in my opinion. Name the floor 13 stories up whatever you want; but it is still the thirteenth floor. If a hotel does not want guests to stay on the thirteenth floor, then use it for staff and other purposes. Store soiled laundry on that floor. Convert it into one long racquetball court or several pickleball courts. Throw the inconsiderate and noisy guests on that floor and isolate them from the rest of the guests in the hotel property. Better yet: have them dodging ricocheting racquetballs or pickleballs all night long.
It is almost like naming the 13th Annual Brooklyn Reality Tour the 14th Annual Brooklyn Reality Tour. I am originally from Brooklyn — but what do I know? The ZIP code in which I lived was 11236 where all of the numerals add up to 13. The exit off of which I lived on the Belt Parkway was — and still is — numbered 13. There were 13 steps on each staircase in the house in which I lived.
The subway line which I regularly used in New York was the L train — only one letter away from being the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. It was once called the LL train — could the second L be worth one instead of ten similarly to how an ace can either be a worth one or ten when paired with a card such as a king in blackjack?
Come to think of it, I am surprised I lived past the age of 13…
…but now the topic has returned full circle back to Las Vegas, where I originally typed and published this article from the thirteenth floor of the Mandalay Bay Las Vegas hotel property…
All photographs ©2014 and ©2023 by Brian Cohen
