The tourists may have gone home for the summer but guests are still checking into the Route 6 Motel in Cavendish.<\/p>\n
The business, which opened this past summer with the intent of scaring people, has re-opened to deliver another gut punch this Halloween.<\/p>\n
The Route 6 Motel will be open Thursday to Sunday this week (there\u2019s no school Thursday or Friday) and open again Friday to Sunday next week.<\/p>\n
This was the first season for the motel. Before the space was renovated it existed in its previous life as King Tut\u2019s Tomb, just past Sandspit.<\/p>\n
Adam Hickey, vice-president of Maritime Fun Group, which operates the motel, said they literally stripped the building down to its studs and gutted everything.<\/p>\n
Then, they started on the layout of how the hallways would wind through before creating a list of elements and scares that they would include.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we had that done we started working on telling the story, the history of the motel and the strange happenings that have occurred here over the years,\u2019\u2019 Hickey said.<\/p>\n
As the story goes, it was a thriving motel in the 1950s and 60s on the Moore Road, formerly the entrance to the P.E.I. National Park, a prime location for any hotel.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, when the entrance to the park was moved the owner started to run into financial difficulties as well as some pretty strange and unsettling occurrences, forcing the motel to close.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
In the 1990s, another company acquired the motel, renovating it with an eye to bringing it back to its former glory. However, strange things continued to happen. It became the haunted motel it is today.<\/p>\n
Hickey said the first season went very well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the summer we\u2019ve had an early checkout rate,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cPretty consistently, about a third of the people don\u2019t make it through. This Halloween (season) we\u2019ve seen a few braver souls come in so there\u2019s more making it through.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Due to the professional development day in the school system, the haunted motel will open from noon to 10 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n
Jessica Caseley, vice-president of marketing for the Maritime Fun Group, said the reactions of guests have been incredible to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople take really strong reactions to being scared,\u2019\u2019 Caseley said. \u201cThere was one girl who, as soon as the lights went out, curled into a ball and wouldn\u2019t get up so we had to get one of our staff members come over and cajole her back into the haunt.<\/p>\n
Originally published in The Guardian\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n