Are There Any Hotels In America With A 13th Floor?

If you have triskaidekaphobia, you're one of an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the world irrationally scared of the number 13, a fear that impairs you socially, occupationally, or functionally. A 2007 Gallup poll report found that — wait for it — 13% of Americans are uneasy about staying on a hotel's 13th floor, and that 9% would even ask for another room on a different level. In the same year, then-Marriott International chairman Bill Marriott declared, "It was one of the first things I learned: Don't go to 13." (For those planning travel, some Marriott hotels with a 13th-floor label include the Marriott Marquis Houston and the Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield.)

Because they are in the hospitality business, many hotels in America choose to skip this level to welcome everyone with comfortable stays free of anxiety, and some even skip 13 as a room number. And talk about taking guest service to great heights: Burnham Hotel, first constructed in 1895, later spared no effort and expense to erase its 13th level by re-labeling all floors and room numbers from the 12th story on. (With that out of the way, you'd only have to worry about tangible creepies, like the fact that the Burnham is located in Chicago, the country's biggest hotspot for bed bug infestations in 2025.)

However, some hotel brands, including the Waldorf Astoria, the entire Hilton International chain, and The Brown Hotel in Kentucky, choose practicality over superstition by maintaining 13th floors. The reality is, even if you land on floor 12B or 14, floor numbers hotels like to replace 13 with, you're technically still 13 stories above street level. The city of Vancouver goes as far as to prohibit this practice, preventing confusion and disorientation in emergency situations.

Whether it's business sense — the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute estimates $800 to $900 million is lost commercially on each Friday the 13th because people avoid transactions and travel — or being better safe than sorry, circumventing 13 is a journey beyond hotels. In the superlatively superstitious nautical realm, many cruise ships gloss over deck 13 and cabin number 13. It seems like no one is taking chances, especially after the Costa Concordia capsized on Friday the 13th in 2012. 

Airports such as Chicago O'Hare, Boston Logan, and Seoul's Incheon, reportedly don't have gate 13s, and Austin-Bergstrom alleviates flying anxiety with "Gate ∞" between 12 and 14, an interactive installation where you can print a boarding pass to imaginary places like Narnia and Hogwarts. There are also airlines that omit row 13 from seating plans, such as Alaska Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, and Qatar Airways. Coincidence or not, they're all among the 10 safest airlines in the world.

Yet, 13 is not the only "unlucky" number when it comes to travel superstitions. For Chinese language speakers, 4 is avoided because it sounds like the word for "death." Levels 4 and 40 through 49 are missing at Las Vegas casinos like The Wynn, Encore, Aria, and the Palms, since Chinese visitors make up a major chunk  of their clientele. And in Italy, the number 17 is considered problematic, because it's "XVII" in Roman numerals, an anagram of "VIXI", Latin for "my life is over." While you may not find 17th floors in some hotels there, the Boot is where you can "fare tredici" — "make 13," a colloquial phrase meaning "hit the jackpot," especially at Italian gems like Casino di Venezia, the world's oldest casino with hundreds of classic games.