There's No 4th Floor - It's Bad Luck!
I just completed a stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in San Mateo, CA, south of the SFO Airport. At check-in, I heard the front desk person say to the women in front of me that the hotel has 6 stories but there is no 4th floor, because it is considered bad luck. Sure enough, I get in the elevator and there is no 4th floor. My room on the 7th floor is actually 6 floors up. However, I did notice that they did have rooms with 4 in the number, like 704 and 714.
I tell the story to my parents and they tell me about the Chinese family that bought my sister's house and had the street address changed from 240 to 238. Apparently, 8 is a lucky number.
All of this seems to be driven by feng shui beliefs. We all know about the bad luck superstitions with the number 13 and how some hotels don't have a 13th floor. It seems that lately, that more hotels are recklessly plunging ahead with a 13th floor.
Has anyone else encountered missing 4th floors of hotels or office buildings. I find this all kind of interesting. Probably is more prevalent in Asia.