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There's No 4th Floor - It's Bad Luck!

There's No 4th Floor - It's Bad Luck!

Old Jul 16, 2005, 8:23 pm
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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.
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Old Jul 16, 2005, 10:00 pm
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Many hotels in Las Vegas don't have a 4th floor like MGM Grand. There's no 4th or 13th floor for that matter.
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Old Jul 16, 2005, 10:41 pm
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The new Wynn Las Vegas Hotel has no floors numbered 40 through 49.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 12:04 am
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Originally Posted by Jeeves


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.

The number 4 in Cantonese is phonetically similar to death and is considered to be bad luck. Incidentally, 2 is pronounced the same way as easy, so the combination is quite deadly, pun intended. I do see more buildings without a 4th and 13th floor.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 12:27 am
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When I build a building, I'm going to make a statement by having floors 4, 13, 69, 666 etc ^
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 12:29 am
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I was recently a tenant in the Peak apartment building in Sydney's Chinatown.
It has no floors 4, 14, 24, 34 or 44.

Also, on each floor there is no apartment 4.

It does have floor 13.

Most of the residents are of Chinese descent.

I was living on floor 11. I did not have any bad luck while I was living there.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 12:59 am
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How unbelievably stupid. I like the idea of a building with all the floors being 4, 13, 66, etc. ^

Today I saw "Fantastic Four" -- pretty good for a movie poo-pooed by the critics.

I have a four bedroom house, my area code has a 4 in it, and I work on the 4th floor of my office building. So there!

I'm amazed there are any 747-400's flying to and within Asia, especially since the abbreviation is 744. Or maybe there's another stupid rule where two four's cancel each other out.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 1:20 am
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I was looking at some airport terminal maps for an upcoming trip and I realized that most of them don't have a Gate 13. They just completely skip over that number. HNL did have a Gate 13 unlike others.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 5:51 am
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Originally Posted by JS
How unbelievably stupid.
It doesn't seem so stupid if you've got a product to sell (esp if it's expensive product because you're a property developer) and you can't shift some of it, even if it's because of the unreasonable views held by your target market.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 6:01 am
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I am sure we can find many aspects of your life we could label as 'stupid'.. so please refrain from this kind of comment.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 7:48 am
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Originally Posted by JS
How unbelievably stupid. I like the idea of a building with all the floors being 4, 13, 66, etc. ^

Today I saw "Fantastic Four" -- pretty good for a movie poo-pooed by the critics.

I have a four bedroom house, my area code has a 4 in it, and I work on the 4th floor of my office building. So there!
Well, perhaps if you didn't have all this shi floating around, you might be luckier, but you'll never know, will you?
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 8:13 am
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The numbers 4 (death) as well as 9 (pain) are missing from various items and places in Japan as well. I'm curious as to why the HGI in San Mateo would be missing the fourth floor. Large Asian population (and therefore clientele) in the area?
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 9:16 am
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Originally Posted by DoubleJ
The numbers 4 (death) as well as 9 (pain) are missing from various items and places in Japan as well. I'm curious as to why the HGI in San Mateo would be missing the fourth floor. Large Asian population (and therefore clientele) in the area?
There is a significant Asian population on the San Francisco Peninsula. I remember that there was a big influx from Hong Kong during the 1980s. I think I heard the front desk guy might have said "the owner thinks it's bad luck." Perhaps the hotel is owned by a Chinese-American and doesn't want to jinx his investment.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 12:18 pm
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Originally Posted by DoubleJ
The numbers 4 (death) as well as 9 (pain) are missing from various items and places in Japan as well. I'm curious as to why the HGI in San Mateo would be missing the fourth floor. Large Asian population (and therefore clientele) in the area?
9 actually is lucky in the same manner as 8s.
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Old Jul 17, 2005, 12:59 pm
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Originally Posted by DoubleJ
The numbers 4 (death) as well as 9 (pain) are missing from various items and places in Japan as well. I'm curious as to why the HGI in San Mateo would be missing the fourth floor. Large Asian population (and therefore clientele) in the area?
Yeah "shi" in Japanese is death or four although the characters are different. Seven (shichi in Japanese) is also concerned with death. After someone dies a ceremony is held every seven days up until the 49th day (7x7) and then you have a big party and go back to being a mindless consumer. Or something like that. I don't understand Japan much, I just go with flow.
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