‘Strange and unsettling’
Route 6 Motel in Cavendish opens its doors for the bravest of souls leading up to Halloween on the North Shore
The tourists may have gone home for the summer, but guests are still checking into the Route 6 Motel in Cavendish.
The business, which opened this past summer with the intent of scaring people, has reopened to deliver another gut punch this Halloween.
The Route 6 Motel will be open Thursday to Sunday this week (there’s no school Thursday or Friday) and Friday to Sunday next week.
This was the first season for the motel. Before the space was renovated, it existed in its previous life as King Tut’s Tomb, near Sandspit.
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.
Then, they started on the layout of how the hallways would wind through the structure before creating the list of elements and scares they would include.
“Once 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,’’ Hickey said.
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.
“But, 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.’’
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, and it became the haunted motel it is today.
Hickey said the first season went very well.
“Throughout the summer we’ve had an early checkout rate,’’ he said. “Pretty consistently, about a third of the people don’t make it through. This Halloween (season) we’ve seen a few braver souls come in, so there’s more making it through.’’
Due to the professional development day in the school system, the haunted motel will be open from noon to 10 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.
Jessica Caseley, vicepresident of marketing for the Maritime Fun Group, said the reactions of guests have been incredible to see.
“People take really strong reactions to being scared,’’ Caseley said.
“There was one girl who, as soon as the lights went out, curled into a ball and wouldn’t get up so we had to get one of our staff members come over and cajole her back into the haunt.