History Main / InnOfNoReturn

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* There was an inn where the owner and his wife would put rich guests into a special room with a trapdoor in the floor by the bed. When the guest was sleeping the bed would lift up, sliding them through the trapdoor into boiling oil, and then the owners would steal all their belongings.

* A two parter in the Hatenkou Yuugi anime features one of these.
* In GeGeGeNoKitaro, Kitaro ends up as a mind-controlled servant of a ChineseVampire who runs an inn like this.

* The 1992 Hong Kong action film ''Dragon Inn'' features Maggie Cheung as the innkeeper at a remote inn where she occasionally seduces the guests, murders them, carves them up, and makes them into meals for the other patrons.

* The {{Hostel}} films take this trope and just roll with it.

* Wilkie Collins' story ''A Terribly Strange Bed'' is a famous example, and is set in Paris, and has an inn which is in cahoots with a crooked gambling den.

* Sort of used in [[JamesBond Ian Fleming's]] ''You Only Live Twice''. Here Blofeld has made a garden full of deadly plants and lava lakes at a castle in Japan. And the more the press and governments investigate the case the more the suicide obsessed Japanese people come to the garden. And should any of those people have second thoughts while they are there, Blofeld has a staff who will be helping with the last step...

* In a short story by Frank Herbert, a honeymooning couple on their way to Vegas become trapped in a hotel which imprisons gamblers. Although it doesn't actively attempt to kill them, ''no-one'' has ever left.

* Kenji Miyazawa's titular "Restaurant of Many Orders." The "guests" finally caught on about the time they figured out [[ToServeMan the "cologne" was actually vinegar]].

* The hero of Larry Niven's 'Destiny Road' hears a tale about an inn that was run by escaped prisoners who killed and ate travelers. This is a bit jarring, since he was one of the escaped prisoners, and while they didn't do anything illegal there except steal the power to run the place, it does mean the authorities might be aware he survived his escape from prison.

* The CriminalMinds team went after a Bates-style serial killer. Played by WilWheaton of [[TheWesley all people]].

* Often operated by shapeshifting demons in LegendOfTheFiveRings, to the point where the Crab Clan have code words to warn each other without alerting the proprieters that they've been found out.
* Several examples in {{Ravenloft}}, notably how the Mindefisk sisters made their living.

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* Played with in ''HappinessOfTheKatakuris'', where the innkeepers ''aren't trying'' to kill their guests. Everyone who stays dies, and it bothers the hell out of the owners.

* WilkieCollins' story ''A Terribly Strange Bed'' is a famous example, and is set in Paris, and has an inn which is in cahoots with a crooked gambling den.

* In the [[HPLovecraft HP Lovecraft]] short story ''Shadow over Innsmouth'', the residents of Innsmouth [[spoiler: attempt to break into the narrator's room at the Inn to kill him, presumably to keep the [[TownwithaDarkSecret secrets of the town]] hidden from outsiders. The narrator actually references the trope in the story, wondering if it is one of those hotels where travelers are slain for money (despite his obviously lack of excessive prosperity) and his preparation is what saves his life]].

Basically, a place of accommodation that kills its customers and robs their corpses. For unknown reasons, this turns up a lot in French literature/works set in France. Sometimes, to "get more bang for the buck", the proprietors will [[ImAHumanitarian "serve"]] their guests as well. One wonders how these places advertise and attract guests/victims, other than the possible curiosity if rumors of their crimes are publicized. See also HellHotel and InnSecurity, although in the latter, attacks on guests are generally not by the inn's owners.

* In ''TheSandman'' issue "The Hunt", the protagonist of the story-within-a-story stops for the night in an inn like this. He survives; it's heavily implied that the innkeeper doesn't.

* The Hostel films take this trope and just roll with it.

* Also, an OlderThanPrint example in GreekMythology with "Procrustes' Bed". It was owned by the bandit/innkeeper of the same name who claimed it was a perfect fit for everyone and would fatally stretch those too short and behead those too tall. He was HoistByHisOwnPetard by Theseus.

*** WilliamHopeHodgson wrote a story titled ''The Inn of the Black Crow'' which again, has a similar plot and murder method. This story was anthologized in ''The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives'', where the editor commented something like "no points for guessing the writer Hodgson was plagiarizing".

* Kenji Miyazawa's titular "Restaurant of Many Orders". The "guests" finally caught on about the time they figured out [[ToServeMan the "cologne" was actually vinegar]].
* In RobertEHoward's ConanTheBarbarian story "Shadows in Zamboula", Aram Baksh's inn. He survives by murdering only strangers.

* The titular pub in the ''JonathanCreek'' episode "Mother Redcap".

* Possibly the subject of the song "Hotel California".

* [[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/partners/william-danthan-holbert/1-real-life-hostel-murders.html This recent case]] has been given the moniker "The real-life ''Hostel'' murders".

* One turns up in ''JadeEmpire''. With a slight twist- everyone apart from the cook is actually a mutant cannibal creature disguised by magic; they keep the human cook around to make things seem more "normal".

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* The hotel in ''Vacancy'' has owners who use the hotel to make films of their grisly murders.

* The bar in ''FromDuskTillDawn'' is really a [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready feeding ground for vampires]].

->''You can [[NeverSayDie check out]] any time you like, but YouCanNeverLeave''
-->--'''''Hotel California''''', The Eagles.

[[AC:{{Advertising}}]]
* "Roaches check in... they don't check out." (Couldn't resist)

* ''Motel Hell'', in which the owner and his sister make sausages out of the guests.

* An episode of Hatenkou Yuugi revolves around one.