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'Ghost' Segment Sparks Reservation Requests At Vinoy

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 1, 2008

Just in time for Halloween, the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club in St. Petersburg is expecting a boom in reservations after being featured on tonight's "Ghost Hunters" on the Sci-Fi Channel.

"We started getting inquires right after it was announced that the program was airing," says Mary Kruse, of the hotel's sales department.

The hotel is offering a special Halloween package now that it may become famous among fans of the show.

Since the 1920s, there have been stories about the hotel being haunted.

Dennis Lesko, the resort's sales manager, says there was time when the staff played down the ghost stories for fear it would have a negative effect.

But after the book "Haunted Baseball," by Dan Gordon and Mickey Bradley, came out in 2007, the hotel became a destination for those seeking a spooky thrill. The Vinoy is now a part of a St. Petersburg "ghost tour."

The book recounts ghost stories for visiting professional baseball teams that stayed in the Vinoy.

"Baseball players tend to be superstitious anyway, and after some of them had read the book, they started reporting even more sightings," Lesko says.

Tonight's program features Victoria Brook, who runs the hotel's front desk. She says that although she has not encountered anything paranormal, she has heard a lot from guests.

"People have reported faucets turning off and on and strange noises," she says.

Kruse says that recently some members of the U.S. Coast Guard where staying in the hotel and reported seeing a ghost walk through the lobby and into the garden.

"And there was the Cincinnati Reds player who claimed that he awoke to see a man in vintage clothes standing over his bed," Lesko says.

All of the incidents have been harmless so the ghosts apparently are friendly, Kruse says.

The popular paranormal investigators from "Ghost Hunters" spent nearly two weeks in the hotel during July. Lesko says it was a slow time, and the hotel was able to keep the fifth floor unoccupied on the nights the team went ghost hunting.

The hotel staff is allowed to reveal what happened. The results will be seen at 9 tonight.

"Ghost Hunters" hosts Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, of the Atlantic Paranormal Society, do their best to scare up some action.

On the same episode, they visit the Seven Sisters Inn in Ocala.

In honor of "Ghost Hunters" segment, the Vinoy is offering "Ghostly Getaway Escape" (for $199 per night) on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The package will include deluxe accommodations, a Halloween reception in the main lobby each night and two adult tickets (children are free) to a guided ghost tour following the reception.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

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