UPDATED: Does Hotel ZaZa Have a Creepy, Hidden Room They Don't Want You to Know About?

By Craig Malisow Mon., Feb. 18 2013 at 4:38 PM

Coots told us that this is in fact one of the hotel's theme rooms -- it's called Hard Times, and it's a play on a jail experience. (We'll note again it's not mentioned on the Web site, which lists and describes the other "theme" rooms.)

While it's a "compact" room, it has one of the hotel's largest balconies, which overlooks the pool area, she said. (The other side of the hotel features another compact theme room, called Ship's Cabin, which resembles a yacht and also overlooks the pool.) She says neither room is secret or kept from being rented.

Coots also told us that, at one point, the company's president lived in the Hard Times room for two months, five days a week. We asked about the portrait of the distinguished, mustachioed gentleman, and she said she'd look into it. (She's also checking into the claims made by the guy who posted the pics in the first place.)

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Hotel Zaza

5701 Main, Houston, TX

Category: General

27 user reviews	Write A Review
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intlhotmale

... Hotel was booked solid...and immediately moved him.

Both cannot be concurrently true.

roadwarrior

my company has us stay at Hotel ZaZa about ten times a year for medical conferences. we usual get big balcony rooms overlooking a museum. At a meeting in october they gave me a two bedroom suite called Rockstar, last month i had room called East Indies (it was the coolest hotel room that i have ever seen). My boss knew about these theme rooms and had my sales partner put in little jail room(he missed his sales quota- it was funny as hell at dinner)

Ricky_Hollywood

reddit to the rescue. Looks like it might be a high society sex dungeon

http://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/18pt71/zaza_insiders_question_whats_up_with_room_322/c8hm613

David Cook

More like skull and bones secret society themed room.

Ginger Gray

The man in the portrait is named Jay Comeaux and as far as I know, he is not dead.

moosecack

I'm not impressed by anything about this hotel. It's as dimly lit as a crypt, and smells like a geezer, retirement home (what is that smell... reminiscent of bad breath or some ancient blocked sewage vent pipe?). The food was never that good in the Monarch, the prices are outrageous, and the staff have an imperious attitude. No thanks....

MWC2

media overreact? no.

Christine De Miguel

This room was given to me during their Halloween party in 2012. It does have a creepy vibe to it. I'm 4'll so I didn't mind the room being as small as a shoe box.. The picture of captain Sully on the wall was the most creepy thing about the whole room !

Rob Butterfield

Gabor owns it?

Deja Cain

I MUST KNOW!

Nicole Hadley

Saw this last night on the reddits. Please investigate!

Marsha HoustonBucketlist Rains Roberts

oh man, I so want to add this to my Houston Bucket List and sleep in that room! I wonder how I could make that a reality?

Christopher Todd Lambert

checkin in room 322 ahorita!!

WineLush

I stayed in the ships cabin before. Very cute room. Loved it

Kylejack topcommenter

@WineLush Very curious about this one and wish I could find pictures. Did you have to request it, or did you just reserve a room normally?

blorp

the "mirror" on the wall by the bed appears to be two-way. I wonder what kind of view you have from the room next door?

Anse

This veteran Motel Sixer stayed at the ZaZa on his wedding night. It was indeed very swank. As my bride slept in the next day, I went down to the pool and completely ruined the very Hollywood vibe. All these tanned and oiled and finely chiseled bodies laying about looking very LA, and my pale fat ass shows up and plops down with a beer and takes it all in. I got some stares. It was funny. But the staff were friendly. Sorry I didn't tip you, room service guy, but I saw that 20% surcharge on the bill. I may be a rube but I'm not a dumbass.

Kylejack topcommenter

Statement from Zaza on a thread on their Facebook:

For all you ZaZa fans, you've grown to love our thematic Concept & Magnificent Seven Suites. Because Hotel Zaza Houston's footprint is in a historic building, rather than sacrifice the original structure, we embraced several compact rooms on the second floor and developed them with themes! The room referenced is Hard Times – a playful take on a jailhouse experience. It's compact, yet well-equipped with a spacious balcony overlooking the pool! True to the ZaZa experience, expect the unexpected.

BrittanieShey moderator

@Kylejack Riiiiiight.

Linds

1 Like

> A few minutes after I got there, the front desk called and said they had to move me.

http://popculturenerd.com/2012/02/27/on-the-road-with-hilary-davidson

Different person, same situation. So they rent it out but you ...have to ask for it specifically and no one knows it's there? It's not advertised on the website.