Creepy private hotel room found in Houston

[whitecoast]

I found out about this originally in the r/conspiracy board on Reddit. It was cross-posted there from the r/houston board.

ZaZa insiders question - what's up with room 322?
stay here frequently when on business. Hotel was booked solid and my colleague managed to score a room unplanned. We all had normal zaza style rooms (swank) and he ended up in this goth dungeon closet.
Seriously- the room had a chain holding the bed to wall, pictures of skulls and a creepy, incongruous portrait of an old man. Room was about 1/3 the normal size with the furniture blocking part of the TV, bed and window.
We asked about it at the front desk and the clerk looked it up and said " that room isn't supposed to be rented.' and immediately moved him.
Anyone know whats up with this room?
addling link to imgur album here (creepy)
Edit to add the follow up from the Houston Press. Link.
Now I have to go and see if I can make reservations in the yacht room.
Edit 2: Chronicle emailed and I put them in touch with my friend who stayed in this room. Link. His name isn't max but that isn't the point of the story. I still don't understand why these rooms aren't on the website (when all the other themed rooms are and this is a hotel - meaning they want to rent rooms).
Edit 3: This thread has been fun. I'm not much for conspiracy theories and don't really buy all the skull and bones stuff. I just wanted to know what was up with the room and figured someone on here might know a bit.
lots of the posts are asking questions about the pictures - they were taken months ago and no staging was involved. I'm not the photographer, just a curious Houston traveler usually in town for work with a group - one of whom happened to get this room and had the forethought to take photos.
And to the very new redditor offering me a bounty to delete this thread - I'll totally do it because cash is cash. But i don't want to die either. So let's do this publicly - I'm posting your message you sent me. And we can meet at the Monarch bar next week - I'll be in town on Monday & will update this thread when I get to Monarch so we can meet. screencap of offer

Source: _http://www.reddit.com/r/houston/comments/18pt71/zaza_insiders_question_whats_up_with_room_322/

From the cited Houston Press article (_http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/02/hotel_za_za_secret_room_creepy.php):

[The representative] 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.)

This was posted further down in a comment:

This is not the best guess. What person that you know keeps a creepy picture of a guy over their television. This is obviously a secret room either personal or for a small group of people for sexual liasons/ S&M prostitution or worse. The mirror and small space of the room also indicates there is a good chance that the mirror is two way and that people could pay to come watch the sexual/S&M events occuring. The photo of a Stanford Banking Executive, (Jay Comeaux), on the wall further indicates that this is a high society sex room. The fact that the clerk said, "This room isn't supposed to be rented out" indicates that there was a big mistake and they didn't want anyone to find out about the room. The bricks on the wall line up exactly with the placement of the mirror suggesting that they do not continue behind it but that this is a two way mirror.

Jay Comeaux serves as Executive Director of Stanford Group Company and is a board member of Stanford Trust Company. Stanford Group Company is a full-service financial planning and investment management firm serving private investors, corporations, governments and institutions worldwide.
_http://www.bauer.uh.edu/dls/speakers/comeaux.htm
_http://i.imgur.com/nl6KIXz.jpg
_http://i.imgur.com/ZiKH0Id.jpg

EDIT: This could go even deeper. Stanford Group Company was recently involved in massive fraud with several executives being sentenced to 20 years in prison just this week.
http://www.loansafe.org/former-executives-of-stanford-financial-group-to-serve-20-years-for-massive-fraud-scheme

EDIT 2: On closer inspection the mirror is actually set into the bricks suggesting there is a very, very good chance this is a two way mirror.
http://i.imgur.com/x3TnvUk.jpg

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

Another redditor pointed out that the fact that the room is 1/3 the size of the other rooms increases the chance of it being a two-way mirror, in addition to the other suggestions provided.

This could be much ado about nothing, but I wanted to get more pairs of eyes on this.

 

[Paragon]

I tell ya one thing - That picture of those two 'girls', is completely freaky creepy!

 

[Z...]

to me it looks like good marketing ploy

 

[anart]

to me it looks like good marketing ploy

That's likely. Plus, really wealthy people who are into depraved behavior don't need to rent hotel rooms to take part in it.

 

[Al Today]

[...]
Plus, really wealthy people who are into depraved behavior don't need to rent hotel rooms to take part in it.

I can see someone play acting in some perverted illusion of fantasy. I've always been of the mindset that if I can think of a type person, I'd bet there is one out there, somewhere on this BBM. What bothers me are the characters out there I cannot or have not thought of, yet...

 

[Gimpy]

Can I ask what the purpose of posting about this room was?

It's banal...that's about it.

 

[Explorer]

Pretty spooky.

to me it looks like good marketing ploy

Maybe. This could be some kind of viral marketing.

 

[Nook]

Pretty spooky.

to me it looks like good marketing ploy

Maybe. This could be some kind of viral marketing.

Certainly is possible, especially nowadays when everyone has a camera either with them or in their phones.

I tell ya one thing - That picture of those two 'girls', is completely freaky creepy!

That and the painting of the guy also. The girl on the left has only her left eye looking forward, the other to the right and the girl on the right has both looking to the right and being grabbed by an arm, osit.

More on Jay Comeaux, fwiw:

After graduating from Louisiana State University in 1970 with a degree in marketing, he joined the Air Force, where he was commissioned as an officer and became a fighter instructor pilot. Following his military career, Mr. Comeaux spent 10 years in the oil and gas business, then later moved to the financial services industry with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith. During his 10-year tenure at Merrill Lynch, he advanced to vice president, later joining Stanford Group as President. Mr. Comeaux currently volunteers time and resources to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, one of the largest charities in Texas. He is also a member of St. Michael Catholic Church in Houston.

Btw, in the painting of the guy the signature reads: Benny H? Maybe it's a painting by Benny Hill

 

[whitecoast]

Pretty spooky.

to me it looks like good marketing ploy

Maybe. This could be some kind of viral marketing.

Yeah, these are all good points. It's just another unsolved mystery I guess.

 

[Explorer]

Pretty spooky.

to me it looks like good marketing ploy

Maybe. This could be some kind of viral marketing.

Yeah, these are all good points. It's just another unsolved mystery I guess.

Could just be a room for those with more, uh, unusual tastes - depraved, as Anart called them. Maybe that's why there is secrecy surrounding it, to lend a kind of conspiratorial rush to the whole thing. Who knows.