This tale is based on a classic "paranoia" horror plot: the protagonist finds that all traces of his life have seemingly been erased, and he must struggle against those who insist he is mentally ill and attempt to regain his identity. In most cases, some sinister force or conspiracy has deliberately and carefully done the erasing in order to drive the victim insane or prevent him from discovering a dark secret.

Not long before the opening of the French capital's Great Exposition of 1889, a distraught young Englishwoman rushed into the British embassy in Paris and told a story that has reverberated through fantasy and fiction ever since. She and her mother were on their way home from India and, owing to the shortage of accomodations in the crowded city, had taken two single rooms in a hotel. The mother chose Room 342, decorated with rose-strewn wallpaper and plum-colored velvet curtains. Then the older woman collapsed on the bed.

After examining the prostrate guest and talking excitedly in French with the hotel manager, the house doctor told the young woman that her mother was seriously ill and must have some medicine. But the proper medication could be found only in his office on the other side of town. The daughter would have to take his carriage and carry a note to his wife, who would hand her the drugs.

What should have been a simple errand consumed four hours. The driver kep the horses to an amble and seemed to steer in circles, and the doctor's wife took a long time to produce the medicine.

Finally, the frustrated daughter arrived back at the hotel, only to discover that all queries about her mother were met with blank stares. "I know nothing of your mother," said the manager. "You arrived here alone." The doctor was similarly confused by the woman's questions. Frantic now, the young traveler examined the hotel register. Instead of her mother's familiar signature, she saw a stranger's beside Room 342. Insisting on looking at the room itself, she found no velvet curtain, no flowered wallpaper, no familiar baggage — only the luggage of strangers. At this point, she fled to the embassy, where she was received with sympathy — and general disbelief. Trapped in a nightmare, the young woman ended her days in a British mental hospital.

Source...

These types of stories are fun to tell. I would hate for that to happen in real life.

Starlyte

Classic and Creepy may this only happen to my enemies.

I read about this one on Snopes.
Good old snopes.

It's weird, and definately got an air of magic and conspiracy and paranoia around it. If it ever happened to me i'd probably go beserk.

The theory I read on 'Snopes' was that her mother had the plague and had to be moved from the hotel before the other guests caught anything, which would naturally mean that the room would have to be refurbished, but I prefer to believe that it was something creepier. There is a slightly similar story that I've read somewhere on the internet, but my sieve of a memory makes me forget how to finish sentences...
It was something to do with a guy staying at a hotel, but realising that it was trapped in the past, only to randomly discover that he had actually died two years previously, something along those lines...

Thinking makes my brain hurt

Another thought occurs to me, Lottie, if we look at the story from a neutral position, and not one sympathetic to the young woman.

What if she genuinely was mad? Or lying? What if she had never been to the hotel with her mother, and had done away with her instead? What if it was all an elaborate alibi cooked up by the girl? What if the girl was a psychotic killer? Or perhaps the guilt of doing something terrible to her mother drove her mad?

Good story. Disturbing particularly for someone involved in those events.

I've heard of vanishing buildings and rooms that appear to change to resemble the past.

Thats a very good point Cuff and quite plausible really. In that case this would be even more disturbing.