system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[1408] Why not have a fake room prepared?

The manager of the Dolphin goes through a whole verbal argument, bribery, risks  legal consequences, all possible ways of warning people not to go into 1408. Why not just set up a fake 1408?

Just change the numbering scheme of the rooms for the floor, shift them all by a couple of numbers (he mentions 1404 has the same layout) and don't rent out the real 1408. Set up a show of "no we possibly couldn't" when someone shows up to check out 1408 and then give them the keys to the fake room.

People only ask for this room specifically bcs it's infamous. No one will notice that a random room in a giant hotel isn't being rented.
gpt
I don't know if the answer is different in the movie, but in the short story the room is haunted just because it's a room located on the 13th floor, and the numbers in its room number add together to 13. So if you make a fake 1408 and call the fake room 1408, it's going to be haunted as well. You're either going to end up with two haunted rooms instead of a safe, fake room that you can put people in, or the hauntings are going to move to the fake room.

It's unclear if the imagination of people give the hauntings life or if the evil entities are just attracted to those numbers, but as long as people or spirits believe the fake 1408 is the real 1408, the fake 1408 is going to continue to be haunted.