Most of San Antonio’s haunted hotels stand within a few minutes’ walk of the Alamo. Here is every one you can stay in, rated and mapped, with the rooms to ask for.
Several of these hotels stand on ground that was part of the Alamo compound during the 1836 siege. Others were a hospital, a jail and a 19th-century school. Use the filters to narrow the list.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsNo pets
Address 204 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205
Where to look Menger Bar, King Ranch Suite, third-floor corridors of the original wing
Reported ghosts Chambermaid Sallie White, Captain Richard King, Teddy Roosevelt
Booking the haunted room The King Ranch Signature Suite, where Captain King died, can be booked on the hotel's own website. The hotel also sells a 'Room with a Boo' package that includes tickets for a local ghost tour.
Open since 1859 and standing right beside the Alamo, the Menger is the hotel most often named as Texas’s most haunted, with as many as 32 different spirits claimed over the years. The best known is Sallie White, a chambermaid shot by her husband in 1876. The hotel paid for her coffin, and guests still report a woman in an old-fashioned maid’s uniform carrying an armful of towels down the corridors at night.
Cattle baron Captain Richard King spent his final months in his suite here and died at the hotel in 1885. Staff say his figure walks into the King Ranch Suite through the wall where the door used to be. Down in the Menger Bar, where Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders in 1898, people report a man in period dress sitting at the bar who isn’t there when they look again.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the original 1859 building rather than the newer tower; that’s where most of the reports come from.
$$ · $150 to $300Hotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 705 E Houston St, San Antonio, TX 78205
Where to look 7th, 9th, 12th and 14th floors, the old hospital floors
Reported ghosts Phantom nurses and patients, hospital gurneys heard in the halls
Booking the haunted room The hotel doesn't sell specific haunted rooms, but you can ask for a room on one of the old hospital floors. There's no 13th floor.
Before it was a hotel, this Gothic Revival tower opposite the Alamo was the Medical Arts Building, with doctors’ offices and a hospital on its upper floors. It became the Emily Morgan in 1984 and has been a DoubleTree by Hilton since 2012, and the hotel publishes its own page on its haunted history. Most reports come from the old hospital floors, especially the 7th, 9th, 12th and 14th: the smell of antiseptic, the rattle of gurneys after midnight and figures in white uniforms that vanish down the hall.
Look up at the gargoyles on the way in. Each one depicts a medical ailment, a reminder of what the building was built for.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request a high floor facing the Alamo. You get the best view in the city and the most reported floors in the building.
$$ · $150 to $300Ghost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 205 E Houston St, San Antonio, TX 78205
Where to look The sixth floor and the room once numbered 636
Reported ghosts A woman seen with outstretched arms; a man carrying bloodstained sheets
Booking the haunted room Room 636 has been remodeled, and the hotel no longer promotes it, so ask the front desk which room it became.
The Gunter has stood on East Houston Street since 1909, and there has been an inn on the site since 1837. It spent decades as the Sheraton Gunter, dropped the Sheraton name in 2023, reopened in 2025 after a $57 million renovation and joined Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio in 2026.
Its ghost story is one of the most chilling in the city. In February 1965 a maid entered Room 636 and found a man holding a bundle of bloodstained sheets. He ran past her, and the woman who had been with him was never found. The man later checked into the St. Anthony a few blocks away, where his story ended. Since then, guests and staff have reported a pale woman with her arms outstretched on the sixth floor. Room 636 has since been remodeled, and the hotel no longer promotes it, though the bar still serves a cocktail with ‘636’ in the foam.
Music lovers know the Gunter for a different reason: blues legend Robert Johnson recorded some of his earliest sessions here in 1936.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Gunter and the St. Anthony on consecutive nights. Their ghost stories are two halves of the same 1965 case.
Where to look The third floor, where the gallows stood
Reported ghosts Former prisoners, dark figures in the corridors
From 1878 until 1962 this five-story building was the Bexar County Jail. Gallows were built inside it, and the county’s last executions by hanging took place here. After the jail closed it became a records depot, then a hotel in 2002. It has been a Holiday Inn Express since 2009, and IHG has promoted its ghosts in its own Halloween press release.
The third floor, where the gallows stood, is the focus of the reports. Guests describe dark figures in the corridor, whispers, sudden cold spots even in the Texas summer, and waking in the night to feel someone lie down on the bed beside them. The hotel’s general manager has spoken about a photo of a figure that looks like a former warden.
Haunted Rooms tip: It’s one of the cheapest haunted stays in the city, so it’s a good pick if you want to spend your money on a ghost hunt instead.
$$ · $150 to $300Hotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 300 E Travis St, San Antonio, TX 78205
Where to look Room 536, the Anacacho Ballroom, the restroom near the Cavalier room
Reported ghosts The Lady in Red; the 'Lavender Lady'; Room 536
San Antonio’s grand dame of luxury hotels opened in 1909 and for years ran a bar called HAUNT, with cocktails named after its spirits. (HAUNT closed in 2025; the space is now Anacacho Coffee and Cantina.) The best known is the Lady in Red, said to have waited in a red gown at the Anacacho Ballroom in the 1940s for a lover who never came.
Its darkest story links to the Gunter. In February 1965 the man suspected in the Room 636 case checked into the St. Anthony’s Room 536 and shot himself as police arrived the next day. Some staff are said to refuse to go into the room. Near the Cavalier room, people smell lavender in an empty restroom, which staff call the ‘Lavender Lady’.
Haunted Rooms tip: Even if you don’t stay, stop by Anacacho Coffee and Cantina in the old HAUNT bar space and ask staff about the Lady in Red.
Where to look The fourth floor, the elevator, the lobby and bar
Reported ghosts Alamo defenders, including a man in a dark blue military jacket
Built in 1909 by the Odd Fellows on part of the original Alamo grounds, directly behind the old mission chapel, the Crockett is the hotel most closely tied to the 1836 battle. Staff have told local TV about strange happenings on the fourth floor and an elevator with a mind of its own.
Guests also describe heavy footsteps in empty corridors and a man in a dark blue jacket, like those worn by the Alamo’s defenders, who crosses the lobby and disappears.
Haunted Rooms tip: It’s one of the best-value hotels on Alamo Plaza, and it’s pet friendly too.
Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.
Where to look The lobby and the original, disused elevators
Reported ghosts Fallen defenders of the Alamo
Formerly Hotel Indigo at the Alamo, Hotel Gibbs fills the early 20th-century Gibbs Building on the corner of the old Alamo compound, on the site of Samuel Maverick’s homestead. Local legend says Colonel William Travis fell close to where the front desk is today.
Ghost tour guides tell of moaning in empty corridors and of the building’s original elevators, long out of service, rattling as if someone is still riding them. These are local legends rather than documented reports, but the history underneath them is real.
Where to look The former school gymnasium, now an event space
Reported ghosts 'Little Jimmy', a student from the building's school days
This River Walk hotel began in 1853 as St. Mary’s Institute, a Catholic school, and later housed St. Mary’s College and its law school before becoming a hotel for HemisFair ’68. Its ghost is a schoolboy.
Staff call him ‘Little Jimmy’ and blame him for a window in the old gymnasium, now an event space, that keeps cracking for no obvious reason. Guests in the oldest part of the building also report footsteps and voices in empty corridors.
Where to look The gardens, the historic houses and the fitness area
Reported ghosts 'The Lady', a woman in a long white dress holding a cat
Formerly the Marriott Plaza, this hotel reopened in January 2024 as the Plaza San Antonio Hotel & Spa, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection. Its four and a half acres of gardens include three 19th-century houses, and that’s where its ghost story lives.
Local ghost lore tells of ‘the Lady’, a widow who lived in one of the old houses and is seen in a long white gown, stroking a cat, in the gardens and near what was the fitness room. Guests have also reported lights switching on and off and an elevator that goes to the wrong floor. The haunted reputation here rests on local books and guest reports rather than national coverage.
Where to look The second floor and the lobby elevator
Reported ghosts Founder Walter Faust Sr., children on the second floor
Booking the haunted room The 2026 renovation cut the rooms from 63 to 45, so the old haunted room numbers 215 and 217 may no longer exist. Ask for a second-floor room.
Walter Faust Sr. opened this downtown hotel as the Travelers Hotel on October 12, 1929, weeks before the stock market crash, and lived there with his family until his death in 1933. Guests have seen a man in a dark coat and hat near the lobby elevator, and the light over his portrait is said to have stayed lit during a power cut.
Most reports come from the second floor, where guests hear children running in the hall. The Faust reopened in May 2026 after a two-year, $10 million restoration, and local ghost tours still make it their headline stop.
Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 203 S Crockett St, Seguin, TX 78155
Where to look Upstairs guest rooms
Reported ghosts Spirits linked to the hotel's frontier past
Booking the haunted room Overnight guests book the whole second-floor suite, so you get every haunted room upstairs to yourself.
One of the oldest buildings in Seguin, the Magnolia started as a log cabin around 1840 and was a hotel by 1844. Its most notorious guest was Wilhelm Faust, who in 1874 slept here after riding to New Braunfels in the night and committing murder.
Today it’s run by owners who embrace the ghosts completely: they claim at least 17 spirits, run night-time ghost tours on selected Saturdays, and rent out the entire second-floor suite to overnight guests. It has featured on Travel Channel and PBS.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the overnight suite and a night ghost tour together, and you’ll have the run of the building.
Reported ghosts Original owners Erastus and Sarah Reed; later owner Harry King
Opened in 1859 as the Reed House and known for decades as Ye Kendall Inn, The Kendall is one of the last 19th-century resort inns in Texas. Local accounts say its original owners, Erastus and Sarah Reed, still keep an eye on the place, with flickering lights and light touches in the hallways and by the fireplace.
The hotel itself doesn’t talk about its ghosts, so treat this as a quiet, historic stay with a local legend attached rather than a ghost hunter’s hotel.
Removed from this guide: the Bullis House Inn, which no longer operates as an inn; the former Crowne Plaza at 111 E Pecan St, rebuilt as the InterContinental; and Hotel Indigo Riverwalk, which had been confused with the former Hotel Indigo at the Alamo (now Hotel Gibbs).
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We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
The Menger Hotel. Open since 1859 beside the Alamo, it is said to have as many as 32 ghosts, including chambermaid Sallie White, Captain Richard King and Teddy Roosevelt.
Which San Antonio hotels are on the Alamo battlefield?
The Crockett Hotel, Hotel Gibbs, the Menger and the Emily Morgan all stand on or beside ground that was part of the Alamo compound or battlefield in 1836.
Can you stay in Room 636 at the Gunter Hotel?
Room 636 is a guest room, but the hotel’s 2025 renovation may have changed some numbering, so ask the front desk when booking.
Is there a haunted hotel in San Antonio that used to be a jail?
Yes. The Holiday Inn Express Riverwalk on Camaron Street occupies the old Bexar County Jail, which held prisoners from 1878 to 1962 and had gallows on its third floor.
Is the Emily Morgan Hotel haunted?
It has one of the strongest reputations in Texas. The building was a medical center with a hospital on its upper floors, and guests on the 7th, 9th and 14th floors report gurneys, nurses and the smell of antiseptic.
Sources and how we research
Every hotel in this guide is checked against the hotel’s own website, historic register listings and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as the hotels, guests and local historians tell them; we note where a story can’t be confirmed. Read how we rate haunted hotels.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Booking links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never affects which hotels we include or how we score them.
