Thirty-three California hotels where guests and staff report something they cannot explain, from Victorian beach resorts and Gold Rush inns to an ocean liner and a paddlewheel riverboat.
California’s haunted hotels follow the state’s history: Mexican-era adobes in Old Town San Diego, Gold Rush hotels along Highway 49, the grand rebuilt palaces of post-1906 San Francisco, Hollywood’s playgrounds, a borax company town in Death Valley and two ships you can sleep aboard. This is our complete guide: every haunted hotel from our San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego guides, plus the best of the rest of the state. Every hotel in the main list takes overnight guests today. We checked current names and status, corrected stories older guides got wrong, listed three famous hotels that no longer take guests separately, and noted what we removed and why. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. For castles, prisons and other spooky sites, see our guide to haunted places in California.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 1500 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118
Where to look Room 3327, Room 3519, the Victorian hallways, the beach stairs
Reported ghosts Kate Morgan, the 'Beautiful Stranger' of 1892; a maid linked to Room 3519
Booking the haunted room Ask for Room 3327 (or Room 3519) when you book directly with the hotel. It is the most requested room at The Del and cannot be guaranteed, so book months ahead for October.
The Hotel del Coronado opened in 1888 on the sand at Coronado and is now a National Historic Landmark run as part of Hilton’s Curio Collection. Its most famous guest never left, according to local legend: Kate Morgan, a young woman who checked in alone under a false name in November 1892 and was found dead on the steps to the beach five days later.
Guests who request Room 3327, the room Kate is said to have stayed in, describe flickering lights, a TV switching itself on, footsteps by the bed and a woman in black in the corridors. Room 3519 on the fifth floor has its own reputation. The hotel embraces the story with nightly Haunted Happenings tours, so you can hear the official account before bed.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Haunted Happenings tour on your first evening, then request Room 3327 well ahead for October and late November, the anniversary of Kate’s stay.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 1126 Queens Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90802
Where to look Stateroom B340, the first-class pool, engine room door 13, the Queen's Salon, the third-class playroom
Reported ghosts Little Jackie, the swimmers of the first-class pool, the young man at door 13, the Lady in White
Booking the haunted room Stateroom B340 (the Paranormal Suite) and the Paranormal Passage staterooms B326, B328 and B334 are sold through the Queen Mary's own reservations.
Permanently moored in Long Beach since 1967, the 1936 Cunard liner Queen Mary is now a hotel with original wood-paneled staterooms, and it is one of the most famous haunted places in America. The stories center on Stateroom B340, the closed first-class swimming pool where a little girl called Jackie is said to play, and watertight door 13 in the engine room, where a young crewman was crushed during a 1966 drill.
The ship leans in to its reputation. B340 is sold as a themed paranormal suite, three more “Paranormal Passage” staterooms joined it in 2026, and the ship runs its own ghost tours every day, from the one-hour Haunted Encounters walk to the after-midnight Graveyard Tour for ages 16 and up. Stay overnight and you can explore the decks long after the day visitors leave.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a ghost tour for the evening you stay: the after-hours Paranormal Ship Walk goes into areas day visitors never see.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 7000 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Where to look Marilyn Monroe's mirror, Room 928, the Blossom Ballroom, the ninth floor
Reported ghosts Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, a little girl called Caroline, a man in a white tuxedo
Booking the haunted room Room 928 is a regular guest room: ask for it when booking direct. The poolside suite tied to Marilyn Monroe can also be requested.
Opened in 1927 on Hollywood Boulevard and host of the very first Academy Awards in 1929, The Hollywood Roosevelt is Hollywood’s best-known haunted hotel. Its two most famous ghosts are stars: Marilyn Monroe, whose reflection people say they have seen in a full-length mirror that once hung in her room, and Montgomery Clift, who stayed in Room 928 while filming From Here to Eternity.
Guests on the ninth floor report a bugle playing, a pat on the shoulder from nobody and a pacing figure in the hall. Others describe a little girl called Caroline looking for her mother and a man in a white tuxedo in the Blossom Ballroom. The hotel itself says Marilyn “hasn’t entirely left,” and her mirror now hangs on the lower level where anyone can look.
Haunted Rooms tip: Marilyn’s mirror is on the lower level, so you can see it even if you are only visiting for a drink.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 1590 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94109
Where to look Room 410 (the Mary Lake Room), the grand staircase, the parlor, the fourth-floor hallway
Reported ghosts Miss Mary Lake, the school's headmistress
Booking the haunted room Room 410 can be booked: call the hotel on 415-441-2828 or email stay@queenanne.com to reserve it.
Built in 1890 as Miss Mary Lake’s School for Girls, paid for by silver king Senator James “Slippery Jim” Fair, the Queen Anne Hotel is a restored Victorian mansion in Lower Pacific Heights and San Francisco’s best-known haunted hotel. Its ghost is said to be the headmistress herself, Mary Lake, and her old office is now Room 410.
Guests in 410 describe being tucked in at night, finding their suitcases unpacked and hearing soft singing. Others report a woman in a dark Victorian dress on the grand staircase and cold spots on the fourth floor. The hotel is relaxed about the stories, Room 410 can be booked, and the rate includes breakfast and afternoon tea and sherry in the parlor.
Haunted Rooms tip: Call the hotel to reserve Room 410 itself, rather than booking a room type online.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 134 North Mill Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060
Where to look Room 308 (Calvin's Room), Room 307 (Rose's Room), the third floor, the lobby
Reported ghosts Calvin the cowboy; Rose; a little girl in the halls
Booking the haunted room Calvin's Room (308) and Rose's Room (307) are named on the inn's own history page and are booked by calling the inn.
The Glen Tavern Inn has stood opposite the Santa Paula train depot since 1911, a Tudor and Craftsman hotel built when oil and citrus money poured into the valley. Hollywood crews filming Westerns in the nearby hills stayed and dined here, and the inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has appeared on Ghost Adventures and The Dead Files.
The ghosts live mostly on the third floor. Calvin, a cowboy said to have been shot over a card game, gives his name to Room 308, and Rose, a woman tied to brothel-era lore, to Room 307. Guests also report a little girl running through the halls. Both named rooms can be booked by phone, and the inn tells their stories on its own website.
Haunted Rooms tip: Call the inn to book Calvin’s Room (308) or Rose’s Room (307); they are not always shown online. Then have dinner at Enzo’s downstairs.
Reported ghosts Ysidora Bandini; the Lady in Red; a ghost cat
Booking the haunted room With only ten rooms, you can ask for Room 11 (or 4 and 5) by number when you book. It is not guaranteed.
The Cosmopolitan began as the adobe home of Juan Bandini, built in 1827, and Albert Seeley added the second story and turned it into a stagecoach hotel around 1869. Restored by the state, it is now a ten-room bed and breakfast with a saloon and restaurant inside Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. Rooms are Victorian, with no TVs or phones.
Room 11 is the most active, and the ghost is usually said to be Ysidora Bandini, Juan’s daughter, blamed for lights turning on and off. The old story that she fell from the balcony outside that room does not hold up: the building had no second story then. Guests also report a woman in red waiting in Rooms 4 and 5 and a playful ghost cat. Ghost Adventures filmed here in 2011.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 11 when you book, and eat in the saloon downstairs; Old Town’s evening ghost tours start a short walk away.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 1500 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
Where to look Room 407 and the fourth floor, Room 408
Reported ghosts A young woman believed to be the builder's daughter
Booking the haunted room Call the hotel after booking and ask for Room 407 or another fourth-floor room. Requests are not guaranteed.
The Hotel Majestic was built in 1902 by the Schmitt family, survived the 1906 earthquake with the fires stopping just two blocks away, and calls itself the longest continuously operating hotel in San Francisco. The Edwardian corner building on Sutter Street in Pacific Heights is filled with antiques, and a portrait of a young woman hangs in the lobby to this day.
She is the ghost. Long-time locals believe the spirit on the fourth floor is the daughter of Milton Schmitt, who lived in the hotel, and Room 407 is the most requested. Guests report a woman in old-fashioned dress, footsteps, jingling keys, taps running and windows opening by themselves. A clerk said she felt two hands push her in Room 408. Skeptics blame the old plumbing.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 407 by number, and look for the portrait in the lobby before you go up.
Address 8221 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90046
Where to look Bungalow 3, the bungalows and cottages, the upper floors
Reported ghosts John Belushi, 'the funny man'; unseen housekeepers; floating heads at windows
Booking the haunted room Bungalows and specific rooms can be requested when booking with the hotel; Bungalow 3 is in high demand and never guaranteed.
Chateau Marmont opened on Sunset Boulevard in 1929 as an apartment building modeled on a Loire Valley chateau and became a hotel in 1931. For nearly a century it has been Hollywood’s discreet hideaway, the place where stars lived, worked, misbehaved and occasionally died. Comedian John Belushi died of a drug overdose in Bungalow 3 in March 1982.
Local lore says a child staying in Bungalow 3 was heard laughing alone and told his parents he was playing with ‘the funny man’, then picked out Belushi’s photo. Guests and staff also report furniture that moves, windows opening by themselves, voices in empty rooms and faces at upper windows. The hotel does not promote any of it, which only adds to the mystery.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book well ahead and ask about the bungalows; even if you are not staying, a late drink in the garden gives you the atmosphere.
$$$ · Over $300Ghost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 41 Tunnel Rd, Berkeley, CA 94705
Where to look The fourth floor and Room 422, the seventh floor, the elevators, the hallways
Reported ghosts A six-year-old girl, a baby heard in empty rooms, a woman in a high-necked Victorian dress
Booking the haunted room The resort does not sell a haunted room. Ask for the fourth floor, or Room 422, when booking direct.
The white Tudor Revival hotel in the Berkeley Hills opened in 1915 on the site of a hilltop “castle” that burned in 1901. Now called Claremont Resort & Club (it was a Fairmont, the Claremont Club & Spa, until 2025), it has one of the Bay Area’s best-known ghost reputations, centered on the fourth floor and Room 422, where guests report construction noise from empty rooms.
The most famous ghost is a little girl of about six who sits on the edge of beds and giggles in the halls. San Antonio Spurs players Tim Duncan and Jeff Ayres said they heard a baby inside a locked, empty room in 2014. The resort embraces the stories, with Haunted History Tours on October weekends that visit the hotel’s most haunted room.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the October Haunted History Tour: it visits the most haunted room, whose number the staff keep private.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookablePet friendly
Address 311 Island Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101
Where to look Room 309, the third-floor hallway, the lobby staircases
Reported ghosts Roger Whittaker, a gambler; madam Ida Bailey; figures in Victorian dress
Booking the haunted room Request Room 309 directly with the hotel after booking. It is a standard guest room, so it can usually be asked for, but it is never guaranteed.
The Horton Grand is two Gaslamp Quarter hotels in one. The ornate Grand Horton and the plainer Brooklyn Hotel both date to the 1880s boom, were taken apart brick by brick in the late 1970s to make way for Horton Plaza, and were rebuilt side by side on Island Avenue in 1986. Wyatt Earp is said to have lived at the Brooklyn during his San Diego years.
Its best-known ghost is Roger Whittaker, a card cheat who, legend says, was shot after fleeing to his room. Guests in Room 309 report beds that shake, wardrobe doors swinging open and lights flicking on and off. Madam Ida Bailey, whose Canary Cottage stood nearby, is said to drift through as a cold mist, and staff describe figures in Victorian dress on the stairs.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 309 when you book and ask the front desk to note it; then walk the Gaslamp after dark, the old Stingaree red-light district is right outside.
Address 2 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
Where to look The Garden Court, the Pied Piper Bar, the dining rooms, the kitchen, the eighth floor
Reported ghosts The Lady in Red; a French girl asking for soup; a shoulder-tapper in the Pied Piper; President Warren Harding
The Palace opened in 1875 as one of the largest and most lavish hotels in the world, survived the shaking of 1906 and then burned in the fires that followed. The rebuilt hotel opened in 1909 on the same corner of Market and New Montgomery, with the glass-roofed Garden Court and Maxfield Parrish’s Pied Piper mural in the bar. President Warren Harding died here, in an eighth-floor suite, in 1923.
It has more ghost stories than almost any hotel in the city. A woman in red is said to walk the halls at night and visit men traveling alone; a girl in old-fashioned French dress has appeared in the kitchen asking for soup; someone unseen taps drinkers on the shoulder in the Pied Piper Bar. Some guests even report a figure resembling Harding at the windows.
Haunted Rooms tip: Have a drink under the Pied Piper mural late in the evening, then look up at the Garden Court’s glass ceiling on your way out.
Address 2237 Mason Street, San Francisco, CA 94133
Where to look Room 33, Room 42, the hallways, the restaurant
Reported ghosts The Painted Lady, a madam; a little girl; a shadow figure in the restaurant
Booking the haunted room Rooms 33 and 42 are ordinary guest rooms. Call the hotel after booking to request one; it is not guaranteed.
The San Remo was built right after the 1906 earthquake and fire as the New California Hotel, a cheap and cheerful base for immigrants, sailors and artists between North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf. It took its current name in 1922. Today it is a 62-room European-style pension with antique furniture, pedestal sinks and some of the best-value rooms in the city.
Its ghost stories are some of the most specific in San Francisco. The Painted Lady, said to be a madam who ran the place as a brothel, is blamed for knocks on the door of Room 33 when nobody is there, and one guest described a dark figure standing by that room’s door. A little girl is seen in the hallways trying to get into Room 42.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 33 or 42 when you book and pack a robe, since most bathrooms are shared and down the hall; then walk to Fisherman’s Wharf after dark.
Where to look The lobby staircase, Rooms 208, 212 and 406, the 1920s elevator
Reported ghosts Stan, a desk clerk; a wagon driver in Room 212; a phantom cat
Booking the haunted room Call the hotel after booking to ask for Room 208, 212 or 406. It is not guaranteed.
The Cary House has fed and housed travelers on Placerville’s Main Street since 1857, when the town was still known as Hangtown. The four-story brick hotel keeps its 1920s elevator and antique-furnished rooms, a few steps from the old Bell Tower, and it makes a handy base for Apple Hill, the wineries and the rest of the gold country along Highway 49.
Its best-known ghost is Stan, a desk clerk who, the story goes, was stabbed on the stairs after making a pass at the wrong guest and now pinches bottoms in the lobby. An old wagon driver is said to have died in Room 212, the elevator makes trips with nobody aboard, and guests mention a ghost cat and the scent of lavender. Portals to Hell filmed an episode here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 212 or 208 and take the old elevator up, at least once.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 801 South Broadway, Santa Maria, CA 93454
Where to look Room 221, Room 210, the Olde English Tap Room, the gardens and cellar
Reported ghosts Rudolph Valentino; a murdered sea captain; a woman called Peppy
Booking the haunted room Request Room 221 (or Room 210) directly with the inn. Requests are noted but not guaranteed.
Frank J. McCoy opened the Santa Maria Inn on May 16, 1917, with 24 rooms, each with its own bath, a luxury for a stop on the old coast highway. Hollywood came through on its way to location shoots and to Hearst Castle, and Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Cecil B. DeMille all stayed. Today it has 164 rooms, including a 1984 tower.
Ghost stories center on Room 221, where guests report knocking at night and the shape of someone lying on the bedspread. Many say it is Valentino. A sea captain said to have been murdered by his mistress is linked to Room 210, and staff have told reporters of a piano that plays itself and a balloon that followed a housekeeper.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the original 1917 wing, and request Room 221 when you book. Have a drink in the 1941 Olde English Tap Room, one of the reported hot spots.
Address 506 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90071
Where to look The lobby and Rendezvous Court, the ninth floor, the second floor, the Crystal Ballroom, the elevators
Reported ghosts Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia); a little girl on the ninth floor; a nurse; children on the ballroom balcony
The Biltmore opened on Pershing Square in October 1923 as the largest hotel west of Chicago. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded at a lunch in its Crystal Ballroom in 1927, eight Oscar ceremonies were held in the Biltmore Bowl, and legend says the statuette was first sketched on a Biltmore napkin. After decades as the Millennium Biltmore it took the name The Biltmore Los Angeles in 2024.
Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, was famously last seen here in January 1947, and some guests believe she still walks the halls. Other stories describe a little girl running along the ninth floor, a nurse on the second floor, children on the Crystal Ballroom balcony and an elevator that stops on the eighth floor for nobody. The hotel says no room has ever gone unsold because of a ghost.
Haunted Rooms tip: Even if you stay elsewhere, have afternoon tea in the Rendezvous Court and look up at the painted ceiling, then ask to see the Crystal Ballroom.
Address 608 Death Valley Junction, CA 92328 (Highway 127 and State Line Road)
Where to look Guest rooms along the courtyard, the opera house
Reported ghosts A crying child; a man said to have hanged himself; a ghostly cat
The Pacific Coast Borax Company built Death Valley Junction as a company town in 1923 to 1925: a long, white Spanish Colonial building holding a hotel, offices and a recreation hall. In 1967 dancer Marta Becket rented the hall, painted its walls with an audience of murals and performed there until 2012. The hotel still rents rooms, with no TVs and a vast desert sky outside.
Ghost stories here are as famous as the murals. Guests talk of a child crying at night who is said to have drowned in a bathtub, an angry presence in a room where a man is said to have hanged himself, and a ghost cat that wanders the corridors. Both Ghost Adventures (2010) and The Dead Files (2013) came to investigate, and many guests arrive hoping for a story of their own.
Haunted Rooms tip: Bring snacks and fuel up before you arrive; services in Death Valley Junction are minimal. Step outside after 10 p.m. for the stars.
Where to look Second-floor corridors, the theater, the lower decks, the lobby
Reported ghosts A blond girl in a long dress; a man in a navy cap; Dorothy Millette
The Delta King and her twin, the Delta Queen, carried overnight passengers between Sacramento and San Francisco from 1927. She served the Navy in World War II, sank at her moorings in 1981, was raised and restored, and reopened in 1989 as a 44-room hotel with a restaurant and a resident theater company, moored on the Old Sacramento waterfront.
Staff describe two regulars: a girl of about eight with long blond hair and a cotton dress who runs and giggles along the second floor, and whose small footprints appear in the morning dew on deck, and a man in a navy cap seen in the lobby in the early hours. In 1932 Dorothy Millette, the secret first wife of MGM producer Paul Bern, went overboard from the boat; some believe she is still aboard.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a stateroom on the second deck and take an Old Sacramento ghost walk along Front Street before bed.
Where to look The upstairs front rooms, the hallways, the stairs, the Gold Rush Saloon
Reported ghosts Flo, a bride who never married
The National Hotel has served Jamestown since 1859, through the Gold Rush and two fires in 1901 and 1927, and is counted among the oldest continuously operating hotels in California. It is a small inn: nine antique-filled rooms upstairs, a restaurant, and a saloon with its original back bar. Stephen Willey restored it over 47 years before selling it to Edy Headley in 2022.
Its ghost is Flo, or Flora, said to be a young bride whose fiance was shot at the foot of the stairs and who died of a broken heart on New Year’s Eve, still in her gown. Guests report lights switching on and off, slamming doors, clothes tipped out of suitcases and sobbing in the hall at night. Rooms keep journals where guests write down what they experienced.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for one of the upstairs rooms at the front of the building, which Flo is said to favor, and read the ghost journal in your room before bed.
Address 3649 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA 92501
Where to look Hallways, the dining room, empty rooms with singing
Reported ghosts Members of the founding Miller family; singing, blue lights and touches
The Mission Inn grew from a two-story adobe boarding house of 1876 into a block-long fantasy of domes, arcades, catacombs and chapels, built out by Frank Miller between 1902 and 1931. It is a National Historic Landmark with 238 rooms, seven Tiffany windows in its St. Francis Chapel and a lounge honoring the ten presidents who have visited; Richard and Pat Nixon married here, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan honeymooned here.
Guests and staff describe singing from empty rooms, small blue lights drifting along the corridors, unseen hands on the shoulder and figures in the hallways and near the dining room ceiling. Most of the stories point to the Miller family, who built the place and never seem to have left it. Every winter the whole building disappears under the lights of the Festival of Lights.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a room in the oldest wings and take the docent-led history tour to see the catacombs and the chapel.
Where to look The hallways, the fifth floor, the ballroom
Reported ghosts Fannie Chaffee Grant, a woman in white; a heavy-set man in a black suit
Ulysses S. Grant Jr. built this 11-story hotel on Broadway and named it for his father, the president. It opened in October 1910 and has hosted presidents and movie stars ever since. The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation bought it in 2003 and restored it, and it is now part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection, facing Horton Plaza Park in the Gaslamp Quarter.
The ghost is usually said to be Fannie Chaffee Grant, the builder’s wife; the story goes that she died soon after the hotel opened and was unhappy when he remarried, though records show she died in 1909, before the opening. Guests describe a woman in an old-fashioned white dress in the halls, a heavy-set man in a black suit at the foot of the bed on the fifth floor, flickering lights and things vanishing in the ballroom.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a fifth-floor room, and have a drink in the hotel’s Grant Grill before bed.
Where to look A street-facing upstairs window, guest rooms
Reported ghosts A young woman said to have taken her own life in her room
The Union Hotel stands on First Street in Benicia, the small waterfront town on the Carquinez Strait that was briefly California’s state capital in the 1850s. The white clapboard Victorian dates to 1882 and still rents rooms upstairs above its ground floor, a short stroll from the restored old capitol building, the antique shops and the water. It is an easy hour from San Francisco.
Its ghost is a young woman who, according to local legend, hanged herself in one of the rooms in the late 1800s. People passing in the street say they have seen her standing at an upstairs window, and guests have reported a woman’s voice talking and quietly crying in rooms that were empty at the time. No name or record has ever been attached to her.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a front room overlooking First Street, then walk down to the water after dinner.
Where to look The Hatt Building, the bakery corner of the old mill
Reported ghosts A son of Captain Albert Hatt; a woman in a white dress
The Napa River Inn sits inside the Historic Napa Mill, a riverside complex built around Captain Albert Hatt’s 1884 warehouse and mill. Guest rooms are split across the brick Hatt Building and two newer buildings along the river walk, with downtown Napa’s tasting rooms, restaurants and the Oxbow market on the doorstep. It is one of the few places in the valley where you can sleep in a building older than most of the wineries.
The ghost stories center on a tragedy in 1912, when Albert Hatt Jr., the captain’s son, took his own life in the warehouse, in the corner now occupied by Sweetie Pies bakery. Since the hotel opened around 2000, guests and staff have described footsteps and slamming doors near Rooms 207 and 208, a woman in a white dress who seems to be searching for someone, and a former mill owner, Robert Keig, on the stairs.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the original Hatt Building rather than the newer Embarcadero or Plaza buildings.
Where to look Guest rooms that call the front desk, the kitchen, the North Annex, the stairwells
Reported ghosts Abigail, a woman in a lace dress; a couple in evening clothes
The Grande Colonial opened in 1913 as the Colonial Apartments and Hotel and was rebuilt and enlarged in 1925, which makes it La Jolla’s oldest original hotel. It sits on Prospect Street a short walk from the coves, the sea lions and the village restaurants, and actors performing at the La Jolla Playhouse are said to have stayed here in the late 1940s.
Staff tell of 2 a.m. calls to the front desk from empty rooms, and of a man’s silhouette behind a curtain that was gone when someone went to look. A woman some call Abigail, in a light lace dress, has been seen in guest rooms and is said to have brushed a young boy’s hair. A couple in formal clothes vanishes in the hallways, and guests in the North Annex hear people running downstairs after hours.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the North Annex or on an upper floor, and keep an ear on your phone at 2 a.m.
Reported ghosts Albert Robinson, the founder, seen with his pipe
Albert Robinson, described on the hotel’s plaque as a former slave from Missouri, and his wife Margaret ran a restaurant and bakery in the mountain gold town of Julian and built this hotel on the site in 1897. It is listed on the National Register and bills itself as the oldest continuously operating hotel in Southern California: 16 rooms, cottages and a honeymoon house, an hour northeast of San Diego.
Albert died in 1915, but local legend says he never really left. Guests report catching sight of a man with a pipe in the old mirrors, and of lace doilies and furniture rearranged in the upstairs rooms when nobody has been in. He is described as a host keeping an eye on his hotel rather than a threat, and some of the trees he planted when it was built still shade the street.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book an upstairs room in the main house and save room for apple pie on Main Street.
Where to look The former speakeasy, the Veranda restaurant, guest room phones
Reported ghosts Former residents; sighs and gasps in the restaurant
The Georgian opened on Ocean Avenue in 1933, a turquoise Art Deco landmark facing Palisades Park and the Pacific. It had a speakeasy in the basement, a guest list said to include Hollywood stars and gangsters, remodels in the 1950s and 1990s and a full restoration in 2023. The front veranda is still one of the best places in Santa Monica to watch the sunset.
Staff have told the city’s tourism office of phone calls to the front desk from unoccupied rooms and of voices in the old speakeasy space, and some guests say the spirits of former tenants never moved out. Diners and servers describe sighs and gasps in the Veranda restaurant with nobody nearby. The stories are low key and gentle, which suits a hotel this elegant.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for an ocean-view room, have a drink on the veranda at dusk and ask whether the speakeasy room is open.
Address 495 Jefferson Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
Where to look Upper-floor corridors, guest rooms
Reported ghosts Children running in the halls at night; heavy footsteps overhead
The Argonaut fills the Haslett Warehouse, a 1907 brick cannery building at Fisherman’s Wharf that is part of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Exposed brick, timber beams and a nautical theme run through its 252 rooms, and the Hyde Street Pier and its historic ships are just across the street. It is run by Noble House Hotels and Resorts.
Ghost stories here come from guests and were repeated by the hotel’s own managing director to a travel magazine. People describe the sound of children running down the corridor around 3 a.m. with nobody in sight, heavy footsteps from empty rooms above despite carpeted floors, and beds that seem to shift. One couple insisted a ghost had followed them, and the front desk waived their charges.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a courtyard or upper-floor room, then walk out to the Hyde Street Pier at night, when the old ships creak at their moorings.
Where to look The old dining room, the staircase to the former attic offices, the bar, Room 603
Reported ghosts A woman in an old-fashioned dress, phantom children, a dancing woman, a woman in white
Booking the haunted room The inn does not sell a haunted room. Guests can ask for Room 603 when booking direct.
Josephine Pierpont opened her Craftsman inn on a bluff above the Pacific in 1910 to serve the first wave of motorists on the coast road. Known as the “Lovely Lady by the Sea,” The Pierpont Inn later spent nearly seventy years under Mattie Vickers Gleichmann, who lived to 100, and many people believe one of these two women never left.
Ventura ghost researcher Richard Senate says the most-seen ghost is a woman in an old-fashioned dress in the old dining room. Others report phantom children on the staircase, a dancing woman near the bar, pens moving in the staff offices and the scent of roses. Note that parts of the inn, including the lobby and restaurant, have been closed since 2016 pending renovation.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for one of the Craftsman suites or cottages to stay in the oldest part of the inn.
Where to look The seventh floor of the main building, the hidden staircase up to the Penthouse, the guest corridors
Reported ghosts The Fair sisters, a cheerful woman said to have died in her room, World War II era soldiers
Sisters Tessie Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt built the Fairmont on the crest of Nob Hill in honor of their father, silver king James Fair. The 1906 earthquake and fire gutted it just before it was due to open; Julia Morgan rebuilt the interior, and it opened on April 18, 1907. The United Nations Charter was finalized here in 1945, and Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in its Venetian Room.
The hotel does not tell ghost stories, but San Francisco ghost tours and haunted lists do. The Fair sisters are said to still check on guests, sometimes with a light touch on the cheek in the night. Other tales describe a friendly woman who chats with guests, soldiers from the Second World War on the seventh floor, and a haunted hidden staircase up to the Penthouse.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a room in the historic main building rather than the tower, then have a drink in the Tonga Room before the late ghost tours pass by on Nob Hill.
Address 433 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Where to look The 13th and 15th floors
Reported ghosts Unexplained lights, knocks and presences; no single named ghost
The Chancellor opened in 1914, built for the crowds expected at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, and was the tallest hotel in the city at the time. It is still one of the few family owned and operated hotels in San Francisco, a slim tower right on the Powell Street cable car line, a block from Union Square.
The general manager has said staff have heard about strange happenings on the 13th and 15th floors for years. Guests describe lights that switch on in the middle of the night, knocking inside walls and cold presences beside the bed, and a paranormal investigator from Ghost Hunters who stayed here said he sensed several spirits. There is no tragic backstory attached, which some guests find even more unsettling.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a high floor; the 13th and 15th are where staff say the stories come from, and the cable car bell will be your alarm clock.
Address 562 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Where to look The fourth floor, the alley behind the hotel
Reported ghosts A man in old-fashioned work clothes seen by housekeepers; phantom hoofbeats
Hotel Emblem is the 2020s rebrand of the Hotel Rex, a literary-salon themed boutique hotel two blocks from Union Square. The look is a nod to the 1920s writers and artists who gathered in the city, and it is one of the better-value stylish stays near the cable cars. If you search for the Hotel Rex ghost, this is the building.
The best-known story comes from housekeeping staff, who described a man in old-fashioned clothes walking the fourth floor holding a meat cleaver before vanishing. Local lore ties him to the Chinese immigrants who lived in the area during the Gold Rush. Guests have also reported the sound of horses’ hooves in the alley behind the hotel, where no horses have stood for a century.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a fourth-floor room; at night, listen at a back-facing window for the hoofbeats in the alley.
Address 1 Ahwahnee Drive, Yosemite National Park, CA 95389
Where to look The mezzanine, the third floor, the sixth floor
Reported ghosts Two figures from the World War II years; a rocking chair that moves
The Ahwahnee opened in Yosemite Valley in 1927, Gilbert Stanley Underwood’s grand lodge of granite and stained concrete beneath the Royal Arches. Queen Elizabeth II and several presidents, John F. Kennedy among them, have stayed, and its interiors helped inspire the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. From 2016 to 2019 it was briefly renamed the Majestic Yosemite Hotel during a trademark dispute.
The ghost stories are gentle. During World War II the Navy used the hotel as a convalescent hospital, and two figures from that era are said to appear on the mezzanine and the third floor. Staff also tell of a rocking chair that turns up on the third floor and rocks by itself, and of clothes folded overnight on the sixth floor.
Haunted Rooms tip: Even if you are camping, book dinner in the Dining Room and walk the Great Lounge, the setting that inspired The Shining’s interiors.
Address 2870 Lakeshore Boulevard, Upper Lake, CA 95485
Where to look The historic main house, the caboose grounds at night
Reported ghosts A man in striped pajamas; shadow figures between the cabooses; cigar smoke with no source
Featherbed Railroad is a family-run bed and breakfast on the shore of Clear Lake in Lake County wine country, where guests sleep in vintage railroad cabooses converted into themed private cottages. The grounds were a lakeside retreat in Lake County’s resort heyday, when Bay Area families came for the mineral waters, and the main house dates to the late 1800s.
Owners, staff and guests describe the sudden smell of cigar smoke where nobody is smoking, figures moving between the cabooses late at night and shadow shapes inside the historic main house. Others report whispers, footsteps, doors opening on their own, objects shifting and phone batteries draining fast. The land also carries the long history of the Pomo people of Clear Lake.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a caboose closest to the main house, and take a walk around the grounds after dark when the lake is still.
Where to look None well documented here; the famous stories belong to the nearby Nob Hill Inn
Reported ghosts Stories of 22 prankster spirits belong to the Nob Hill Inn at 1000 Pine St (closed 2023)
The Nob Hill Hotel is a Victorian-style hotel of about fifty small rooms at 835 Hyde Street, dating from 1906 and restored in 1998 with marble floors, stained glass, chandeliers and antiques, plus a slow vintage elevator, continental breakfast and an evening wine reception. It is two blocks from the California Street cable car and about fifteen minutes on foot from Union Square.
Many ghost guides, including our own older one, gave this address for the haunted Nob Hill Inn, said to hold 22 prankster spirits in 21 rooms. That Inn is a different building at 1000 Pine Street, and it stopped taking guests in January 2023. We found no published ghost stories that belong to the Hyde Street hotel, so book it for its old-world charm rather than its ghosts.
Haunted Rooms tip: Want a confirmed haunted stay instead? The Queen Anne Hotel’s Room 410 is about a mile west.
San Francisco. Closed since 2020 and sold at auction in 2025 with no reopening date. Stay at the Chancellor Hotel on Powell Street instead.
Cecil Hotel (Stay on Main)
Los Angeles. Reopened in 2021 as affordable housing, not a hotel. Stay at the Biltmore downtown instead.
Mayfair Hotel
Los Angeles. Closed to travelers in 2020 and bought by the city for interim housing. Stay at the Biltmore instead.
Haunted hotels by city
Haunted hotels in San Francisco: the Queen Anne, Hotel Majestic, San Remo, Palace Hotel, Chancellor, Argonaut, Hotel Emblem, Nob Hill Hotel and the Claremont across the bay.
Haunted hotels in Los Angeles: the Hollywood Roosevelt, Chateau Marmont, the Biltmore, the Queen Mary and The Georgian.
Haunted hotels in San Diego: the Hotel del Coronado, Horton Grand, Cosmopolitan, US Grant, Grande Colonial and Julian Gold Rush Hotel.
Removed from this guide: the Zaballa House in Half Moon Bay, which now trades as the BytheSea Inn; we could find no published ghost account beyond older guides, and the owners have never claimed a ghost. Hotel Normandie (Los Angeles) was also removed for lack of specific published stories. Corrected: the Awahnee is spelled the Ahwahnee (it was briefly the Majestic Yosemite Hotel from 2016 to 2019); the Millennium Biltmore is now The Biltmore Los Angeles; the Hotel Rex is now Hotel Emblem. Added: the Fairmont San Francisco, now with its own guide that sets out its tour legends as legend; the Mission Inn in Riverside, the Julian Gold Rush Hotel, and every hotel from our city guides.
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
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 Hotel del Coronado in San Diego and the Queen Mary in Long Beach top most lists. Kate Morgan has been reported at the Del since 1892, and the Queen Mary is said to have dozens of spirits, with stateroom B340 the most famous.
Which California hotels let you book a haunted room?
Room 3327 at the Hotel del Coronado, B340 on the Queen Mary, Room 410 at the Queen Anne, Room 407 at the Hotel Majestic, Room 309 at the Horton Grand, Room 307 at the Glen Tavern Inn, Room 11 at the Cosmopolitan and Room 928 at the Hollywood Roosevelt are all requested by number. Requests are never guaranteed.
Is the Cecil Hotel still open?
No. The Cecil in downtown Los Angeles reopened in December 2021 as affordable housing and no longer takes hotel guests.
Are there haunted hotels in the California Gold Country?
Yes. The Cary House in Placerville, the 1859 Historic National Hotel in Jamestown and the Julian Gold Rush Hotel near San Diego all date to the mining years and all have resident ghosts.
Can you sleep on a haunted ship in California?
Yes, two. The Queen Mary in Long Beach and the Delta King paddlewheeler in Old Sacramento are both hotels, and both have well-known ghost stories.
Is the Ahwahnee in Yosemite haunted?
Its stories are gentle: figures from its World War II years as a Navy hospital, a rocking chair that rocks by itself and clothes folded overnight. Its interiors also helped inspire the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.
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.
