Haunted hotel guide · San Francisco, California
The Nob Hill Hotel and the Haunted Nob Hill Inn, San Francisco: Which One Has the Ghosts?
San Francisco’s famous ‘hotel with more ghosts than rooms’ is the Nob Hill Inn on Pine Street, which stopped taking guests in 2023. The Nob Hill Hotel on Hyde Street, often mixed up with it, is still open, and still the closest you can get to that old-world Nob Hill stay.
For years ghost guides, including earlier versions of this one, told the story of the haunted Nob Hill Inn while giving the address of the Nob Hill Hotel. They are two different buildings. The Nob Hill Inn is a 21-room Edwardian house at 1000 Pine Street, at Taylor Street near Grace Cathedral, and it is the building said to hold as many as 22 restless spirits. The Nob Hill Hotel is a separate, larger Victorian-style hotel at 835 Hyde Street, a few blocks to the west.
The Inn closed to guests in January 2023 and was later sold in a bankruptcy sale, so you can no longer sleep there. The Nob Hill Hotel remains open and bookable, with antiques, stained glass and a creaky old elevator, but we have not found any published ghost stories that belong to it. This page explains both, so you can choose with your eyes open. For more of the city’s haunts, see haunted places in San Francisco.
Nob Hill Hotel at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address Nob Hill Hotel: 835 Hyde Street, San Francisco, CA 94109. The haunted Nob Hill Inn: 1000 Pine Street (closed to guests)
- Built Nob Hill Hotel: 1906, restored 1998. Nob Hill Inn: 1907, as a private home after the 1906 earthquake and fire
- Most haunted spots At the Inn: guest rooms and hallways. At the Hotel: no well-documented reports
- Best-known ghosts The Inn’s pranksters, said to number 22, who hide belongings and play with lights
- Booking the haunted room Not possible: the Nob Hill Inn stopped taking guests in January 2023. The Nob Hill Hotel can be booked, but no room there is linked to a ghost.
- Good to know The Nob Hill Hotel has small rooms, a slow vintage elevator, continental breakfast and an evening wine reception. It is two blocks from the California and Hyde cable car stop.
The ghosts of the Nob Hill Inn
More ghosts than rooms
The Nob Hill Inn’s claim to fame is arithmetic. With only 21 guest rooms, it was said to be home to as many as 22 spirits, which ghost-tour company US Ghost Adventures jokes works out as one per room and one more for the lobby. Nobody has ever named them, and nobody claims to know who they were.
The stories say they are tricksters rather than threats. Guests reported toiletries going missing and turning up elsewhere, soap vanishing during a shower and reappearing afterward, locks rattling, light switches and TV remotes switching themselves on, footsteps in the halls and knocks at doors with nobody outside.
The woman at the end of the hall
The best-known single story, repeated in earlier versions of this guide, tells of a guest who complimented staff on the charming touch of a woman in period dress sitting at the end of a hallway. Staff were baffled: nobody had been hired to dress up, and there was no chair at the end of that hall.
Other guests described feeling someone sit down on the end of the bed when they were alone, and the old wine cellar was said to be a favorite gathering place for the spirits. We could not trace these stories to a primary source, so enjoy them as Nob Hill folklore.
Why would the Inn be haunted?
Two theories are usually offered. The first is the 1906 earthquake and fire, which destroyed the earlier building on the site; some believe people who died nearby were drawn to the house built on its ashes, though ghost sites admit nobody is known to have died on the spot. The second is the Inn’s collection of antiques, and reports are said to have grown as the decor became more elaborate after renovations.
The Inn never advertised its ghosts. One ghost-tour writer suggested management worried they would scare guests away, and added, fairly, that perhaps there are no ghosts at all.
And the Nob Hill Hotel on Hyde Street?
The Hyde Street hotel has the look of a haunted hotel, with Victorian antiques, stained glass, chandeliers and a small, slow elevator, and it has inherited the Inn’s stories on many websites. But the ghost lore we traced, from WeJunket, US Ghost Adventures, FrightFind and HauntedHouses.com, all points to the Pine Street building. If you stay on Hyde Street and something odd happens, you may be the first to report it.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- Nob Hill Inn, 1000 Pine Street: The haunted one: 21 rooms in a 1907 Edwardian house with a glass European-style lift. Closed to guests since January 2023; you can see the outside from Pine and Taylor.
- Nob Hill Hotel, 835 Hyde Street: Open and bookable: about 50 small, antique-filled rooms on several floors, restored in 1998. No room is linked to a ghost.
History of Nob Hill Hotel
The 1906 earthquake and the fires that followed destroyed most of Nob Hill, and the neighborhood rebuilt quickly. The Nob Hill Inn at Pine and Taylor was built in 1907 as a private home on the site of an earlier building lost in the fire. Over the following century it became a small hotel and later a timeshare property with 21 rooms, nine of them suites, decorated with Edwardian antiques and served by a glass-enclosed lift.
The Inn’s owners, a homeowners’ association of timeshare owners, voted to end operations and sell. The Inn stopped taking guests in January 2023, the association filed for bankruptcy and the building was listed for sale that June. A court-supervised sale followed in late 2024, and real estate listings show the property sold. Its future use has not been announced.
The Nob Hill Hotel on Hyde Street dates from 1906 and was restored in 1998 with marble floors, stained glass panels, ornate ceilings and period paintings. It sits on the western slope of Nob Hill, two blocks from the cable car stop at California and Hyde, and about a fifteen-minute walk from Union Square and Chinatown.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Want a confirmed haunted stay in the city? Book the Queen Anne Hotel and ask for Room 410.
- Staying on Hyde Street? Expect small rooms and a slow elevator, and enjoy the free breakfast and evening wine reception.
- See the Inn from outside. Walk up to Pine and Taylor, near Grace Cathedral, but respect the private property.
- Ride the cable car after dark. The California Street line stops at California and Hyde, two blocks from the hotel, and climbs over the top of Nob Hill.
- Pair your trip with a night tour of Alcatraz.
- Want to investigate with a team? Haunted Rooms runs ghost hunts at historic venues across the US.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Queen Anne Hotel, San Francisco: San Francisco’s best-known haunted hotel, about a mile west
- Claremont Resort & Club, Berkeley: a haunted grand hotel across the bay
- Haunted hotels in San Francisco: every haunted place to stay in the city
- Haunted hotels in California
- Haunted hotels in San Francisco
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.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Nob Hill Inn haunted?
It has one of the best-known ghost stories in San Francisco: as many as 22 prankster spirits in a 21-room house, said to hide belongings and play with lights. These are stories from guests and ghost-tour writers, not documented events.
Is the Nob Hill Inn still open?
No. The Nob Hill Inn at 1000 Pine Street stopped taking guests in January 2023, and the building was later sold in a bankruptcy sale.
Is the Nob Hill Hotel the same as the Nob Hill Inn?
No. The Nob Hill Hotel is a separate, open hotel at 835 Hyde Street. The haunted Nob Hill Inn was at 1000 Pine Street. Many websites mix them up.
Is the Nob Hill Hotel on Hyde Street haunted?
We have not found any published ghost stories that belong to it. The stories usually told about it come from the Nob Hill Inn on Pine Street.
Where can I stay in a haunted hotel in San Francisco?
The Queen Anne Hotel is the city’s best-known haunted hotel, and Room 410 can be booked. The Chancellor Hotel on Union Square also has reports from its upper floors.
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.
- The Real Deal: 116-year-old Nob Hill Inn put up for sale (2023)
- Christie's International Real Estate Sereno: 1000 Pine Street listing
- WeJunket: San Francisco ghosts, Nob Hill Inn
- US Ghost Adventures: Nob Hill Inn
- FrightFind: Nob Hill Inn
- Oyster: Nob Hill Hotel review
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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.
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