Haunted hotel guide · Las Vegas, Nevada

Is Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Haunted? Ghost Stories on the Old Aladdin Site

A modern Strip resort on the ground of the old Aladdin, where Elvis married Priscilla and the mob skimmed the count room. Its ghost stories are modest; its history is not.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

1.5/5Haunted Rooms Score
1966Aladdin opened on this site
2,496Rooms today

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

Planet Hollywood Las Vegas is not an old building. The tower you see in the middle of the Strip opened in 2000, as the second Aladdin, and took the Planet Hollywood name in 2007. What gives it a place in a haunted hotels guide is the ground it stands on. The original Aladdin opened here in 1966, hosted the wedding of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967, was linked to hidden mob owners in the 1970s and was imploded in 1998.

The ghost stories told about the modern resort are small ones: guests woken by knocking at the door in the night and whispering in the hall, with nobody there. Earlier versions of this guide repeated them and named a “Paranormal Suite”, but we could not find that suite on the resort’s room lists or the stories in local press, so this page sets out what is told, what is documented and how to enjoy the history if you stay.

Planet Hollywood at a glance

1.5/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation1
History3
Ghost hunter access1
$$ · $150 to $300
  • Address 3667 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109 (center Strip)
  • Opened August 18, 2000, as the new Aladdin; renamed Planet Hollywood in 2007 (original Aladdin 1966)
  • Most haunted spots Guest room doors and hallways late at night
  • Best-known ghosts Unexplained knocking and whispering voices; no named ghost
  • Booking the haunted room There is no haunted room to book. We could not confirm the “Paranormal Suite” earlier guides mentioned.
  • Good to know Caesars Entertainment resort with 2,496 rooms, connected to the Miracle Mile Shops and the PH Live theater

Check availability

The ghost stories of Planet Hollywood

Knocking at the door

The story most often told is simple. Guests say they have been woken in the middle of the night by someone knocking at their door, and that however quickly they get up to look, the hallway is empty. Some say it happened more than once in a night.

In a hotel with thousands of rooms, late-night knocking has plenty of ordinary explanations, from lost guests to housekeeping carts. We have not found the story in local news or from staff, so treat it as a guest tale rather than a documented haunting.

Whispers in the hall

The second part of the story is voices: whispering in the corridor outside the room, too quiet to make out, that stops when the door opens. Guests who tell it often link it to the old Aladdin and the idea that something from the earlier hotel stayed behind when the new one rose on the same site.

That link is the reason the resort turns up on haunted Las Vegas lists at all. The old Aladdin’s story was colorful and sometimes dark, as the history below shows, but no particular death or event at the hotel is tied to the whispering.

The "Aladdin's karma"

Even the Las Vegas Advisor, explaining in 2008 how the Aladdin became Planet Hollywood, wrote that the redesign was hoped to have erased the “ill-fated Aladdin’s karma”. It was a figure of speech, not a ghost story, but it captures why people feel this site carries something: two Aladdins in a row ended in money trouble, and the first was entangled with organized crime.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • Guest room corridors: Where late-night knocking and whispering are reported.
  • Upper floors of the tower: Most of the stories come from guests in the upper-floor rooms.
  • PH Live theater: Not haunted by any account we found, but it carries the history of the 1976 Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts.

History of Planet Hollywood Las Vegas (former Aladdin)

The site’s story starts with the Tallyho, a hotel without a casino opened in December 1962 by toy manufacturer Edwin S. Lowe. Without gambling it failed within a year. Casino operator Milton Prell bought it and reopened it as the Aladdin on April 1, 1966.

On May 1, 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in a private ceremony in Prell’s apartment at the Aladdin, the most famous moment in the hotel’s history. In 1976 the owners added a 17-story tower and a 7,500-seat theater, which opened with four Neil Diamond shows. Behind the scenes things were less glamorous. A 1977 FBI affidavit said Detroit mobsters had hidden interests in the resort, and in 1979 four men, including general manager James Abraham and entertainment director James Tamer, were convicted in a conspiracy to let hidden owners control it. The owners lost their gaming licenses and the hotel briefly closed.

Wayne Newton and Ed Torres bought the Aladdin in 1980 for $85 million; Newton sold his share to Torres within two years. Japanese businessman Ginji Yasuda bought it in 1986, the first foreign national to win preliminary approval for a Nevada gaming license, and Jack Sommer’s family trust took over in 1994. The Aladdin closed on November 25, 1997, and its tower was imploded at 7:30 p.m. on April 27, 1998. A sign out front promised: “Out of the dust Aladdin rises anew. See you in 2000.”

A new $1.4 billion Aladdin opened on August 18, 2000, but struggled from the start and filed for bankruptcy in September 2001. A group led by Planet Hollywood bought it in a 2003 bankruptcy sale, renamed it Planet Hollywood on April 17, 2007, and held a grand opening on November 16, 2007. Harrah’s, now Caesars Entertainment, took full ownership in 2010. After a $100 million renovation completed in 2017 the resort has 2,496 rooms and suites.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Choose Planet Hollywood for location and history, not for a guaranteed ghost. It is in the middle of the Strip, close to many of the city’s better-known haunts.
  • If you hear knocking at 3 a.m., check the peephole before you open the door. Most of the time it will be a lost guest.
  • Read up on the Aladdin before you go: the Elvis wedding and the mob years make the building far more interesting to walk around.
  • Across the street, the Horseshoe (Bally’s) stands on the site of the 1980 MGM Grand fire, and the Flamingo has Bugsy Siegel’s ghost.
  • For a fuller night out, see our guide to haunted places in Las Vegas.

More haunted hotels nearby

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Frequently asked questions

Is Planet Hollywood Las Vegas haunted?

Some guests say so, describing knocking at their doors at night and whispering in the halls. We have found no staff accounts or press reports, so it is a minor entry among Las Vegas haunts.

Was Planet Hollywood the Aladdin?

Yes. The original Aladdin opened on this site in 1966 and was imploded in 1998. A new Aladdin opened in 2000 and was renamed Planet Hollywood in 2007.

Did Elvis get married at the Aladdin?

Yes. Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu married on May 1, 1967, in owner Milton Prell’s apartment at the original Aladdin.

Is there a Paranormal Suite at Planet Hollywood?

We could not find one. It was named in older haunted hotel lists, including an earlier version of this guide, but it does not appear among the resort’s suites.

When was the Aladdin imploded?

On the evening of April 27, 1998, five months after the hotel closed.

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.

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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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