Haunted hotel guide · Las Vegas, Nevada
Is the Excalibur Las Vegas Haunted? The 10th Floor Stories and the Castle's History
A 1990 castle on the south Strip with a small, modern ghost reputation centered on its 10th-floor corridors.
With its white towers and colorful turrets, the Excalibur Hotel & Casino looks like the kind of castle that ought to have a ghost. It opened in 1990, which makes it young by haunted hotel standards, and nothing in its history explains a haunting. Even so, it turns up on haunted Las Vegas lists, almost always for the same thing: a presence that guests feel following them along the 10th-floor corridors.
This guide sets out the stories as they are told, says plainly how thin the evidence is, and covers the resort’s real history, from the castle in Germany that inspired it to the naming contest that gave it King Arthur’s sword. If you want a cheap, fun base on the south Strip with a story to test, it fits the bill.
Excalibur at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 3850 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109 (south Strip, next to the Luxor)
- Opened June 19, 1990
- Most haunted spots The 10th-floor corridors and guest rooms
- Best-known ghosts An unseen presence that follows guests; poltergeist-style activity in rooms
- Booking the haunted room No specific room is named. You can ask for a 10th-floor room at check-in, but it is not guaranteed.
- Good to know 3,981 rooms in four 28-story towers; MGM Resorts operates it; tram to the Luxor and Mandalay Bay
The ghost stories of the Excalibur
Footsteps on the 10th floor
The Excalibur’s main story is about one floor. Guests walking along the 10th-floor corridors say they feel someone close behind them, sometimes hear footsteps that match their own, and turn around to find the hallway empty. Haunted Las Vegas round-ups such as Amy’s Crypt describe it as being disturbed by an unseen presence.
Earlier versions of this guide added a voice whispering in guests’ ears and sudden, intense cold on the same floor. Nobody seems to know why the 10th floor in particular, and no story about a death or event there has surfaced.
Moving furniture and switched-off TVs
The second set of stories is the poltergeist kind. Guests say furniture in their rooms seems to have moved when they come back, televisions that were switched off show static, and the room phone rings with nobody on the line.
In a hotel this size, with housekeeping, room service and thousands of phone lines, there are everyday explanations for most of this. That is part of the fun: you can test the stories yourself and decide.
Why the evidence is thin
We could not find these stories in local news or told by staff, and the Excalibur, unlike the Westgate or the Flamingo, does not talk about ghosts. There is no known tragedy behind them. We include the hotel because it is on many haunted Las Vegas lists and readers ask about it, but it scores low for haunted reputation in our ratings.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- 10th-floor corridors: Where guests feel someone walking close behind them.
- 10th-floor guest rooms: Reports of moved furniture, static on switched-off TVs and phantom phone calls.
- The Luxor next door: Not part of the Excalibur, but a short walk away with a far bigger set of legends.
History of Excalibur Hotel & Casino
The land where the Excalibur stands was meant for another fantasy resort. In 1975 developers announced the Xanadu, a futuristic 1,730-room hotel, but it was never built because they could not reach a deal with the county over sewer service. Circus Circus Enterprises bought the empty lot in May 1988, and company founder William Bennett came up with the idea of a castle.
Bennett and architect Veldon Simpson studied European castles, above all Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. Ground was broken on October 7, 1988. A contest to name the resort drew more than 180,000 entries with some 33,000 different names, and the winner was Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur. The $290 million resort opened on June 19, 1990, and about 30,000 people came through on its first day.
With 4,032 rooms at opening, the Excalibur was the largest hotel in the world until the MGM Grand opened across the Strip in 1993. Its dinner show began as King Arthur’s Tournament on opening day and was overhauled as Tournament of Kings in 1999; it is one of the longest-running shows on the Strip. In 1993 a three-story animatronic dragon was added out front to battle a mechanical Merlin. Review-Journal readers voted it the worst attraction in town in 2002 and 2003, and the show ended in 2003, though the dragon is still said to sit in its lair by the drawbridge.
Circus Circus Enterprises became Mandalay Resort Group in 1999, the year a tram opened linking the Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. MGM bought the company in 2005, and a remodel from 2006 toned down the castle theme in the rooms. Vici Properties bought the building in 2022 and MGM Resorts runs it under a lease, with 3,981 rooms in four 28-story towers.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Ask for a 10th-floor room at check-in if you want to test the stories. The front desk may not be able to promise one.
- Walk the 10th-floor corridor late at night, when it is quiet enough to hear footsteps that are not yours.
- Take the tram or walk next door to the Luxor, which has the south Strip’s best-known legends.
- See Tournament of Kings for the castle at its most theatrical.
- For older haunts, head downtown to the El Cortez, or read our guide to haunted places in Las Vegas.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Luxor, Las Vegas: next door; the pyramid and its curse legends
- Horseshoe Las Vegas (Bally's): the tower that survived the 1980 MGM Grand fire
- Flamingo Las Vegas: Bugsy Siegel’s resort and his ghost
- Planet Hollywood: the old Aladdin site, where Elvis married
- Haunted hotels in Nevada
- Haunted hotels in Las Vegas
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 Excalibur Hotel haunted?
It has a small ghost reputation. Guests describe an unseen presence following them on the 10th-floor corridors, plus moving furniture and phantom phone calls, but no staff accounts or press reports back the stories up.
What is on the 10th floor of the Excalibur?
Ordinary guest rooms. It is the floor where haunted Las Vegas lists say guests feel someone walking close behind them.
When did the Excalibur open?
June 19, 1990. It cost $290 million and was the largest hotel in the world until 1993.
What castle is the Excalibur based on?
Its designers studied European castles, especially Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.
How many rooms does the Excalibur have?
3,981 rooms in four 28-story towers.
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.
- Wikipedia: Excalibur Hotel and Casino
- Wikipedia: Tournament of Kings
- Casino.org: 10 fun and weird facts about Excalibur on its 35th birthday
- Amy's Crypt: Haunted places in Las Vegas
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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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