Haunted hotel guide · Ottawa, Ontario

The Haunted Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Ottawa: The Titanic Ghost

The man who built Ottawa’s castle hotel drowned on the Titanic eleven days before it was due to open, and for more than a century guests and staff have said he walks its corridors.

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

3.5/5Haunted Rooms Score

1912Year opened

7th and 8thFormer CBC floors

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Fairmont Chateau Laurier sits beside the Rideau Canal locks, a few steps from Parliament Hill, and it has been Ottawa’s grand hotel since 1912. Prime ministers have lived in it, the CBC broadcast from its top floors for 80 years, and Yousuf Karsh made portraits in his studio here. Its ghost story begins with the man who commissioned it, Grand Trunk Railway president Charles Melville Hays, who died when the Titanic sank on his way back for the opening.

This guide covers the Hays legend, the strange nights reported by CBC chairman Patrick Watson, other guest accounts, the real history of the building and practical tips for staying. The hotel itself does not promote its ghosts, and a longtime public relations director said she never experienced anything in 15 years, so treat this as a grand hotel with a famous legend attached.

The ghosts of Fairmont Chateau Laurier

Charles Melville Hays

Hays was the driving force behind the Chateau Laurier and the Grand Trunk Railway’s other ambitions. He sailed home from England on the Titanic in April 1912 to attend the hotel’s grand opening, set for April 26. He died when the ship sank on April 15, along with other guests who had been expected at the celebrations. The opening went ahead quietly on June 12.

Ever since, people have said Hays never left. Global News, summing up Ottawa’s ghost stories in 2018, reported that staff and guests describe rattling and shaking noises and furniture moved after a staff member has left a room. Glen Shackleton, who founded the Haunted Walk of Ottawa, has said Hays is believed to roam the halls. Earlier tellings, including the first version of this guide, describe a figure seen walking the hallways and doors opening and closing on their own.

Patrick Watson's nights

The most quoted account comes from Patrick Watson, the broadcaster who chaired the CBC. In the 1980s, while staying near the CBC’s studios in the hotel, he heard a sharp crack in the night and found a heavy glass ashtray split in two. The next night his metal shaving kit had moved from behind the bathroom faucet to the far side of the bathroom floor. In a letter he described the events as “inexplicable” and said they “left me quite shaken.”

The CBC floors

CBC Radio occupied the top floors of the Chateau Laurier from 1924 until 2004, and the seventh floor in particular gathered stories among broadcasters working late. Writer Michael Kleen, collecting the hotel’s lore in 2018, noted that many of the strange tales center on the former studio floor and the suites around it.

Guests in the night

Other accounts are small and personal. One guest woke with the clear impression that someone was sitting on the end of her bed, though she was alone. Another felt a hand on her arm and shoulder in her suite’s bathroom, and later, while removing her makeup, watched the closet door behind her swing slowly open. Kleen also collected reports of a child’s ghost, a disembodied singing voice and doors opening and closing.

What the hotel says

Deneen Perrin, the hotel’s longtime public relations director, told CTV Morning Live that she had never experienced anything unusual in 15 years at the Chateau Laurier, though she confirmed that some employees “feel something.” There are also stories of deaths at the hotel over the years, including falls from the upper floors, but we have not found published details, so we do not repeat specifics here.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The seventh and eighth floors: The former CBC Radio floors and the focus of many stories, including Patrick Watson’s. Ask for an upper-floor room when you book.
• The long corridors: Where Hays is said to walk. Late at night, when the hotel is quiet, is when most guests explore them.
• The lobby and public rooms: Open to the public and the best place to take in the original interiors: limestone, marble floors and hand-molded plasterwork.
• The 1929 east wing: Added along Mackenzie Avenue with 240 more rooms. Not linked to particular stories, but part of the historic building.

History of Fairmont Chateau Laurier

Charles Melville Hays commissioned the hotel alongside a new Union Station across Rideau Street, and it was built between 1909 and 1912 for about $2 million. New York architect Bradford Gilbert was dismissed after disagreements with the railway, and Montreal’s Ross and MacFarlane completed the design: a limestone chateau with steep copper roofs and turrets. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier had helped secure the site, part of Major’s Hill Park, and the hotel was named in his honor. He attended the subdued opening on June 12, 1912.

The hotel opened with 350 bedrooms. A $6 million east wing by John Archibald and John Schofield added 240 rooms along Mackenzie Avenue in 1929. Prime Minister R. B. Bennett lived in a suite during his term from 1930 to 1935, a young Alex Trebek lived and worked here in the early 1960s, and Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell stayed here in 1968.

CBC’s English and French radio services broadcast from the top floors from 1924 to 2004, and portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh kept his studio and home in the hotel from 1972 to 1992. The Chateau Laurier was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980.

Today it has 429 rooms and is owned by an affiliate of Larco Investments, which bought it in 2013 and kept Fairmont as manager. A modern addition on the garden side drew fierce debate before Ottawa council let the heritage permit stand in 2019.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Ask for a room on one of the upper floors, ideally the seventh or eighth, and confirm before you arrive.
• Walk the long corridors late at night, when the hotel is at its quietest and the stories feel closest.
• Have a drink or a meal in the hotel if you are not staying; the public rooms are the best of the original building.
• The Haunted Walk of Ottawa runs evening tours nearby, including the old Carleton County Gaol, now the Ottawa Jail Hostel.
• The Rideau Canal locks right below the hotel and Parliament Hill next door are both beautiful after dark.
• Stayed at the Chateau Laurier? Tell us what happened using the form below.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Ottawa Jail Hostel: sleep in the cells of a 19th-century jail a short walk away
• Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City: the Comte de Frontenac and the woman in white
• Fairmont Royal York, Toronto: another railway hotel with ghost stories
• Haunted places in Ontario: more Ontario ghost stories
• Haunted hotels in Canada
• Haunted hotels in Ontario

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: Chateau Laurier
• Global News: Ottawa's oldest buildings and their ghosts (2018)
• Mysteries of Canada: 10 haunted hotels in Ontario
• Michael Kleen: Fairmont Chateau Laurier's invisible guests (2018)
• Capital Current: haunted Ottawa, Billings and the Chateau Laurier (2024)
• CTV News: Spooky Canada, 25 places with a haunted history (2026)

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