The 50 Most Haunted Hotels in America You Can Actually Stay In
From Room 217 at the Stanley to a stateroom on the Queen Mary, these are the 50 haunted hotels in America with the strongest stories, the deepest history and the best chance of booking a room with a reputation.
America’s most haunted hotels are spread across 28 states: gold rush and copper camp hotels in the West, grand resorts in the mountains, Civil War inns around Gettysburg and the old townhouses of New Orleans and Savannah. We ranked every one with the Haunted Rooms Score, which weighs its haunted reputation, its history and what you can actually do as a guest, from booking a named haunted room to joining a ghost tour. Every hotel is open and taking guests, and every entry was checked against the hotel’s own website and published sources. Ghost stories are reported as stories. Use the map and filters to find a haunted room you can book, a hotel with ghost tours or a stay under $150, then follow the links to our full guides.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 333 E Wonderview Ave, Estes Park, CO 80517
Where to look Room 217, the fourth floor, the Concert Hall, the Music Room piano, the grand staircase and the old staff tunnels
Reported ghosts Head housekeeper Elizabeth Wilson, F.O. and Flora Stanley, Paul and Lucy in the Concert Hall, children on the fourth floor
Booking the haunted room Book Room 217 online as the Room 217 Spirited Grand King, or choose one of the fourth-floor Spirited rooms.
The Stanley opened on July 4, 1909, and is the hotel that gave Stephen King the idea for The Shining after he and his wife spent a night here in 1974, in or near Room 217. It is the most famous haunted hotel in the country, and it leans into the reputation: several rooms are sold as “Spirited” rooms, and its own guides run nightly ghost tours.
Guests describe Flora Stanley’s piano playing itself, a former housekeeper who unpacks suitcases in Room 217, children laughing on the empty fourth floor, and a night watchman called Paul who tells people to get out of the Concert Hall after curfew. Book Room 217 as far ahead as you can; dates open about a year in advance and October goes first.
Haunted Rooms tip: Room 217 can be booked online as the Room 217 Spirited Grand King. Dates are released roughly a year ahead, so set a reminder.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 75 Prospect Avenue, Eureka Springs, AR 72632
Where to look Room 218, Room 419, the basement morgue, the Crystal Dining Room and the third floor
Reported ghosts Michael the stonemason, Theodora, Norman Baker and a nurse with a gurney
Booking the haunted room Ask for Room 218 (Michael) or Room 419 (Theodora) when you book by phone; they are in demand, especially around Halloween.
The Crescent opened in 1886 as a luxury resort on a mountaintop above Eureka Springs, then spent decades as a college for young women before Norman Baker, a radio huckster with no medical training, turned it into a cancer “hospital” in 1937. Baker went to federal prison for mail fraud in 1940, and the basement morgue from his era is still part of the hotel’s nightly ghost tour.
No hotel in the South talks about its ghosts more openly. Staff say they have heard thousands of guest reports. Room 218 belongs to Michael, said to be an Irish stonemason who fell during construction; Room 419 to Theodora, linked to Baker’s clinic. Guests also describe a nurse pushing a gurney, Baker himself in the lobby and Victorian dancers in the Crystal Dining Room.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the ghost tour that ends in the morgue for your first evening, then ask for Room 218 or 419 when you reserve; both go fast in October.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 1126 Queens Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90802
Where to look Stateroom B340, the first-class pool, engine room door 13, the Queen's Salon, the third-class playroom
Reported ghosts Little Jackie, the swimmers of the first-class pool, the young man at door 13, the Lady in White
Booking the haunted room Stateroom B340 (the Paranormal Suite) and the Paranormal Passage staterooms B326, B328 and B334 are sold through the Queen Mary's own reservations.
Permanently moored in Long Beach since 1967, the 1936 Cunard liner Queen Mary is now a hotel with original wood-paneled staterooms, and it is one of the most famous haunted places in America. The stories center on Stateroom B340, the closed first-class swimming pool where a little girl called Jackie is said to play, and watertight door 13 in the engine room, where a young crewman was crushed during a 1966 drill.
The ship leans in to its reputation. B340 is sold as a themed paranormal suite, three more “Paranormal Passage” staterooms joined it in 2026, and the ship runs its own ghost tours every day, from the one-hour Haunted Encounters walk to the after-midnight Graveyard Tour for ages 16 and up. Stay overnight and you can explore the decks long after the day visitors leave.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a ghost tour for the evening you stay: the after-hours Paranormal Ship Walk goes into areas day visitors never see.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 7747 U.S. Highway 61, St. Francisville, LA 70775
Where to look The main staircase, the hall mirror, the front porch, the Judge Clarke Woodruff Suite and the Caretaker's Quarters
Reported ghosts Chloe, Sara Woodruff and her children, William Winter, the girl in the famous 1992 photo
Booking the haunted room The six historic rooms in the main house can be chosen by name when you book on the official website.
General David Bradford built Laurel Grove on a rise above Bayou Sara in 1796, and under the Stirling family it grew into the long, lace-ironed house now known as The Myrtles. It is often called one of America’s most haunted homes, and it has the TV credits to match: Unsolved Mysteries, Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures have all filmed here. Overnight guests sleep in six historic rooms inside the main house or in garden rooms and cabins on the grounds.
The best-known story is Chloe, an enslaved woman said to have poisoned the Woodruff family with an oleander cake. Records show Sara Woodruff and two of her children died of yellow fever, and no Chloe appears in the family’s papers, so treat it as legend. The one confirmed killing is William Winter, shot on the porch in 1871; guests still talk about footsteps that stop on the 17th stair and faces in the hall mirror.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a room inside the main house rather than a garden cottage, and take the evening Mystery Tour on the night you stay.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 230 Second Street, Fall River, MA 02721
Where to look The John Morse room, the Andrew and Abby Suite, the sitting room and basement
Reported ghosts Andrew and Abby Borden, a weeping woman, a woman in Victorian dress tidying the house
Booking the haunted room Every room is booked by name on the house's own website, including the room where Abby Borden was found.
On August 4, 1892, Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were killed with a hatchet in this narrow house on Second Street. Andrew’s daughter Lizzie was tried and acquitted, and the murders have never been solved. The house has run as a bed and breakfast since 1996 and was bought in 2021 by Lance Zaal, whose company US Ghost Adventures runs the tours here.
There are two suites and four rooms, including the second-floor room where Abby was found. Guests and tour staff describe a woman weeping, a woman in Victorian clothes straightening up, doors opening and footsteps. The house calls itself America’s most haunted. Skeptics such as investigator Joe Nickell argue the experiences come from suggestion, which is worth knowing before you book.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Morse room or the Andrew and Abby Suite well ahead, especially for August 4 and October.
$$$ · 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.
Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsNo pets
Address 204 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205
Where to look Menger Bar, King Ranch Suite, third-floor corridors of the original wing
Reported ghosts Chambermaid Sallie White, Captain Richard King, Teddy Roosevelt
Booking the haunted room The King Ranch Signature Suite, where Captain King died, can be booked on the hotel's own website. The hotel also sells a 'Room with a Boo' package that includes tickets for a local ghost tour.
Open since 1859 and standing right beside the Alamo, the Menger is the hotel most often named as Texas’s most haunted, with as many as 32 different spirits claimed over the years. The best known is Sallie White, a chambermaid shot by her husband in 1876. The hotel paid for her coffin, and guests still report a woman in an old-fashioned maid’s uniform carrying an armful of towels down the corridors at night.
Cattle baron Captain Richard King spent his final months in his suite here and died at the hotel in 1885. Staff say his figure walks into the King Ranch Suite through the wall where the door used to be. Down in the Menger Bar, where Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders in 1898, people report a man in period dress sitting at the bar who isn’t there when they look again.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the original 1859 building rather than the newer tower; that’s where most of the reports come from.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 214 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Where to look The 14th floor and Room 1462, the elevators, the lobby restaurant doors, the Carousel Bar, the rooftop, the lobby grandfather clock
Reported ghosts Maurice Begere, a toddler who died in the 1890s; a former employee known as Red; ghostly children
Booking the haunted room Request a 14th-floor room (Room 1462 if you can) by calling the hotel after booking. Floors are requests, not guarantees.
Family owned since 1886, the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street is the grand dame of French Quarter hotels, home of the revolving Carousel Bar and a National Literary Landmark. It is also one of the most talked-about haunted hotels in America, and the hotel tells its ghost stories itself.
The best known is Maurice Begere, a toddler said to have died of a fever while his parents were at the opera in the 1890s. Guests report a small boy on the 14th floor (really the 13th), especially near Room 1462. In 2003 the International Society for Paranormal Research reported more than a dozen spirits here, and staff talk of doors that open by themselves and elevators that stop on 14.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a 14th-floor room when you book, then have a nightcap at the Carousel Bar.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 401 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325
Where to look The Garret, the cellar, the Sara Black Room, Jeremy's Room and the hall between the tavern and kitchen
Reported ghosts Jeremy, Mary the midwife, the Garret sharpshooter, the woman on the cellar stairs and an old matron
Booking the haunted room All 12 rooms are named and can be booked direct, including the Sara Black Room and Jeremy's Room in the original house.
The Farnsworth House Inn on Baltimore Street is Gettysburg’s most famous haunted inn. Its 1833 brick wall still carries more than 100 bullet holes from the battle, and tradition holds that a Confederate sharpshooter in its attic fired the shot that killed Jennie Wade, the only civilian killed at Gettysburg. The family-run inn has 12 rooms, two restaurants, a tavern and a full program of ghost tours.
The inn says as many as 16 spirits have been counted here. The best known are Jeremy, a playful boy in the cellar; Mary, a midwife said to tuck guests in at night in the Sara Black Room; and a young sharpshooter whose footsteps and harp are heard in the Garret. Book the Sara Black Room or Jeremy’s Room direct, then take one of the evening tours of the attic and cellar.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Sara Black Room or Jeremy’s Room direct with the inn, then join an evening tour of the Garret and cellar.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsNo pets
Address 3322 DeMenil Pl, St. Louis, MO 63118
Where to look The former bedrooms of William Lemp Sr. and Charles Lemp, the office where Billy Lemp Jr. died, the attic and the second-floor windows
Reported ghosts The Lavender Lady (Lillian Lemp); members of the Lemp family; Zeke, a boy said to have lived in the attic
Booking the haunted room Call the mansion (314-664-8024) to book a guest room or the two-night Staycation package.
The Lemp family built one of America’s biggest breweries, and three of its members took their own lives in this Benton Park mansion: William Lemp Sr. in 1904, William “Billy” Lemp Jr. in his office in 1922 and Charles Lemp in 1949. Daughter Elsa died the same way at her own home in 1920. Today the house is a restaurant with a handful of guest rooms.
The Atlantic Paranormal Society filmed here for Ghost Hunters in 2010, and the mansion runs its own ghost tours and Lemp Experience hunts. Guests and staff describe a woman in lavender at the upstairs windows, said to be Billy’s wife Lillian, plus doors that lock themselves, voices, cigar smoke and a piano heard in empty rooms.
Haunted Rooms tip: Rooms are booked by phone, not online. Come on a Lemp Experience night, when rooms have been offered from about $180 for two, and take the hunt before you go to bed.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsNo petsHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 9221 Belle Grove Drive, King George, VA 22485
Where to look The Turner Suite, the upstairs hallway, the white entry posts and the driveway
Reported ghosts Union soldiers on guard, two ghost cats, a boy called Jacob, a woman in mourning at the top window
Booking the haunted room All four suites (Madison, Turner, Conway and Hipkins-Bernard) can be booked by name on the Belle Grove website. The Turner Suite is the one paranormal teams ask for.
Belle Grove sits on the Rappahannock River in King George County, on the plantation where James Madison was born in 1751. The present mansion dates from 1791 and was enlarged for the Turner family in 1839. Union troops occupied the estate during the Civil War, and the men chasing John Wilkes Booth passed through in 1865. Today it is a bed and breakfast with four master suites, a tea room and a busy events calendar.
The owners say more than 80 spirits have been identified here and have described seeing two dozen full-body apparitions since moving in, most of them Union soldiers standing at the white entry posts or crossing the drive. Guests talk about phantom cats walking across their beds and a little boy called Jacob bouncing a ball upstairs. Belle Grove has appeared on Ghost Hunters and Kindred Spirits, and Haunted Rooms runs overnight ghost hunts here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for the Turner Suite, where investigators have recorded the voice said to be Jacob, or book one of our overnight ghost hunts, which include a night in one of the four master suites.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 717 Orleans St, New Orleans, LA 70116
Where to look The Orleans Ballroom, Room 644, the sixth and third floors, the lobby
Reported ghosts A dancer in the ballroom, a nun, children from the old orphanage, a wounded soldier
Booking the haunted room Call the hotel after booking and request Room 644 or a sixth-floor room. Specific rooms are requests, not guarantees.
The Bourbon Orleans wraps around the 1817 Orleans Ballroom, where Creole society once danced, and the convent and school of the Sisters of the Holy Family, who owned the property from 1881 until it became a hotel in 1964. The hotel’s own history page names its ghosts: a Confederate soldier, nuns, children and a lonely dancer.
Guests describe a woman in a gown dancing alone under the ballroom chandeliers, children laughing and tugging at clothes on the upper floors, and a limping soldier in the halls. Room 644 is the room most often linked to a ghostly nun. It sits one block off Bourbon Street, behind St. Louis Cathedral.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask the front desk if you can peek into the Orleans Ballroom when it is not booked for an event.
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 311 E Congress St, Tucson, AZ 85701
Where to look Rooms 242, 220, 214 and 212 on the second floor, and the lobby staircase
Reported ghosts The woman in the white dress, Vince the veteran, a Victorian gentleman and a locksmith's apprentice
Booking the haunted room Contact the hotel to reserve Rooms 242, 220, 214 or 212, which it lists as its haunted rooms.
Hotel Congress opened in 1919 for passengers on the Southern Pacific line, and it is still the heart of downtown Tucson with Club Congress, the Cup Cafe and Tiger’s Tap Room downstairs. Its most famous night came in January 1934, when a basement fire forced out guests including members of the John Dillinger gang; firefighters recognized them and police caught Dillinger within days. The fire destroyed the elevator, so you climb a flight of stairs to the rooms.
The hotel sells its ghosts openly. Its Haunted Rooms page lists Room 242 (a woman in a white dress, linked to a guest who died by suicide), Room 220 (Vince, a veteran who lived there from 1965 to 2001 and still hides butter knives), Room 214 (a gentleman at the window) and Room 212 (a door that unlocks itself). It also runs a 30-minute Haunted Hotel Tour on Friday evenings.
Haunted Rooms tip: Call the hotel to reserve Room 242 or 220, and join the Friday night haunted tour first.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 123 East Broughton Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Where to look Fourth floor, Rooms 214, 314 and 414, the lobby and the former operating room (now an event space)
Reported ghosts Civil War soldiers and surgeons, yellow fever patients, phantom children, Mary Marshall
Booking the haunted room Request Room 414 (or 214, 314) by phone after booking; requests are noted but not guaranteed.
Savannah’s oldest hotel opened on Broughton Street in 1851, and its upper floors have seen more suffering than most. Union troops used it as a hospital after Sherman took the city in December 1864, and it served as a hospital twice more during 19th-century yellow fever epidemics. During the 1998 to 1999 restoration, workers are said to have found human bones under the floorboards, a find long linked to amputated limbs from the Civil War surgery.
Guests describe children’s footsteps racing down the long halls at night, marbles rolling, faucets that turn on by themselves and a one-armed soldier in the lobby. Most reports cluster on the fourth floor, with Rooms 214, 314 and 414 named again and again. The hotel itself keeps a page of guest ghost stories, which tells you how seriously it takes its reputation.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a fourth-floor room when you book and mention Room 414 by name; it can’t be guaranteed, but the front desk is used to the request.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 109 Route 2A, Poquetanuck Village, Preston, CT 06365
Where to look The Adelaide Room and its bathroom, the main staircase, the attic, the old cemetery behind the inn, the Avery Home
Reported ghosts Mercy Adelaide Avery, two children, a girl called Deborah Adams
Booking the haunted room Rooms are booked by name (Adelaide, Collette, Amy, Elizabeth, Marie, Captain's Suite, and Holly and Margaret in the Avery Home) through the inn's own booking.
Captain Grant’s, 1754 is a colonial house in the old village of Poquetanuck, between Mystic and the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos. It carries the name of Captain William Grant, a sea captain lost at sea, whose wife Mercy Adelaide stayed on in the house. Carol and Ted Matsumoto bought it in 1994 and opened it as an inn in 1995; the 1600s Avery Home next door adds more rooms.
The inn bills itself as Connecticut’s most haunted. Guests in the Adelaide Room describe a woman in Colonial clothes at the foot of the bed holding the hands of two children, and a shower curtain that keeps coming down. Carol Matsumoto collected the stories in The Ghosts of Captain Grant’s Inn (2017), and the inn starred in Netflix’s 28 Days Haunted. Haunted Rooms runs overnight ghost hunts here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Adelaide Room, or join a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt and investigate the whole inn after dark.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 310 Mount Washington Hotel Road, Bretton Woods, NH 03575
Where to look Room 314, the Princess Room, the main staircase, the tower rooms, the dining room
Reported ghosts Princess Carolyn Stickney, the hotel's first lady, often seen in Victorian dress
Booking the haunted room Call the resort and ask for Room 314, the Princess Room; it is a regular guest room and not guaranteed online.
The Mount Washington Hotel opened in July 1902 at the foot of the Presidential Range, a white Spanish Renaissance palace with red roofs built for coal and railroad magnate Joseph Stickney. He died within about a year, and his widow Carolyn ran and summered at the hotel for three decades. In July 1944 it hosted the Bretton Woods Conference, where 44 nations created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It is a National Historic Landmark and has been an Omni resort since 2009.
The hotel’s ghost is Carolyn herself, known to staff as the Princess after her second marriage to a French prince. Guests in Room 314, which still holds her four-poster bed, report a woman sitting at the end of the bed brushing her hair. Others describe a lady in Victorian dress on the stairs and in the halls, light taps on doors and objects that vanish and return. Ghost Hunters investigated here twice.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 314 when you book, and have a drink in the Princess Room, Carolyn’s former private dining room.
$$$ · 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.
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 11 Howell Ave, Bisbee, AZ 85603
Where to look Room 315 (Julia Lowell), Room 412 (Billy's Room), the fourth floor and the main staircase
Reported ghosts Julia Lowell, a boy called Billy and a cigar-smoking gentleman in a top hat
Booking the haunted room Room 315 (Julia Lowell) and Room 412 (Billy's Room) are sold as named rooms on the hotel's website.
The Copper Queen opened in February 1902, built by the Copper Queen mining company (later part of Phelps Dodge) to impress investors visiting the mine across the street. It calls itself the longest continuously operating hotel in Arizona, and it still feels like it: real keys, a grand staircase, claw-foot tubs and rooms named after guests such as John Wayne, Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Houdini. It was listed for sale in 2024 but has kept taking guests.
Local guides say as many as 16 spirits share the building. The famous three are Julia Lowell, a woman of the evening said to have taken her own life after a client rejected her, a little boy called Billy, said to have drowned in the San Pedro River, and a tall gentleman who leaves the smell of cigar smoke on the fourth floor. The hotel now sells Room 315 as the Julia Lowell room and Room 412 as Billy’s Room.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book Room 315 or Room 412 by name through the hotel’s own site, then read the ghost journals at the front desk.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 617 S Collison Ave, Cimarron, NM 87714
Where to look Room 18 (kept locked), Room 17, the second floor, TJ's Bar
Reported ghosts Gambler Thomas James Wright, Mary Lambert's perfume, the "Little Imp", a cowboy in the bar mirror
Booking the haunted room Room 18 is never rented. Room 17, Mary Lambert's room, and the named historic rooms can be booked; ask for Room 17 when you reserve.
Henri Lambert, who is said to have cooked for Abraham Lincoln, opened a saloon in Cimarron in 1872 and grew it into the St. James Hotel on the Santa Fe Trail. Local tradition credits the saloon era with at least 26 killings, and the bar’s pressed-tin ceiling is still full of bullet holes. New owners reopened the hotel in December 2024.
Room 18 has been kept locked for decades. The story goes that Thomas James Wright won the hotel in a poker game and was shot in the back on his way to this room. Guests leave him drinks outside the door. Next door in Room 17, Mary Lambert is said to announce herself with a waft of perfume.
Haunted Rooms tip: Look up in TJ’s Bar for the bullet holes, and read the 1880s guest ledgers on display before you head upstairs.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 290 Macon Ave, Asheville, NC 28804
Where to look Room 545 in the Main Inn, the Palm Court atrium, the fifth-floor halls and the Main Inn elevators
Reported ghosts The Pink Lady, a young woman in a pink gown said to have fallen into the Palm Court around 1920
Booking the haunted room Room 545 is a regular Main Inn guest room. Call the resort to request it; it cannot always be guaranteed.
Edwin Wiley Grove and his son-in-law Fred Seely built this granite boulder resort on Sunset Mountain in less than a year, and it opened on July 12, 1913. Presidents from Taft to Obama have stayed, F. Scott Fitzgerald spent the summers of the mid-1930s in rooms 441 and 443, and in World War II it held Axis diplomats. Today it is a 513-room Omni resort.
Its ghost is the Pink Lady. The story says a young woman fell from the fifth floor into the Palm Court atrium around 1920. In 1996 the resort asked author Joshua P. Warren to investigate, and he collected accounts from nearly 50 people: chills outside Room 545, a pinkish mist, lights switching off in a closed inn and a gentle presence that sits on the bed.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 545 in the Main Inn when you call; some guests request it and others ask to be as far from it as possible.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 56 Main Street, Napanoch, NY 12458
Where to look Esther's Room, Rosie's Room and the bordello rooms, the Gentleman's Quarters, the Silent Room
Reported ghosts Beatrice Shanley; little Rosie Greger; Frank the bordello bodyguard; Esther Faughman
Booking the haunted room Every room is a named haunted room (Esther's Room, Rosie's Room, the Gentleman's Quarters and more), booked directly with the hotel as part of an overnight ghost hunt.
The Shanley is a big wooden hotel on Main Street in the Catskills hamlet of Napanoch. A hotel has stood here since 1845; the present building went up after a fire in 1895, and James Shanley bought it in 1906. He and his wife Beatrice lost all three of their babies in infancy, and the barber’s three-year-old daughter Rosie drowned in a well across the road. The hotel later stood empty for years before reopening as a ghost-hunting destination.
Today the Shanley lives entirely for its ghosts. Overnight guests take part in a staff-led ghost hunt and can then investigate on their own, and the owners say they have made contact with more than 30 spirits, from Beatrice and Rosie to a bordello bodyguard called Frank. Rooms are named for the people in its stories, and most share bathrooms. It has appeared on Ghost Hunters and Ghost Lab.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a room night that includes the public ghost hunt, then ask for Esther’s Room or one of the bordello rooms (Rosie’s, Maddie’s or Anna’s).
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 100 N Main St, Tonopah, NV 89049
Where to look The fifth floor, the Lady in Red Suite (Room 502), the elevator, the third floor, the basement
Reported ghosts The Lady in Red (Rose); children on the third floor; miners in the basement
Booking the haunted room The Lady in Red Suite is a named room type on the hotel's own booking site. For other fifth-floor rooms, call 775-482-3030 after booking and ask.
The Mizpah opened in 1907 at the height of Tonopah’s silver boom and was billed as the finest hotel between Denver and San Francisco. Its five stories made it one of the tallest buildings in Nevada for two decades. The hotel closed in 1999, and winemakers Fred and Nancy Cline restored it and reopened it in August 2011 with 47 rooms, the Pittman Cafe, the Jack Dempsey Room and the Mizpah Club casino.
Its famous ghost is the Lady in Red, known as Rose, a working woman said to have been killed on the fifth floor by a jealous man. Guests report finding a single pearl on their pillow, and she is said to roam the fifth floor hallway and elevator. Children are heard on the third floor and a miner in the basement. The hotel named its Lady in Red Suite after her, and USA Today ranked the Mizpah first on its 2018 list of best haunted hotels.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Lady in Red Suite direct, or any fifth-floor room, and read the ghost book at the front desk.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 48 Monument Square, Concord, MA 01742
Where to look Room 24, the Liberty Room, the sitting room and front desk
Reported ghosts A gray figure at the bedside in Room 24, wounded soldiers, a nurse called Rosemary, a girl in a bonnet
Booking the haunted room Call the inn and ask for Room 24 in the 1716 Main Inn; it is popular around Halloween.
Concord’s Colonial Inn faces Monument Square, half a mile from the North Bridge where the Revolution’s first shots were fired in 1775. The oldest part was built in 1716, part of the building stored the minutemen’s arms that spring, and Henry David Thoreau lived here with his aunts while at Harvard. It became a small hotel in 1889 and has carried the Colonial Inn name since 1900.
The haunted reputation centers on Room 24, said to have been Dr. Timothy Minot’s operating room during the war. In 1966 a newlywed wrote to the innkeeper about a gray figure that drifted to the foot of her bed. Guests since have reported lights switching on, whispers and the feeling of being tucked in. Historic Hotels of America lists it among its most haunted hotels.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a Main Inn room and ask for Room 24; the Prescott Wing rooms are newer (1960s).
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghostsNo pets
Address 20 South Battery, Charleston, SC 29401
Where to look The old Battery Carriage House rooms, especially Rooms 8 and 10, and the garden courtyard
Reported ghosts A headless torso in a gray jacket (Room 8), the Gentleman Ghost (Room 10), a little girl by the fountain
Booking the haunted room The haunted rooms were in the old Battery Carriage House, which is still let as the Battery Carriage House Classic and Suite. Book one of those and ask about the former Rooms 8 and 10; requests are not guaranteed.
For decades this 1843 mansion on the Battery was known to ghost hunters as the Battery Carriage House Inn, and its old servants’ quarters held the rooms with the most famous stories in Charleston. Dr. Jack Schaeffer bought the property in 2018, spent three and a half years restoring it, and reopened it as 20 South Battery, an 11-room inn with a grand ballroom where Charleston’s preservation movement began in 1920.
The stories came through the renovation intact. Guests have described a headless, armless torso in a coarse gray jacket in Room 8, often taken to be a wounded Confederate soldier, and a gentle figure in a suit, the Gentleman Ghost, who settles beside sleeping guests in Room 10. Some say he is Col. Richard Lathers, who rebuilt the house in 1870. Forbes has called it the most haunted house in South Carolina.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book one of the Battery Carriage House rooms and ask the inn which of them were the old Rooms 8 and 10; the ghost stories belong to that building, not the main mansion.
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 520 East Main Street, Red Boiling Springs, TN 37150
Where to look Room 37, the White Hallway, Rooms 17 and 35, the dining room
Reported ghosts Sarah Cloyd, the Whistling Man, a boy named Edwin and R.V. Weston
Booking the haunted room Rooms, including Room 37, can be booked by calling the hotel, or as part of a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt and sleepover.
Zack and Clay Cloyd opened the Cloyd Hotel in 1890, when Red Boiling Springs was a busy mineral-water spa town. Fire destroyed it in 1924 and it was rebuilt in red brick in 1927; after the springs went out of fashion it became a boys’ summer camp, and in the late 1980s a group devoted to contacting the dead lived here. It reopened as the Thomas House in 1993 and is on the National Register.
It is one of the most talked-about haunted hotels in the South, featured on Ghost Hunters and Portals to Hell. Room 37 is linked to Sarah Cloyd, a child said to shake the beds and ask guests to play; staff also hear the Whistling Man in empty halls. Haunted Rooms runs overnight ghost hunts here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Join a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt and sleepover to investigate the whole building, including Room 37 and the White Hallway, with a team.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 100 N San Francisco St, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Where to look Rooms 210, 220, 305 and 306, the Cocktail Lounge and the basement
Reported ghosts The Phantom Bellboy, the Meat Man, the lady in the rocking chair and two women of the night
Booking the haunted room The hotel publishes its haunted room numbers; request 305, 306 or 220 directly with the hotel.
The Monte Vista opened on New Year’s Day 1927, paid for by local investors and a donation from novelist Zane Grey, and its rooftop neon sign is still a Flagstaff landmark. Hollywood stars filming westerns near Sedona stayed here in the 1940s and 1950s, from John Wayne to Bing Crosby, and the hotel has named rooms after them. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Few hotels publish their ghosts in such detail. The hotel says Room 305 is its most active, with a woman seen in the rocking chair by the window; Room 306 is tied to two women said to have been killed there in the 1940s; and Room 220 belongs to the “Meat Man,” a boarder who hung raw meat from the chandelier. A phantom bellboy knocks and calls “room service”; John Wayne is said to have heard him.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book Room 305 or 220 by phone, then have a drink in the Cocktail Lounge where the dancing couple is said to appear.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 122 E Gurley St, Prescott, AZ 86301
Where to look The balcony suite under the bell tower (often given as Room 426), the kitchen and the hallways
Reported ghosts Faith, a young bride, plus a child and an old night watchman
Booking the haunted room Request the balcony suite (Faith's suite, often listed as Room 426) directly with the inn.
The Hassayampa Inn opened in 1927 as Prescott’s grand hotel, and the restored brick landmark still has the feel of a 1920s motor-age inn. It has 67 rooms, the recently renovated Peacock Room restaurant, dog-friendly rooms and a bell tower over the corner. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and stands in the downtown historic district, a block from the courthouse plaza.
The inn tells its own ghost story. In 1927 a very young bride, usually called Faith, checked into a balcony suite with her much older husband. He went out for cigarettes and never came back; after three days she took her own life. Staff and guests describe a young woman crying at the foot of a bed or walking the halls in a pink gown, the smell of flowers and kitchen burners going out on their own.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for the balcony suite beneath the tower when you book, and have breakfast in the Peacock Room.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 534 Eaton Street, Key West, FL 33040
Where to look The turret suite, the main staircase and the attic
Reported ghosts Anne Otto, a little girl on the stairs, the shadow of Robert the Doll
Booking the haunted room The turret suite, where Gene Otto and Robert the Doll spent much of their time, can be requested when you book.
This Queen Anne house on Eaton Street was the Otto family home, and it is where Robert Eugene Otto kept Robert, the doll that Key West calls the most haunted object in America. Robert now sits in a case at Fort East Martello Museum, but the house he lived in is a small guest house, and the turret room where Gene and the doll spent their days can be booked.
Local lore says Gene’s wife Anne never left: guests describe a woman on the staircase and a presence in the turret. Key West historian David Sloan has written about a crying little girl seen sitting on the stairs, possibly linked to the family’s nanny. The attic, where Anne is said to have locked Robert away, has the heaviest atmosphere.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for the turret suite when you book; it is the room tied most closely to Gene and Robert.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghostsNo pets
Address 92072 US-101 South, Yachats, OR 97498
Where to look Victoria's Room, the attic and the upstairs hall
Reported ghosts Rue, the Gray Lady: a silver-haired woman in a long gray or dark dress
Booking the haunted room Book Victoria's Room directly with the B&B; it is the room the innkeepers connect with Rue.
The white Queen Anne keeper’s house at Heceta Head was finished in 1894 for the assistant keepers of a lighthouse that still throws the brightest beam on the Oregon coast. The Forest Service owns it, and it is run as a six-room bed and breakfast with a seven-course breakfast. Overnight guests are the only people on the headland after dark, when the light sweeps over the house.
The ghost is Rue, the Gray Lady, a silver-haired woman in an old-fashioned gown said to be looking for a baby girl buried on the point. In the best-known story, a workman fixing an attic window in the 1970s saw her, fled, and returned to find the broken glass swept into a neat pile. The B&B’s own room page mentions Rue in Victoria’s Room.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book Victoria’s Room, the one the innkeepers link to Rue, and stay up for the lighthouse beam after dark. Saturdays need a two-night stay.
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 373 2nd Street, Cedar Key, FL 32625
Where to look Rooms 27, 28 and 29, the balcony doors and the basement
Reported ghosts Bessie Gibbs, Simon Feinberg, a Confederate guard and about ten more
Booking the haunted room Room 29, Bessie Gibbs's bedroom, and Rooms 27 and 28 can be requested when booking with the hotel.
The Island Hotel began in 1859 as Parsons and Hale’s General Store. Union troops spared it when they burned Cedar Key, Simon Feinberg turned it into the Bay Hotel in 1914, and Bessie and Loyal Gibbs bought it in 1946 and named it the Island Hotel. It joined the National Register in 1984 and is still a small, creaky hotel with a famous bar.
The hotel’s own website lists around 13 spirits for about 10 rooms. Bessie Gibbs is said to rearrange furniture and lock guests out of Room 29, her old bedroom, a woman visits sleepers in Rooms 27 and 28, and a Confederate private stands guard by the second-floor balcony doors at sunrise.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 29, and read the ghost page on the hotel’s own website before you go.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 523 Sixth St, Rapid City, SD 57701
Where to look Room 812 and the eighth floor
Reported ghosts The Lady in White, Alex Johnson, a little girl who knocks on doors
Booking the haunted room The Ghost Adventure Package includes a reported haunted room, a K2 meter, a $25 dining credit and Vertex Sky Bar access; book by phone on 605-342-1210.
Railroad executive Alex Carlton Johnson opened this Tudor-style tower in downtown Rapid City in 1928, mixing German timbering with Lakota designs. Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint stayed here while filming North by Northwest, which name-checks the hotel as the Sheraton-Johnson. It is now part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.
This is South Dakota’s best-known haunted hotel, and it says so. Room 812 belongs to the Lady in White, a young woman who died in a fall from an eighth-floor window in the 1970s. Guests also report a little girl knocking on doors and Alex Johnson himself. You can book the Ghost Adventure Package with a stay in a reported haunted room and a K2 meter.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Ghost Adventure Package by phone if you want Room 812, then add your story to the ghost book at the front desk.
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 1016 West Warner Avenue, Guthrie, OK 73044
Where to look The third floor, the back staircase, the Cora Diehl and Kentucky Daisy suites, the basement that once held a funeral home
Reported ghosts A playful little girl who tucks guests in; a pipe-smoking man said to be F.E. Houghton; a man in the basement
Booking the haunted room All six themed rooms can be booked by name with the inn. Guests most often mention the Cora Diehl and Kentucky Daisy suites.
The Stone Lion Inn is an 8,000-square-foot Victorian mansion built in 1907 for Fred E. Houghton and his large family in Oklahoma’s first capital, Guthrie. In the 1920s the house was leased to an undertaker and became Smith’s Funeral Home. Becky Luker bought it in 1986 and turned it into a six-room bed and breakfast, famous across the state for its weekend murder mystery dinners.
Guests describe a child who tucks them into bed or pats their cheek, toys scattered overnight, footsteps on the back stairs and the smell of pipe tobacco. Ghost Hunters investigated in 2006 and Ghost Adventures in 2017. The popular story that a daughter named Augusta died here of a medicine overdose does not match census records, which show Augusta growing up and marrying.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a murder mystery weekend: up to 40 guests play characters over a seven-course dinner, and the overnight rooms go first.
$$ · $150 to $300Ghost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 633 Main St, Deadwood, SD 57732
Where to look Second and third floor hallways, Room 211, Bully's restaurant and Seth's Cellar
Reported ghosts Sheriff Seth Bullock, a cowboy silhouette, a giggling little girl
Booking the haunted room There is no haunted room package; ask for a second or third floor room or Room 211 when you book.
Seth Bullock, Deadwood’s first sheriff, and his partner Sol Star built this Italianate stone hotel on the site of their hardware store after the fire of 1894, and it opened in 1896 with 63 rooms. After years as a hardware store again it was restored in the early 1990s and now has 28 rooms above a casino and Bully’s restaurant.
Staff say Bullock still runs the place: a tall figure in the restaurant and basement, a male voice calling guests’ names, and trouble for any employee caught standing idle or whistling. The hotel runs its own ghost tours, has appeared on Unsolved Mysteries and Ghost Adventures, and is one of the easiest haunted stays in the Black Hills.
Haunted Rooms tip: Take the hotel’s own ghost tour (Friday to Sunday at 5 p.m.) before you check in, then ask for a second or third floor room.
$$$ · Over $300Ghost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 604 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701
Where to look Room 525 (some accounts say 329), the grand staircase, the portrait of a little girl
Reported ghosts Colonel Jesse Driskill, a young girl known as Samantha, the 'suicide brides'
Booking the haunted room The hotel doesn't publish a way to book a specific room, so call and ask about Room 525. Sources disagree on the room number.
Austin’s grandest old hotel was built in 1886 by cattleman Colonel Jesse Driskill, and staff say he never really left: the smell of his cigar smoke drifts through empty corridors and lights in his old rooms switch on by themselves. The most requested room is 525, where, according to hotel legend, two brides took their own lives on the same date twenty years apart.
Then there’s Samantha. The story goes that a little girl, the daughter of a senator, fell to her death chasing a ball down the grand staircase in 1887. A portrait of a young girl hangs upstairs, and guests say her expression changes, or that they feel light-headed standing in front of it. Historians have never found records of the fall, which only adds to the mystery.
Haunted Rooms tip: Room 525 is small and books up fast in October. Reserve months ahead, or stay elsewhere in the hotel and visit the portrait.
$$ · $150 to $300Ghost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendly
Address 2024 Seawall Blvd, Galveston, TX 77550
Where to look Room 501, the fifth floor and the west turret
Reported ghosts Audra, 'the Lovelorn Lady'; nuns and children from the 1900 storm
Booking the haunted room Room 501 is a standard guest room. The hotel doesn't sell it separately, so call ahead and ask for it.
The ‘Queen of the Gulf’ opened on Galveston’s seawall in 1911 and is the only historic beachfront hotel on the Texas coast. Now the Grand Galvez Resort & Spa, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, it is also the Texas hotel that leans into its ghosts the most: its concierge, known as ‘the Ghostess’, leads ghost tours of the hotel all year round, and it hosts a costumed Bride Ball every October.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the hotel’s ghost tour on your first night. It’s the best introduction to the building, and you’ll know exactly where to look afterwards.
Address 520 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605
Where to look Room 441, the 12th floor, the Gold Room, the eighth-floor elevator, the South Tower
Reported ghosts A shadow woman in Room 441; Peg Leg Johnny; the 'hand of mystery'; a mother and two sons tied to 1939
Booking the haunted room Call the hotel after booking and ask for Room 441 or a room on the 12th floor. Requests are not guaranteed.
The Congress Plaza opened in 1893 as the Auditorium Annex, built for crowds heading to the World’s Columbian Exposition, and it still faces Grant Park across Michigan Avenue. Presidents from Grover Cleveland to Franklin Roosevelt stayed here, Theodore Roosevelt spoke to a crowd from its balcony in 1912, and the Army took it over in World War II. With 871 rooms, it is one of the largest historic hotels in Chicago.
It is also the Chicago hotel with the longest list of ghost stories. Security is said to be called to Room 441 more than any other room, after guests report a shadowy woman at the foot of the bed. A room on the 12th floor is said to have been sealed, staff talk about a one-legged drifter called Peg Leg Johnny, and wedding guests in the Gold Room tell of bridesmaids missing from photos.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 441 or a 12th-floor room when you book, and walk Peacock Alley and the Gold Room level in the evening. Rooms with a lake view look straight over Grant Park.
$$ · $150 to $300Ghost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsPet friendlyHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 20 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
Where to look The 19th floor, the elevators, the ballroom, the lobby mezzanine and the LB Tavern
Reported ghosts Molly, a little girl with a red ball; a dancing couple in the ballroom; a quarreling trio on the mezzanine
Booking the haunted room The 19th floor is not a regular guest floor, so ask for a high floor when you book and use the hotel ghost tour to visit the hot spots.
The Lord Baltimore Hotel opened on December 30, 1928, a 22-story French Renaissance tower by architect William Lee Stoddart, topped with a copper mansard roof that has long since turned green. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, belongs to Historic Hotels of America, and has been independently run by the Rubell family since a full restoration in 2014.
Its best-known ghost is Molly, a little girl in a pale dress who bounces a red ball through the corridors, most often on the 19th floor. Staff also describe a couple dancing beneath the ballroom chandeliers, voices quarreling on the mezzanine and an elevator that heads to the 19th floor on its own. The hotel leans in: Poe’s Magic Theatre runs ghost tours inside the building most Friday and Saturday nights.
Haunted Rooms tip: Join the in-house ghost tour (Friday and Saturday nights) and ask for a room on a high floor; the 19th floor itself is terrace and event space.
Where to look The 13th floor Everglades Suite, the tower elevators, the ballrooms and the lobby
Reported ghosts Thomas "Fatty" Walsh, a lady in white, a waltzing couple, wartime soldiers
Booking the haunted room The Everglades Presidential Suite, the two-story tower suite where Walsh was shot, is sold by the hotel. Call 305-445-1926 to ask about rates.
Miami’s most famous haunted hotel opened in Coral Gables in January 1926, with a tower copied from the Giralda in Seville. In March 1929 the New York gangster Thomas “Fatty” Walsh was shot dead at an illegal casino in the tower suite, and the murder was never solved. Guests and staff have blamed him ever since for elevators that stop at the 13th floor, doors that open by themselves and a smell of cigar smoke.
The building later served as a World War II hospital and a veterans’ hospital, then stood empty for years, which added a lady in white, phantom soldiers and a waltzing couple to the stories. Today it is a luxury resort with 271 rooms. The two-story Everglades Suite at the top of the tower, where the casino ran, can be booked by anyone with the budget.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask about the Everglades Suite at the top of the tower, or ride the tower elevator late at night.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 18 Washington Square West, Salem, MA 01970
Where to look Room 325, Room 612 and the sixth-floor hallway, the restaurant
Reported ghosts A woman in the sixth-floor hallway, a crying child in Room 325, the old sea captains of the Salem Marine Society
Booking the haunted room Ask for Room 612 or Room 325 in the booking notes or by phone; requests are not guaranteed.
The Hawthorne opened on July 23, 1925, on Washington Square, built by Salem residents who bought stock to give their city a modern hotel. It stands on the site of the Salem Marine Society’s old headquarters, and the society kept meeting rooms on top of the new hotel. The cast of Bewitched stayed here when the show filmed in Salem in 1970, and the hotel marked its 100th birthday in 2025.
It is the most famous haunted hotel in Salem. Guests in Room 612 describe a restless presence and a woman who lingers in the sixth-floor hallway; Room 325 has stories of a crying child, taps turning on and a hand touching the sleeper’s. Local legend links the scent of apples to Bridget Bishop, the first woman hanged in 1692, though that link is folklore. Ghost Hunters filmed here in 2007.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 612 or Room 325 when you book; both can be asked for but are not guaranteed.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 123 Habersham Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Where to look Second-floor guest rooms, Room 201, the cupola
Reported ghosts Kehoe children, William and Anne Kehoe
Booking the haunted room Rooms 201 and 203 can be requested when booking direct.
Iron founder William Kehoe moved into this four-story Renaissance Revival mansion on Columbia Square in May 1892 with his wife Anne and their ten children. After the family sold it in 1930 it spent decades as a boarding house and a funeral parlor, and football star Joe Namath owned it briefly before it opened as a bed and breakfast in the early 1990s.
The best-known story says two Kehoe children died in the house, and guests on the second floor say they wake to small hands touching them or hear children running in the halls, even though the inn takes adults only. The inn notes that the popular twins-in-the-chimney version is unproven. William and Anne themselves are said to appear most often in Room 201 and up in the cupola.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a second-floor room, ideally 201 or 203, and ask about the house’s funeral-parlor years at breakfast.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 307 East President Street, Savannah, GA 31401
Where to look Room 204, the restaurant kitchen
Reported ghosts Anna (or Anne), a kitchen spirit, a boy called Thaddeus
Booking the haunted room Room 204 can be requested by phone; book months ahead for October.
Despite the name, this inn on the corner of President and Lincoln streets is made up of buildings put up between 1821 and 1888. It is famous for one room. Local legend says a young woman named Anna, heartbroken when the sailor she loved sailed away, threw herself from the window of what is now Room 204. Guests in 204 report belongings moving, sheets being tugged and crying after the lights go out, and the inn once asked guests in that room to sign a waiver.
Historians who have looked hard at the story cannot find an Anna who fits it, and the part of the building she is said to have jumped from was not built until 1888. The stories keep coming anyway. Kitchen staff talk about pots clattering in an empty kitchen and a presence that does not like women at the stove, and some guests say a little boy called Thaddeus leaves pennies behind.
Haunted Rooms tip: Room 204 books up far ahead, especially in October. Call the inn directly to ask for it, then have dinner downstairs in the tavern.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 279 St. George Street, St. Augustine, FL 32084
Where to look Lily's Room and the third floor
Reported ghosts Lily, said to have been a servant in the house
Booking the haunted room Lily's Room can be requested by name when you book.
The St. Francis Inn has stood in St. Augustine’s historic district since 1791, which makes it one of the oldest inns in the nation’s oldest city. Innkeeper Joe Finnegan has run it for three decades, and it is a stop on most of the city’s ghost walks.
Its legend centers on Lily, said to have been an enslaved servant in the house who fell in love with the owner’s nephew. The story says the romance was forbidden and that both died in the house. The inn is frank that no document proves Lily existed, but a longtime contractor told News4JAX he saw a housekeeper the manager said did not work there, and he will no longer work alone on the third floor.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Lily’s Room, the room the inn calls its most haunted.
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 28 N C Street, Virginia City, NV 89440
Where to look Room 11, the top of the staircase, the upstairs hallways, the chapel
Reported ghosts Rosie, a working woman said to have died in Room 11; footsteps and voices in empty halls
Booking the haunted room Room 11 is not always shown online. Call the hotel on 775-847-0440 and ask for Room 11 by number.
The Silver Queen has stood on C Street since 1876, making it the oldest hotel in Virginia City. Its 1870s saloon is famous for a 15-foot portrait of a woman whose gown is made of 3,261 silver dollars, one for each foot of depth of the town’s deepest mine. Upstairs are 28 restored rooms with brass beds and no TVs, and behind the bar is a small wedding chapel that locals say once served as a temporary morgue.
The hotel’s best-known ghost is Rosie, a working woman said to have taken her own life in Room 11 in the late 1800s. Guests report tapping on doors, rattling doorknobs, voices and heavy footsteps in carpeted halls, often when they are alone on the floor. Ghost Adventures has filmed here several times, and Zak Bagans has spoken about a night in Room 11. The front desk keeps a book of guests’ experiences.
Haunted Rooms tip: Call the front desk to request Room 11, and look through the hotel’s book of guest ghost stories.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsNo petsHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 1325 Old Route 30, Orrtanna, PA 17353 (Cashtown village, 8 miles west of Gettysburg)
Where to look The A.P. Hill Room, the Heth Room, the General Lee Suite, the cellar and the front porch
Reported ghosts A young Confederate soldier, a woman in old-fashioned dress, phantom horses and unseen pipe smokers
Booking the haunted room Every room is named, so you can book the A.P. Hill Room directly with the inn. On Haunted Rooms ghost hunt nights each room is sold as an Overnight VIP ticket.
The Cashtown Inn has stood on the old Chambersburg Pike, eight miles west of Gettysburg, since 1797. In late June 1863 it became headquarters for Confederate generals A.P. Hill, Henry Heth and John D. Imboden, and its cellar was used as a field hospital once the fighting began. Today it is a small country inn with seven rooms and suites named for Confederate generals, a tavern and a restaurant.
Guests describe heavy footsteps in empty halls, knocking on doors with nobody outside and the smell of pipe tobacco in rooms where no one smokes. The A.P. Hill Room is the one people ask for: guests say its rocking chair moves by itself and that they have felt someone sit on the bed. Ghost Hunters investigated the inn in 2008, and Haunted Rooms now runs ghost hunt sleepovers here with the whole inn booked.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for the A.P. Hill Room, or join a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt sleepover, when the whole inn is booked for the night.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or events
Address 727 Beach Avenue, Cape May, NJ 08204
Where to look Room 10 on the first floor, the Union Park dining room and kitchen, the basement
Reported ghosts Miss Irene Wright, the "Trunk Lady" of Room 10; a waitress in an old-fashioned dress; the basement "Growler"
Booking the haunted room Room 10 is a regular guest room: call the hotel (609-884-3020) to request it
Hotel Macomber is the big shingle-style hotel on Beach Avenue, across the road from the ocean in Cape May. Built in 1916, it was the largest frame structure of its day east of the Mississippi, and it is described as the last landmark building erected in the town’s historic district. The Union Park restaurant is on the ground floor, the rooms sit on the top three floors (stairs only), guests must be 16 or older and the season runs mid-April to mid-December.
Room 10 is one of the best-known haunted rooms in New Jersey. Guests describe knocking and banging on the door, doors slamming down the corridor and the sound of something heavy dragged across the floor, which local medium Craig McManus links to Miss Irene Wright, a longtime summer guest who arrived each year with a huge steamer trunk. Staff also tell of a woman in an old-fashioned dress who walks into the kitchen.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book Room 10 directly by phone; McManus says activity peaks in June and November, so the shoulder season is the time to go.
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 651 Cleveland St, Port Townsend, WA 98368
Where to look Rooms 302, 304 and 306, the locked attic, the tower room, the breakfast room (the old chapel) and the laundry room
Reported ghosts Kate in Room 306, a priest linked to Room 302, Charles and Kate Eisenbeis, a young girl
Booking the haunted room Request Room 302, 304 or 306 when you book direct; it is a request, not a separate rate.
Charles Eisenbeis, Port Townsend’s first mayor, built this Prussian-style mansion in 1892. After his death it stood empty, then served the Jesuits as a training college from 1927 to 1968 before becoming a hotel. Today it has about 40 rooms, a tower suite and a lounge, a short drive from downtown and Fort Worden. Its German craftsmen left fine woodwork and tiled fireplaces, and the walls are a foot thick.
Rooms 302, 304 and 306 get the most reports. Guests describe footsteps in the locked attic above 302, perfume and flickering lights in 306, and pressure on the bed as if someone sat down. Ghost Adventures filmed here in 2015. Be aware that a former manager told the Peninsula Daily News that a bartender invented the two famous stories. Staff take the stories seriously all the same, and paranormal groups may investigate under house rules.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book Room 306 or 302 directly with the hotel and ask the front desk for the guest ghost book; staff often share their own stories.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 701 Massachusetts St, Lawrence, KS 66044
Where to look Room 506 and the fifth floor, the elevator and Colonel Eldridge's old chair
Reported ghosts Colonel Shalor Eldridge, the hotel's founder
Booking the haunted room Ask for Room 506 when you book; it is a normal room you can request, not a package.
The Eldridge began in 1855 as the Free State Hotel, a base for the antislavery settlers who founded Lawrence. Pro-slavery men burned it in 1856, Quantrill’s raiders burned its replacement in 1863, and Colonel Shalor Eldridge rebuilt it each time. The present hotel on Massachusetts Street dates from 1925 and was restored to that look in 2004 and 2005.
Its ghost story centers on Room 506, where one of the original cornerstones sits inside the wall. Staff believe the friendly spirit is Colonel Eldridge himself, still looking after his hotel. Guests report doors that slam, curtains that move and a room once found deadbolted from the inside with nobody in it. Room 506 is booked most Halloweens.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 506 early if you want October dates; staff say it is booked nearly every Halloween.
Where to look The 1926 Otis elevator and basement, the second and third floors and the stairwells
Reported ghosts Claude "Scotty" Harvey, a woman in white and a small boy
The Jerome Grand sits high above the old copper town in the Spanish Mission style building the United Verde Copper Company opened as its hospital in the late 1920s. The hospital closed in 1950 as mining wound down, the building stood empty for decades, and the Altherr family reopened it as a hotel in 1996. The 1926 Otis elevator still runs, and the Asylum restaurant sits on the top floor with views across the Verde Valley.
Its best-known ghost story centers on Claude “Scotty” Harvey, a maintenance man found dead beneath the elevator in 1935. The inquest called it an accident; local storytellers have never been sure. Guests report a shadowy man near the elevator and basement, a woman in white, a bearded old miner on the second and third floors, a boy of about six and coughing from empty rooms. The hotel has appeared on Ghost Adventures.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book a valley-side room on an upper floor and take the stairs past the old elevator late at night.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 526 Pine St, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
Where to look Tower suite 661, the fifth floor, the basement, the dining room and the elevators
Reported ghosts "Walter" and his cigar smoke, a nurse called Bobbie, a girl with a ball, a woman in a floral dress
Booking the haunted room Ask for tower suite 661 when you book; the hotel cannot guarantee a room number.
Silver magnate Walter Devereux opened this Italianate resort, modeled on Rome’s Villa Medici, in June 1893. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft made long stays, earning it the nickname “the little White House of the West”, and in World War II the Navy ran it as a hospital, with the basement used as a morgue.
The hotel shares its own ghost stories. Guests smell cigar smoke credited to “Walter”, catch gardenia perfume near the dining room linked to a nurse called Bobbie, and describe a woman in a floral dress standing over the bed in tower suite 661. Most activity is said to come between 2 and 4 a.m.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for tower suite 661 or a fifth-floor room, and walk the basement corridor where the hotel says a houseman saw an old woman at the window.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or events
Address 230 South Main Street, Galena, IL 61036
Where to look The third floor, Room 333, the lower-level stairway, the hallways
Reported ghosts The Lady in Black; footsteps from floors that no longer exist; phantom cigar smoke
Booking the haunted room Call or email the hotel after booking and request Room 333 or a third-floor room. Requests are not guaranteed.
The DeSoto House opened in Galena in April 1855, billed as the largest hotel in the West, and it is the oldest operating hotel in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln spoke from its Main Street balcony in 1856, Stephen Douglas followed in 1858, and Ulysses S. Grant ran his presidential campaign from Rooms 209 and 211. Fire, a boiler explosion and the removal of its top two floors shaped the 55-room hotel you stay in today.
Its best-known ghost is the Lady in Black, a woman in a dark period dress who is said to walk down a stairway and through a wall. Staff tell how flood repairs revealed an old doorway at that very spot. Guests on the third floor report footsteps overhead, though no floor has existed above it since 1880, and Room 333 is the one people ask for.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request Room 333 or any third-floor room, and book the Haunted Galena Murder and Mayhem show, which is staged inside the hotel.
Every hotel on this page has a Haunted Rooms Score out of 5. Haunted reputation counts twice: how long the stories have been told, how many guests and staff tell them, and whether they are documented in the press, in books or by the hotel itself. History scores the age of the building and the events behind the stories. Ghost hunter access scores what you can actually do as a guest: book a named haunted room, join a ghost tour or event, or stay somewhere that is open about its ghosts. Hotels with the same score are listed in order of how well known their stories are. Read the full method.
Only hotels that are open and taking overnight guests are ranked. Ghost stories are reported here as stories: where the records disagree with a legend, the hotel entry says so.
Haunted hotels by state
This list ranks the 50 strongest haunted hotels in the country. Every state guide below goes deeper, with more hotels, closed and restored properties, and the ghost hunts nearby.
Changes in this update: The previous version of this page picked one hotel for each state. This edition ranks the 50 best-documented haunted hotels you can book anywhere in the country, so some states have several entries and others have none; every state is still covered in the state guides above. We dropped hotels that no longer take overnight guests, including the Historic Fairmont Hotel in Deadwood, which stopped renting rooms, and replaced weaker entries such as a Salt Lake City Holiday Inn Express with hotels that have far better documented stories. Room numbers, hotel names and owners were checked against each hotel’s own website and current sources in November 2026.
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
What is the most haunted hotel in America?
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, tops our ranking: it inspired Stephen King’s The Shining, sells Room 217 by name and runs ghost tours. The 1886 Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, which calls itself America’s most haunted hotel, shares the top score with the Queen Mary, the Myrtles Plantation, the Lizzie Borden House and the Hotel del Coronado.
What is the most haunted hotel room in America?
The rooms people ask for most are Room 217 at the Stanley, Room 218 at the Crescent, Stateroom B340 on the Queen Mary, Room 3327 at the Hotel del Coronado and Room 315 at the Copper Queen. Most of these can be requested or booked by name; each hotel entry above explains how.
Can you book a haunted hotel room on purpose?
Yes. Many of the hotels on this list sell their haunted rooms by name or take requests, and some, like the Stanley and the Queen Mary, package them with ghost tours. Popular rooms book out months ahead for October, so reserve early and confirm the room number with the hotel.
Which state has the most haunted hotels?
On this list, Arizona (5), Florida (4), California (3), Louisiana (3) have the most entries. The state guides linked below the list cover many more hotels in every state.
Are there haunted hotels where you can go ghost hunting?
Yes. Several historic inns host Haunted Rooms ghost hunts with an overnight stay, including Captain Grant’s 1754 in Connecticut, the Cashtown Inn near Gettysburg and the Thomas House Hotel in Tennessee. See all upcoming ghost hunts.
How did you choose these 50 hotels?
Each hotel was scored on haunted reputation (counted twice), history and ghost hunter access, then ranked. Only hotels that are open and taking overnight guests made the list.
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.
New guides, haunted hotel picks and ghost hunt dates near you. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
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.
