Haunted hotel guide · New Orleans, Louisiana

The Haunted Bourbon Orleans Hotel, New Orleans: The Ballroom Dancer, the Nun and Room 644

First a glittering ballroom, then a convent, school and orphanage for more than 80 years, the Bourbon Orleans has packed two centuries of New Orleans life into one French Quarter block. Its ghosts, the hotel says, never moved out.

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

5.0/5Haunted Rooms Score
1817Orleans Ballroom built
Room 644Most haunted room

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Bourbon Orleans Hotel fills the block of Orleans Street between Bourbon and Royal, directly behind St. Louis Cathedral. At its heart is the Orleans Ballroom, built in 1817 next to the city’s opera house and once the center of Creole high society. From 1881 to 1964 the property belonged to the Sisters of the Holy Family, the order founded by Henriette DeLille, who ran a convent, a school for African American girls and an orphanage here before selling it to become a hotel.

The Bourbon Orleans does not hide its ghosts. Its own history page names a Confederate soldier, children and nuns from the convent and orphanage, and “a lonely ghost dancer”, and notes that USA Today’s 10Best has ranked it among the most haunted hotels in the country. Older press counts as many as 17 spirits. Here is who they are said to be, what the records say, and how to stay where they are reported. For more nearby, see our guide to the most haunted hotels in New Orleans.

Bourbon Orleans at a glance

5.0/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation5
History5
Ghost hunter access5
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghosts
  • Address 717 Orleans St, New Orleans, LA 70116 (French Quarter, between Bourbon and Royal)
  • Built 1817 (Orleans Ballroom); convent and school 1881 to 1964; hotel since the 1960s
  • Most haunted spots The Orleans Ballroom, Room 644, the sixth and third floors, the lobby
  • Best-known ghosts A dancer in a gown, a nun, children from the orphanage, a wounded soldier, an old man with a cigar
  • Booking the haunted room Book a room, then call the hotel and request Room 644 or a sixth-floor room. It is a request, not a guarantee.
  • Good to know The Bourbon “O” Bar is on site, there is a courtyard pool, and balcony rooms overlook Bourbon and Orleans streets. Bourbon Street noise carries to the street-side rooms.

Check availability

The ghosts of the Bourbon Orleans

The dancer in the ballroom

The hotel’s best-known ghost is a woman in an old-fashioned gown who is seen dancing alone under the crystal chandeliers of the Orleans Ballroom on the second floor, as if with a partner nobody else can see. Staff and guests have also reported a figure hiding behind the long drapes.

Some tours add a stain on the ballroom floor that keeps coming back however often it is scrubbed, said to be blood from a duel. Ghost City Tours, which tells the story, admits there is no record of anyone dying there.

The nun of Room 644

Room 644 is the room most often called the most haunted in the hotel. Guests describe anguished crying in the night and a nun in a full habit standing quietly beside the bed, more kind than frightening. A persistent rumor says a sister took her own life in the building. The Sisters of the Holy Family have never confirmed it, and there is no record to support it, so treat it as legend.

The children of the orphanage

Children’s laughter in empty corridors is the most common report at the Bourbon Orleans. Guests say they feel small hands tugging at their clothes, and a little girl is seen and heard chasing a ball along the sixth-floor hallway. The stories link these spirits to orphans who died, many say of yellow fever, while in the sisters’ care in the late 1800s. The order did run an orphanage here, but no specific deaths in the building have been documented.

The wounded soldier

A soldier in a tattered, bloodied Confederate uniform is said to limp along the halls of the third and sixth floors, with guests hearing uneven footsteps and the scrape of a sword. A 2014 hotel event described him as dating from a time when the building served as a hospital. New Orleans fell to Union forces in 1862, early in the war, so this story is hard to square with the records.

The gentleman with the cigar

Explore Louisiana and other guides describe an elderly man seen in the lobby, reading a newspaper and smoking a cigar. Guests sometimes smell the smoke before they see him. Others say the spirits here are hands-on: one guest said they felt a slap after swearing, another a soft kiss on the cheek.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • Room 644: The room linked to the ghostly nun. Request it by number by phone after booking.
  • The sixth floor: Where the little girl with her ball, and the soldier, are most often reported.
  • The Orleans Ballroom: The 1817 ballroom and home of the ghostly dancer. Ask if you can look in when it is not booked.
  • The lobby: Watch for an old man with a newspaper, and the smell of cigar smoke.

History of Bourbon Orleans Hotel

Work on the Theatre d’Orleans began in 1806, but it did not open until 1815 and burned the next year. In 1817 entrepreneur John Davis rebuilt it and added the Orleans Ballroom, which the hotel attributes to architect Henry Latrobe. The theater brought European opera to New Orleans, and the ballroom hosted carnival balls, masquerades and the notorious quadroon balls of the plaçage system. From 1827 the state legislature also met in the ballroom. The often-repeated story that Andrew Jackson announced a run for president there has never been verified.

In 1881 the Sisters of the Holy Family bought the old ballroom. The order had been founded in 1842 by Henriette DeLille, a free woman of color who refused the plaçage system celebrated in this very room, and it is described as the first African American religious order in the United States. The sisters turned the building into a convent and motherhouse, opened St. Mary’s Academy for African American girls, built a chapel and cared for orphans next door.

By the 1960s the order had outgrown the site, and in 1964 it sold the property to the Bourbon Kings Hotel Corporation. With approval from the city and the Vieux Carre Commission, the company built a $7 million hotel, restored the old ballroom building and put up a new wing on the site of the former orphan girls’ asylum at Bourbon and Orleans.

Today the Bourbon Orleans has more than 200 guest rooms and suites, many with balconies, and still uses the ballroom for weddings and events. In 2014 it hosted a “Ghost Camp” weekend of seances, ghost hunts and haunted walking tours, and it remains a stop on French Quarter ghost tours.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Request Room 644 or the sixth floor. Call the hotel after booking. Specific rooms are not guaranteed, but it never hurts to ask.
  • Look into the ballroom. It is often booked for events, but staff may let you peek in at a quiet time.
  • Pick your side. Bourbon Street rooms have balconies and atmosphere; courtyard rooms are much quieter for sleeping.
  • Walk to the other haunts. The Lafitte Guest House is three blocks down Bourbon, and the Andrew Jackson Hotel is two blocks away on Royal.
  • Want to investigate with a team? Haunted Rooms runs ghost hunts at historic venues across the US.

More haunted hotels nearby

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Frequently asked questions

Is the Bourbon Orleans Hotel haunted?

It has one of the strongest haunted reputations in New Orleans, and the hotel itself names a Confederate soldier, nuns, children and a lonely ghost dancer among its spirits.

What is the most haunted room at the Bourbon Orleans?

Room 644 is the room most often called the most haunted, linked to a ghostly nun. The sixth and third floors and the Orleans Ballroom are also hot spots.

What was the Bourbon Orleans before it was a hotel?

It began as the Orleans Ballroom and theater in 1817. From 1881 to 1964 it was the convent, school and orphanage of the Sisters of the Holy Family, before being sold and opened as a hotel.

How many ghosts are at the Bourbon Orleans?

Some accounts say as many as 17, mostly children. The best known are the ballroom dancer, the nun, a soldier, a little girl with a ball and an old man smoking a cigar.

Can you request Room 644 at the Bourbon Orleans?

You can ask. Book a room, then call the hotel and request Room 644 by number. It is not guaranteed.

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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