Haunted Hotels in Asheville: 5 Places to Stay With Ghost Stories
From the Pink Lady of the Grove Park Inn to Annie Lee Reynolds on her family’s staircase, these are the haunted hotels and inns in and around Asheville that you can actually book, and the rooms to ask for.
Asheville grew rich on mountain air: railroad tourists, health seekers and the very wealthy came to the Blue Ridge from the 1880s onward, and they left behind grand hotels, Victorian boarding houses and country inns. Several of them have ghost stories that guests and staff still tell. In the city itself you can stay at the Omni Grove Park Inn, home of North Carolina’s most famous ghost, the antebellum Reynolds Mansion and Blind Tiger Asheville, the former WhiteGate Inn. Within an hour’s drive are two more: the 1927 Lake Lure Inn and the railroad-era Balsam Mountain Inn, which has the most reported activity of any hotel in the state. We have checked every one against current sources, used their current names and noted where a story is legend. For the rest of the state, see our guide to haunted hotels in North Carolina.
$$$ · 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.
Where to look Rooms 205 and 207, the long second-floor hallways
Reported ghosts "Sheriff," a visitor shot outside the inn in 1928 who is said to have died in Room 205; footsteps, whispered names and tugged bedding
Opened in 1908 as the Balsam Mountain Springs Hotel beside what was billed as the highest railroad station east of the Rockies, this white wooden inn with its 100-foot double porch sits at about 3,750 feet in the Smokies foothills near Waynesville. After years as the Grand Old Lady Hotel and a pandemic closure, Rodney and Lorraine Conard bought it in 2022, restored the Balsam Mountain Inn name and reopened all 50 rooms.
Former owner Marzena Wyszynska told WLOS her blanket was pulled off the bed on her first night, and investigators she hired named a spirit “Sheriff,” a visitor shot outside in 1928 who is said to have died in Room 205. Rooms 205 and 207 get the most reports: slamming doors, cold air, footsteps and voices calling names. The 2021 film Balsam: A Paranormal Investigation was shot here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 205 or 207 when you book by phone, and bring the dog: several rooms are dog-friendly.
$$ · $150 to $300Haunted room bookablePet friendly
Address 100 Reynolds Heights, Asheville, NC 28804
Where to look The main staircase and the third-floor Maggie room
Reported ghosts Annie Lee Reynolds on the stairs and a Reynolds child who died of typhoid
Booking the haunted room The Maggie room is a regular third-floor guest room you can choose by name when you book online. Guests must be 16 or older.
The Reynolds Mansion is a red-brick antebellum house on a knoll of Reynolds Mountain in north Asheville, one of fewer than ten pre-Civil War brick homes left in western North Carolina. Daniel Reynolds raised ten children here; his son Gus added a third floor and wraparound porches around 1905, and from 1919 to 1924 Dr. Elizabeth Smith ran it as the Asheville Osteopathic Sanatorium. It has been a bed and breakfast for decades and is on the National Register.
Former co-owner Billy Sanders told Mountain Xpress that guests often report two spirits: Annie Lee Reynolds, most often seen on the main staircase, and a Reynolds daughter who died of typhoid at six, heard as a child’s voice or seen as orbs. He called the third-floor Maggie room, which he said was Annie Lee’s, probably the most haunted, and said most guests who book it ask for it on purpose. Today’s innkeepers do not promote the ghosts.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Maggie room on the third floor by name; it is a modest queen room with a shower, so book a larger room on the second floor if comfort matters more than the story.
Where to look Room 217, the dining room and the spa
Reported ghosts A woman said to have been murdered in Room 217 in the 1930s; Dr. Lucius Morse in the dining room; a gravelly male voice calling staff by name
The cream stucco inn opened in 1927 with the new resort town of Lake Lure, below Chimney Rock in Hickory Nut Gorge. It hosted Franklin Roosevelt, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Calvin Coolidge, housed the cast of Dirty Dancing in 1987, and from 1943 to 1945 housed officers at an Army Air Forces rest center for combat aviators. Atlanta-based Ridgeline bought the 72-room inn in 2024.
Staff have reported shadows in the spa and a low, gravelly voice calling their names when no one is there. Local legend puts a woman murdered in the 1930s in Room 217, where a Forest City investigation group says it twice recorded a woman’s scream, and others describe a figure they identify as Dr. Lucius Morse in the dining room.
Haunted Rooms tip: Lake Lure reopened in May 2026 after Hurricane Helene; check which restaurants and spa services are running before you go.
Where to look The room long known as the Robert Frost Room
Reported ghosts Marion Bridgette, a nurse who bought the house in 1928
This shingled 1889 Queen Anne house a few blocks north of downtown Asheville was for years the 1889 WhiteGate Inn & Cottage, a much-loved bed and breakfast with rooms named after American writers. It reopened in 2024 as Blind Tiger Asheville, a 14-room boutique guest house (including a cottage) from Lark Hotels, with local art, antiques and a grab-and-go breakfast.
Under its old name the inn was known for one ghost: Marion Bridgette, a nurse who bought the house as her home in 1928. She was said to favor the Robert Frost Room, where guests reported slamming doors, footsteps, flickering lights and floating orbs. The new owners do not promote the story, so ask at check-in which room was the old Frost Room.
Haunted Rooms tip: The new owners do not talk up the ghost; ask which room was the old Robert Frost Room when you book.
About this guide: The Balsam Mountain Inn and Lake Lure Inn are outside the city, about 45 and 40 minutes away, and are included because they are the best haunted stays within easy reach of Asheville. We left out the Battery Park Hotel, scene of the 1936 Helen Clevenger murder, because it is now apartments and does not take guests, and the Pinecrest B&B, because we found only one published account of its ghost.
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 Asheville?
The Omni Grove Park Inn. Its Pink Lady is said to be a young woman who fell from the fifth floor into the Palm Court around 1920, and guests still ask for, or avoid, Room 545. In 1996 the resort asked author Joshua P. Warren to investigate, and he gathered accounts from nearly 50 people.
Can you stay in Room 545 at the Grove Park Inn?
Yes. It is a regular Main Inn guest room. Call the resort to request it; it cannot always be guaranteed.
Is the Reynolds Mansion haunted?
A former owner told Mountain Xpress that guests often report Annie Lee Reynolds on the main staircase and a Reynolds child who died of typhoid, heard as a child’s voice. He called the third-floor Maggie room, which is bookable by name, probably the most haunted.
What is the most haunted hotel near Asheville?
The Balsam Mountain Inn, about 45 minutes west near Waynesville. Rooms 205 and 207 get the most reports, and investigators have named a spirit there Sheriff.
Which Asheville hotels have haunted rooms you can request?
Room 545 at the Grove Park Inn, the Maggie room at the Reynolds Mansion, Rooms 205 and 207 at the Balsam Mountain Inn and Room 217 at the Lake Lure Inn. Call after booking, since most cannot be guaranteed.
Is the WhiteGate Inn in Asheville still open?
Yes, under a new name. The 1889 WhiteGate Inn is now Blind Tiger Asheville. Its old ghost story centers on Marion Bridgette, a nurse who bought the house in 1928, but the new owners do not promote it.
Does Haunted Rooms run ghost hunts near Asheville?
Not in Asheville itself. Our nearest events are the Thomas House Hotel ghost hunt and sleepover in Tennessee and our North Carolina hunts on the USS Battleship North Carolina and at the Roanoke Island Inn.
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.
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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.
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.
