Most people book a hotel room for one thing: a good night’s sleep. But across the United States, there are dozens of historic properties where guests check in expecting rest and check out with a story they can’t quite explain. The details are what make it strange. Not vague unease, not general spookiness – but the same specific thing, reported again and again by strangers who had no reason to coordinate. A piano is playing in an empty room. Children laughing in an empty hallway. A woman standing at the foot of the bed.
These 25 hotels have been documented, investigated, and visited by paranormal researchers, television crews, and thousands of ordinary travelers. Some carry over a century of consistent guest reports. Whether you believe in what’s behind these experiences or not, the pattern is genuinely hard to dismiss. Here are the hotels where the late-night strangeness just keeps coming back.
1. The Stanley Hotel – Estes Park, Colorado
Opened to the public in 1909, this opulent Colorado property overlooking Estes Park and framed by the Rocky Mountains is best known for being the inspiration behind Stephen King’s 1977 novel “The Shining.” The one event guests keep repeating involves Room 217 – the presidential suite, where a housekeeper was badly injured in a gas explosion in 1911. Many who have stayed in Room 217 share stories of their clothes being mysteriously unpacked and put away, or items being moved around the room.
But the strangest recurring report isn’t in any single room – it’s on the fourth floor. Many guests report hearing unexplained sounds of children running, laughing, and playing in the halls, particularly at night. Yet when doors are opened to investigate, the hallway is empty. One couple reportedly checked out of the hotel early in the morning, complaining that the children in the hallway kept them up all night. However, no children were booked at the hotel at the time.
2. 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa – Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Often called “America’s Most Haunted Hotel,” the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, has an eerie medical history that fuels its paranormal reputation. In the 1930s, the hotel was turned into a hospital and “health resort” by a con man named Norman Baker, who claimed he could cure cancer. Many of his patients died, and their spirits are said to remain. The event guests most consistently report is centered on Room 218 – the spot where a stonemason plummeted to his death during the hotel’s original construction.
This room proves to be the most paranormally active location in the hotel and has attracted television film crews for decades because of the quantity and quality of the ghost sightings. Guests have witnessed hands coming out of the bathroom mirror, cries of a falling man in the ceiling, and the door opening then slamming shut, unable to be opened again. The ghost of the fraudulent former owner, Norman Baker, has also been seen in the lobby, wearing his signature purple shirt and white suit.
3. Hotel del Coronado – San Diego, California
A beachfront paradise with a dark legend, this Victorian-era hotel is said to be haunted by Kate Morgan, a young woman who died on the property in 1892. Guests staying in her old room often report flickering lights, cool drafts, and the feeling of someone nearby. The most widely known ghost at the hotel is Kate Morgan, who reportedly died at the hotel in 1892 and is rumored to have never left. The hotel says her room, Room 3327, is the most requested at the resort.
In it, guests have experienced flickering lights, a television that turns itself on and off, breezes coming from nowhere, items moving of their own accord, doors that randomly open and close, abrupt changes in room temperature, and unexplained footsteps and voices. Another very active area is the Hotel del Coronado gift shop, where visitors and employees routinely witness giftware mysteriously flying off shelves, oftentimes falling upright and always unbroken. The hotel has offered its famous Haunted Happenings nightly ghost tour for years, leaning fully into its reputation.
4. The Queen Mary – Long Beach, California
The Queen Mary in Long Beach offers a truly unique experience. This historic ocean liner, now permanently docked and converted into a hotel, is considered one of the most haunted places in the world. Its long and storied past as a luxury liner and a World War II troopship has left behind a fascinating haunted history. The one event guests keep repeating involves Shaft Alley, deep in the ship’s bowels.
There are several supposed paranormal hot spots aboard this historic hotel, including the Mauretania Room, the Mayfair Room, and Shaft Alley – the site of a hideous accident where a crew member was crushed to death under a hatch door. His ghost is said to haunt the area now. While the hotel offers several paranormal tours and activities, thrill-seeking guests won’t want to miss an opportunity to spend the night in Stateroom B340. Past guests have reported unexplainable phenomena such as flickering lights, faucets that turn on and off without being touched, and loud knocking on their door in the middle of the night.
5. The Myrtles Plantation – St. Francisville, Louisiana
The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville is one of the most famous haunted bed and breakfasts in Louisiana. Infamous with ghost hunters across the country, the hauntings at this old plantation home are legendary. Featuring on numerous paranormal TV shows, news publications, and in books, there’s a host of spirits that haunt this southern gem. The property dates to 1796, and its history carries a weight that guests feel from the moment they arrive.
There are reportedly at least 12 spirits residing here, but the most famous ghost that calls the mansion home is Chloe, a house slave for the cruel Mr. Woodruff. The most famous ghost wandering around the hotel is Chloe, who is believed to be the ghost of a slave woman who was a servant in the house in the 1800s. Ghostly apparitions have also been captured in photographs that have been taken at the hotel’s premises, while the hotel itself has been named “The South’s Spookiest House” by National Geographic Explorer.
6. Hotel Monteleone – New Orleans, Louisiana
Hotel Monteleone had developed a reputation over the years as being one of the most haunted places in New Orleans. The most famous of these tales involves that of a young boy named Maurice Begere, who stayed at the hotel with his family during the 1890s. The child’s parents – Jacques and Josephine – were avid theatergoers and regularly visited the French Opera House located along Bourbon Street. While under the care of his nanny, young Maurice developed a fever and passed away later that night.
Hotel Monteleone is considered haunted primarily because of child spirits, most famously Maurice Begere. Guests report ghostly giggles, shadowy apparitions, and playful pranks, including doors opening by themselves and unexplained elevator movements. Some have also claimed to see phantom couples wandering hallways, while Maurice himself is said to appear reassuring his mother on the 13th floor. Other paranormal activities at this haunted New Orleans hotel include cold spots, elevators that move on their own, a door that opens without explanation, and objects moving on their own.
7. Bourbon Orleans Hotel – New Orleans, Louisiana
Before it was a hotel, the building served as the beloved Orleans Theatre and Ballroom, offering European operas and entertainment for Creole society. In 1881, it became a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Family – the first African-American religious order in the U.S. That layered history is exactly what makes the recurring reports so striking. The Bourbon Orleans Hotel is known for ghostly children, nuns, Confederate soldiers, and a spectral dancer. Room 644 and the grand ballroom are said to be sites of strange laughter, shadowy figures, and the ghostly movements of a lone dancer beneath the chandelier.
Some of the reported ghostly activity at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel includes the sound of children playing in the hallways, primarily on the sixth floor, the apparition of a Confederate soldier on floors three and six, sightings of a woman in a wedding dress who supposedly died on her wedding day, and a “lonely ghost dancer” in the ballroom. The ghost of a Confederate soldier is often reported on the third and sixth floors. Guests staying in these rooms have described seeing a solitary figure in a Civil War uniform, forever wandering the corridors.
8. The Menger Hotel – San Antonio, Texas
Built next to the historic Alamo, the Menger Hotel is rich with stories of Civil War soldiers, old-world guests, and ghostly figures roaming its halls. Many believe it is visited by more than 30 different spirits, including Teddy Roosevelt, who famously recruited Rough Riders at the bar. The hotel opened in 1859, making it one of the oldest continuously operating hotels west of the Mississippi, and the stories attached to it go back nearly as far.
The event guests most consistently report is the appearance of a woman in Victorian dress on the upper floors – believed to be Sallie White, a chambermaid who was shot by her husband on the property in 1876 and died two days later. Staff and long-term guests describe her carrying towels, moving quietly down hallways, and vanishing through walls. The Menger has appeared on multiple paranormal investigation programs, with investigators noting unusually high electromagnetic readings near the rooms on the hotel’s oldest wing.
9. The Emily Morgan Hotel – San Antonio, Texas
According to various reports, some given by The Emily Morgan Hotel’s own management team, the most haunted floors are the seventh, ninth, and 14th floors. It was these floors that at one time functioned as the psychiatric ward, surgery level, waiting area, and morgue, respectively. At The Emily Morgan, almost all the paranormal reports involve ghosts and spirits from when the building was a hospital.
On the fourteenth level of The Emily Morgan, hauntings have been associated with a smell reminiscent of a hospital. It is uncommon, but not unheard of, for guests to report having a vision of a hospital scene – rather than a guestroom – when they open their door from the hallway. Others have reported seeing actual apparitions of nurses in the hallways as they push rickety gurneys down the corridor. Then the scene disappears into thin air as if the ghostly image was never there in the first place.
10. The Driskill Hotel – Austin, Texas
A landmark in downtown Austin since 1886, The Driskill is known for its grand architecture and its eerie paranormal activity. Guests often report the scent of cigar smoke with no source, unexplained whispers in empty hallways, and sightings of a young girl who is said to roam the grand staircase. Its blend of luxury and lingering ghost stories makes it one of the most famously haunted hotels in Texas.
A “forever haunted” reputation: writers and investigators who focus on Austin hauntings describe the Driskill as a long-running hotspot, with reports persisting across generations. Employees and witnesses speaking more openly: modern ghost-tour culture, media, and local storytelling have turned the Driskill into a staple stop for anyone chasing Austin’s paranormal side. Object movement and environmental oddities: doors, lights, and “something just shifted” moments that people interpret as a presence trying to be noticed.
11. The Brown Palace Hotel – Denver, Colorado
With over 130 years of history, as Denver, Colorado’s Grande Dame, The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa, Autograph Collection has witnessed many dramatic events unfold within its walls – from romances and scandals, to murders and fatal accidents. Some staff and guests claim that the former guests involved in those moments may still linger, long after their bodies were laid to rest. The hotel opened in 1892 and hasn’t slowed down on its paranormal reputation since.
The legends even point to the hotel’s architecture as a conduit for spirits: the hotel’s right-triangular design, said to be rooted in Masonic geometry, and the 720-foot-deep artesian well at its center, have led some to believe that the hotel was conceived as a spiritual portal. Guests most often report sightings near the upper-floor suites and whispers of unexplained voices drifting down the open atrium in the early morning hours, long after the lobby falls silent.
12. The Oxford Hotel – Denver, Colorado
Back in 1898, Florence Montague shot and killed her philandering husband in Room 320 at The Oxford Hotel before taking her own life. To this day, single male guests who stay in the room have reported being taunted by the ghost of Florence, who is rumored to pull sheets off the bed and turn the lights and bathroom faucets on and off. This specific, repeated pattern – always the sheets, always the lights – is what makes Florence’s room one of the most discussed in Colorado.
For more haunts, the hotel’s bar, The Cruise Room, is reportedly home to a post office ghost who mutters, “The children, I have to get the gifts to the children.” According to historical accounts from the hotel, a mailman en route to deliver Christmas presents to children in the mountain town of Central City got stuck in a snowstorm and never made it. Staff says they hear the muttering most often in late November and December, which only adds to the unsettling specificity of the report.
13. Hotel Colorado – Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Hotel Colorado opened in 1893 and quickly became a favorite of presidents and high society travelers. Its grand architecture drew comparisons to Italian villas, and its natural hot springs made it a destination for the wealthy and well-connected. But the reports that keep coming back from late-night guests paint a very different atmosphere after dark.
Guests often report hearing elevators moving on their own or the strong scent of cigar smoke wafting down the hotel’s hallways in the early morning hours. Unexplained knocking, clanging dishes in the dining room, flickering lights, and even the disturbing sound of a woman screaming, thought to be the spirit of a woman murdered in a love triangle gone wrong. Guests looking for a particularly spooky experience can request rooms 407 or 418, which seem to be the most active paranormal spots in the hotel.
14. Hotel Jerome – Aspen, Colorado
This beautiful hotel in the heart of Colorado’s ski country is called Hotel Jerome, but it also has another, more sinister name: The Bad Luck Hotel. Over the decades, many guests have checked into Hotel Jerome but never checked out. Among them is The Water Boy, the spirit of a little boy who drowned in the hotel pool in 1936, who appears dripping wet and shivering to guests in and around room 310, where his family was staying when he died.
There’s also Henry O’Callister, who is said to have died of a broken heart and can still be heard weeping in the halls at night. What makes The Water Boy particularly persistent in guest accounts is the consistency of the description – not just a shadowy figure, but a wet, shivering child, seen near the same room across multiple decades. Guests in neighboring rooms have also reported unexplained puddles of water on dry carpet with no plumbing explanation.
15. Hawthorne Hotel – Salem, Massachusetts
The colonial seaport town of Salem, Massachusetts, is notorious for the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, and the historic Hawthorne Hotel is prone to hauntings and spirits of its own. Often ranked as one of the most haunted hotels in America, its guests have reported moving furniture, sightings of a ghostly woman, and unexplained noises. Many of its hauntings are attributed to the sea captains who were returning to their gathering place.
According to lore, Room 325 is the most haunted in the hotel, where guests have claimed to feel cold spots and smell fresh-cut flowers. Guests staying in Room 612, as well as on the sixth floor in general, have reported witnessing a ghostly woman walking the halls. Rooms 621 and 325 have also had reports of lights and faucets turning off and on. In 1990, the hotel held a séance in the Grand Ballroom to try to contact Harry Houdini. In 2007, SyFy’s popular paranormal show, Ghost Hunters, visited the hotel to investigate.
16. The Red Lion Inn – Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Most of the paranormal activity at the Red Lion Inn happens on the fourth floor, although some activity has been reported in Room 301 as well. Ghostly rumors continue to swirl at the Red Lion, which has been visited by scores of paranormal investigators and mediums. The inn has been welcoming guests since 1773, giving its ghost stories more than two centuries to accumulate.
The most supernatural activity occurs on the fourth floor, where both cleaning staff and guests have seen “a ghostly young girl carrying flowers” and “a man in a top hat.” Guests report waking to the feeling of someone standing over them at the foot of the bed. Cold spots, unexplained knocks, and electrical disturbances have all been reported. The girl with flowers is so consistently described – the same flowers, the same general appearance – that she has become almost as recognized as a regular guest.
17. Omni Shoreham Hotel – Washington, D.C.
Known affectionately by staff members as “the princess,” Caroline Foster is a long-time inhabitant of the Omni Shoreham – even though she died in 1939. Princess Caroline Foster’s ties to the resort go back to its inception when her husband, railroad tycoon Joseph Stickney, built the grand resort in 1902. For over eight decades, this elegant D.C. landmark has been generating the same category of report from its guests.
Today, guests report visions of an elegant woman in Victorian dress haunting the hallways of the hotel. What makes the Shoreham’s case striking is how long-serving staff members describe the same figure across decades of employment – always formal, always unhurried, always vanishing when approached directly. The hotel’s grand history, including hosting inaugural balls for multiple U.S. presidents, makes the idea of a permanent resident feel somehow fitting.
18. Jekyll Island Club Resort – Jekyll Island, Georgia
Once the exclusive winter retreat of America’s wealthiest families – including the Rockefellers, Morgans, and Vanderbilts – the Jekyll Island Club Resort opened in 1886 and has operated in some form ever since. The Morgan Center apartment, in particular, carries a very specific reputation among guests brave enough to request it. Jekyll Island Club Resort was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 1994.
Those who have stayed in the historic Morgan apartment swear that they have awakened to the faint smell of cigar smoke wafting about when there is absolutely no one else awake. The cigar-smoke event is the one that gets repeated across traveler reviews and paranormal databases again and again. No guest is smoking. No smoke source is ever found. And it always happens in the pre-dawn hours, which aligns with old accounts of the apartment’s most notable former occupant and his early-morning routine.
19. The Hassayampa Inn – Prescott, Arizona
With a variety of experiences reported in the century since it opened, Hassayampa Inn has a reputation as an active haunt. Most of its paranormal tales involve a ghost that many have called “Faith.” Legend has it that in 1927, “Faith” and her newlywed husband checked into the Hassayampa Inn on their honeymoon. On their first night, her beloved husband left to supposedly purchase a pack of cigarettes, but he never returned. After waiting for nearly three days, “Faith” passed away from a broken heart.
Countless hotel guests and employees have reported encounters with a young woman throughout the hotel, crying at the end of a bed, dressed in a pink gown in the hallway, and appearing and disappearing from guest rooms. One housekeeper saw a woman by a bed, holding flowers and crying. When asked if she needed help, the woman vanished. Kitchen staff have reported feeling Faith’s presence in the kitchen, right before the burners on the stove suddenly went out. Others have reported strange cold spots in Faith’s honeymoon suite.
20. La Posada de Santa Fe – Santa Fe, New Mexico
Located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, La Posada de Santa Fe is not only known for its historical significance, but also for its haunted history. The most famous ghost associated with the hotel is the original owner’s wife, Julia Staab. Julia endured numerous hardships, including the loss of a child and severe depression, and is said to still linger in her former residence. Guests and staff have reported seeing her apparition in the Staab House, particularly in Room 101, where she is said to appear near the fireplace.
While her body had expired, many who lived in the house over the years believed that her spirit had not. In one instance, she was spotted wandering the hallways by a security guard, who immediately took off running. Nevertheless, Julia’s ghost is not described as “unsettling” or “frightening.” Recorded sightings of the ghostly activity include flickering fireplaces, swaying chandeliers, and certain hotel items – but never items belonging to guests – vanishing in certain guestrooms.
21. The George Washington Hotel – Washington, Pennsylvania
Since opening in 1922 in downtown Washington, Pennsylvania, The George Washington Hotel has developed a reputation for being haunted. In fact, many contemporary ghost hunters have conducted regular investigations of the historic building. Their visits have often turned up a wealth of evidence, with much of the paranormal activity supposedly focused on the fourth floor, and the rest of the paranormal activity spread out between the eighth and tenth floors.
The fourth floor is where guest reports cluster most densely: unexplained cold spots, the sound of footsteps in locked hallways, and lights that switch off mid-sentence while guests are still using them. What distinguishes this hotel’s pattern from vague creepiness is that investigators and ordinary guests tend to describe the same floors and the same types of disturbances, whether they knew the hotel’s reputation beforehand or not. The building’s grand ballroom has also generated consistent reports of music faintly heard after midnight.
22. The Sayre Mansion – Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
The spirits at The Sayre Mansion in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, are – according to eyewitness reports – mischievous in nature. Employees and guests report experiencing tugs on their clothing that cannot be explained, as well as televisions that mysteriously turn off. The mansion was built in 1858 by railroad magnate Robert Sayre, and its early history included more than its share of tragedy and loss involving the Sayre family’s children.
The spirits at The Sayre Mansion have a mischievous nature. Employees and guests report experiencing tugs at their clothing that cannot be explained, as well as television sets that mysteriously turn off. A maintenance tech was alone repairing a toilet when a small washer suddenly disappeared and ended up across the room under the bathmat. It seems a playful ghost wanted to start a game of hide and seek. The standing theory is that these playful spirits are the ghosts of children, because the Sayre Mansion saw more than its fair share of tragedy in its early days.
23. Omni Grove Park Inn – Asheville, North Carolina
Since the mid-20th century, travelers and residents have come to believe in a ghost who roams the hallways of Asheville’s historic Omni Grove Park Inn. A strange but gentle spirit residing within the gray, granite walls and known simply as the “Pink Lady,” has been seen, felt, and experienced by hotel employees and guests for nearly a century. The Pink Lady has been generally described as a dense pinkish smoke, although some report the mist materializing into the shape of a young woman donned in a pink ballgown.
The Pink Lady is believed to have met her demise on the Palm Court floor after falling two stories from the fifth floor to the third floor in the 1920s. While no written records have been found that support any of these claims, sightings of her are still reported. Some claim they have seen a pink mist, while others report seeing a full apparition of a young, long-haired lady in a pink gown. The Grove Park Inn has embraced the legend, and its reputation draws curious guests from all over the country.
24. Tubac Golf Resort and Spa – Tubac, Arizona
In recent decades, resort guests have reported at least four unique ghosts, including a boy, a lady in gray, a very active gentleman, and a cowboy. Some of these spirits are believed to date back to the early days of the resort when it was the Otero Ranch. The paranormal activity has been investigated by the Phoenix, Arizona Paranormal Society. The resort dates to 1789, giving it one of the longest documented histories of any property on this list.
Guests can learn more about the Tubac hauntings in Haunted Otero: Ghost Tales From the American Southwest (2014) by Diana Hinojosa-DeLugan, who has given ghost tours of Tubac Golf Resort and Spa. Tubac Golf Resort and Spa was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2008 and dates to 1789. The cowboy figure is the one guests mention most often – usually spotted near the old ranch outbuildings in the late-night hours, standing still before disappearing into the shadows.
25. The Sagamore Resort – Bolton Landing, New York
This upstate New York property, set on an island on Lake George in the Adirondacks, has built up quite a reputation as a hot spot for paranormal activity. Stories recount a woman in white blowing cold air on Sagamore Resort guests’ eyelids as they sleep, a phantom couple sitting down for dinner in the dining room, and ghostly children giggling in the hallways – one young boy in particular is said to haunt the golf course, stealing golf balls and throwing them at unsuspecting guests.
A hotel chef reportedly quit after the spirit of a woman spoke to him and walked straight through him in the kitchen. If you do decide to book a hotel room at this luxurious property, be warned: You may hear some things go bump in the night. The Sagamore opened in 1883 and has spent well over a century accumulating its roster of recurring reports – making it a fitting final entry in a list where history and mystery have become nearly inseparable.
What’s genuinely striking about these 25 hotels isn’t just that people report strange things. It’s the repetition – the same room, the same sound, the same figure, described by strangers across decades who had no reason to tell the same story. Whether you’re a true believer, a curious skeptic, or someone who simply loves the atmosphere of a grand old building after midnight, these properties offer something that a brand-new hotel simply cannot: a sense that the past hasn’t quite finished with the place yet. Which of these would you actually be brave enough to spend the night in?