America has a rich tradition of hospitality. Clean sheets, a mint on the pillow, a complimentary breakfast and the occasional apparition drifting through the corridors at three in the morning. The country's oldest hotels have witnessed births, deaths, scandals and tragedies within their walls, and some of their former guests have clearly decided that checkout time does not apply to them.
Here are the most haunted hotels in America. We recommend reading the reviews before booking. All of them, not just the ones on TripAdvisor.
1. The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
If there is one hotel that has come to define paranormal tourism in America it is the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Built in 1909 by Freelan Oscar Stanley, the inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, the hotel sits in dramatic isolation against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains and looks exactly as haunted as it actually is.
The Stanley's place in paranormal history was cemented when Stephen King stayed in Room 217 in 1974 and was so unsettled by the experience that he used it as the inspiration for The Shining. King has described dreaming vividly of his young son being chased through the hotel's corridors, waking in a cold sweat and immediately beginning to write. The rest, as they say, is horror history.
Room 217 is the most requested room in the hotel, which says something interesting about human nature. Guests regularly report luggage being unpacked and repacked by unseen hands, lights switching on and off and the feeling of someone sitting on the edge of the bed during the night. The ghost is believed to be Elizabeth Wilson, a former housekeeper who survived a gas explosion in the room in 1911 and apparently never quite left.
The ballroom is said to be haunted by the ghost of Flora Stanley, wife of the founder, whose piano playing is heard in the empty room late at night. Children's laughter is reported in the corridors of the fourth floor with no visible source, and the hotel's concert hall is considered one of the most active paranormal locations on the entire property.
The Stanley embraces its supernatural reputation wholeheartedly, offering ghost tours, paranormal investigations and a dedicated film screening of The Shining in the outdoor amphitheatre. It is one of the great American hotel experiences, haunted or otherwise.
Visiting: 333 Wonderview Avenue, Estes Park, Colorado. Room 217 books up months in advance. If you want to guarantee the full experience, plan well ahead.
2. The Queen Mary, Long Beach, California
The RMS Queen Mary is not strictly speaking a hotel in the traditional sense, being a retired ocean liner permanently moored in Long Beach, California. But with over 300 staterooms available for overnight stays and a paranormal reputation that rivals any building in America, it absolutely earns its place on this list.
The Queen Mary served as a troop transport during the Second World War, during which time she accidentally collided with and sank her escort ship HMS Curacoa, killing 338 men. The ship continued sailing under strict wartime orders not to stop, a decision that haunts the vessel in more ways than one. The propeller area where the collision occurred is one of the most active paranormal locations on board, with numerous investigators reporting unexplained sounds and sensations in that section of the hull.
The most famous ghost is Jackie, the spirit of a young girl who drowned in the second class pool in the 1930s. Her laughter is heard around the now drained pool area and her small wet footprints have reportedly been found on the pool deck with no explanation. The changing rooms adjacent to the pool are considered particularly active and have caused more than a few investigators to cut their sessions short.
Other reported entities include a young man who died in the engine room, a woman in a white evening gown seen near the bow of the ship and a mysterious figure in grey overalls spotted throughout the lower decks. The Queen Mary offers ghost tours and paranormal investigation packages and is one of the most genuinely unsettling overnight experiences available anywhere in the country.
Visiting: 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, California. Ghost tours run nightly and the ship's restaurant and bars are excellent. Just maybe avoid the pool area after dark.
3. The Myrtles Plantation, St Francisville, Louisiana
The Myrtles Plantation in St Francisville is widely considered one of the most haunted homes in America and operates today as a bed and breakfast, which is either a wonderfully brave business decision or a deeply questionable one depending on your perspective.
Built in 1796 on land that was allegedly a Tunica burial ground, the plantation has accumulated a history of violence, tragedy and unexplained phenomena that would fill several volumes. At least ten people are believed to have been murdered on the property over the centuries, and the number of reported apparitions reflects that dark history comprehensively.
The most famous ghost is Chloe, a former enslaved woman who according to legend wore a green turban to hide an ear that had been cut off as punishment. She is said to have poisoned a birthday cake intended for the plantation owner's family, killing two of his daughters and his wife, before being hanged by fellow enslaved workers who feared retribution. Her figure, green turban and all, has been reported throughout the property for generations.
The plantation's most famous paranormal artefact is a large mirror in the main hallway that is said to contain the spirits of the plantation owner's wife and daughters, their handprints appearing on the glass despite repeated cleaning. The mirror has never been removed from the property, reportedly because every attempt to do so has resulted in inexplicable accidents and misfortune.
Guests staying overnight report being touched by unseen hands, hearing unexplained footsteps and voices throughout the night and waking to find objects moved from where they left them. The Myrtles is not a relaxing overnight stay in the conventional sense but it is an absolutely unforgettable one.
Visiting: 7747 US Highway 61, St Francisville, Louisiana. Bed and breakfast accommodation available. Ghost tours run nightly and are among the best in the South.
4. The Omni Parker House, Boston, Massachusetts
The Omni Parker House in Boston is the longest continuously operating hotel in America, having welcomed guests since 1855. In that time it has hosted virtually every significant figure in American history, from Charles Dickens and Ralph Waldo Emerson to John F Kennedy, who announced his congressional candidacy here in 1946. It has also accumulated a paranormal history to match its remarkable human one.
The most active floor is the 10th, which was originally the top floor of the building and the location of numerous reported incidents over the decades. Room 1078 is considered the most haunted room in the hotel, where guests have reported seeing the apparition of a man in 19th century clothing sitting in the corner of the room, watching them sleep. That is the kind of hotel review that tends to stick with you.
The ghost of Harvey Parker, the hotel's founder, is said to still wander the property checking on his guests and staff, particularly in the areas he frequented most during his lifetime. The hotel's bar, which claims to be the birthplace of the Boston Cream Pie, has its own reported activity including glasses moving on their own and unexplained cold spots.
Visiting: 60 School Street, Boston, Massachusetts. A genuinely historic hotel in one of America's most atmospheric cities. The Boston Cream Pie is worth the visit alone, supernatural activity optional.
5. Hotel Monte Vista, Flagstaff, Arizona
The Hotel Monte Vista in Flagstaff opened in 1927 and has been accumulating ghost stories ever since. Its reported paranormal activity is remarkably varied, covering everything from mischievous spirits who rearrange furniture to genuinely threatening presences that have driven guests from their rooms in the middle of the night.
The most infamous room is Room 220, known as the Phantom Bellboy Room, where guests regularly report a knock at the door and a muffled announcement of room service, only to find an empty corridor when they answer. The knocking has been reported so consistently over so many decades that it has become one of the hotel's defining characteristics. The staff have largely stopped investigating it.
Room 305 is associated with two prostitutes who were thrown from the window in the 1940s and whose rocking figures have been seen in the room ever since. John Wayne, who was a regular guest at the Monte Vista during his film career, allegedly refused to stay in certain rooms after personal experiences that he never discussed publicly. If John Wayne found something in a hotel room unsettling enough to refuse to return, that is probably worth taking seriously.
Visiting: 100 North San Francisco Street, Flagstaff, Arizona. A working hotel in the heart of Flagstaff's historic downtown. Ghost tours are available and the hotel's bar is one of the best in the city.
6. The Hotel del Coronado, Coronado, California
The Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California is one of the most beautiful and most photographed hotels in America, a magnificent Victorian beach resort that has been welcoming guests since 1888. It is also home to one of the most well documented ghost stories in Californian history.
Kate Morgan checked into the Hotel del Coronado alone on Thanksgiving Day 1892, telling staff she was waiting for her brother. She was found dead on the hotel's beach steps five days later with a gunshot wound to the head, and the case was ruled a suicide, though the circumstances have always been considered suspicious. She was 24 years old.
Room 3327, where Kate stayed during her final days, is the most requested room in the hotel. Guests report flickering lights, unexplained cool breezes from sealed windows, the television switching channels on its own and the general sense of a quiet, sad presence in the room. Kate's apparition has been seen on the beach near where she was found, and her figure has been reported throughout the hotel in the decades since her death.
The Hotel del Coronado is a genuinely spectacular place to stay regardless of your interest in the paranormal. The fact that it comes with one of California's most poignant ghost stories is simply a bonus.
Visiting: 1500 Orange Avenue, Coronado, California. One of America's great historic hotels. Book well in advance, particularly for Room 3327.
7. The Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee has been open since 1893 and is widely considered the most haunted hotel in Major League Baseball, which is a very specific distinction but an entirely legitimate one. Visiting baseball players have complained about paranormal experiences at the Pfister so consistently and so publicly that it has become a genuine talking point across the sport.
Players from numerous teams have reported waking in the night to find furniture rearranged, hearing unexplained noises and feeling a persistent, unsettling presence in their rooms. Several have refused to stay at the hotel at all, opting instead for alternative accommodation when their teams visit Milwaukee. Carlos Beltran, Prince Fielder and Derek Jeter are among the players who have spoken publicly about uncomfortable experiences at the Pfister.
The hotel's haunting is generally attributed to the ghost of Charles Pfister, the founder's son, who loved the hotel so deeply during his lifetime that he apparently cannot bring himself to leave it. His portrait hangs in the lobby and staff report the feeling of being watched when working near it late at night.
Visiting: 424 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A genuinely beautiful historic hotel in the heart of Milwaukee. Baseball fans will appreciate the additional layer of paranormal history.
8. The Emily Morgan Hotel, San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is one of America's most haunted cities and the Emily Morgan Hotel, named after the Yellow Rose of Texas, sits directly adjacent to the Alamo making it one of the most atmospherically situated hotels in the country. The building was originally constructed in 1924 as a medical arts building, serving as a hospital, psychiatric facility and site of numerous deaths over the decades before its conversion to a hotel.
The seventh floor, which housed the psychiatric ward during the building's medical years, is considered the most active paranormal floor. Guests report unexplained sounds, doors opening and closing on their own and the sense of a presence in the corridors that is difficult to articulate but impossible to ignore.
The proximity to the Alamo, where over 200 defenders died in the famous 1836 siege, adds a further layer of paranormal atmosphere to the hotel's already considerable history. Some investigators believe the activity at the Emily Morgan is connected to the battlefield energy of the Alamo grounds rather than, or in addition to, the building's own history.
Visiting: 705 East Houston Street, San Antonio, Texas. An extraordinary location in one of America's most historic cities. The Alamo is literally next door, which puts the hotel's paranormal activity into a rather dramatic context.
9. The Hawthorne Hotel, Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts is America's most famous paranormal city, forever associated with the witch trials of 1692 in which nineteen people were executed and hundreds more imprisoned on charges of witchcraft. The Hawthorne Hotel, which opened in 1925 and sits in the heart of the city, is the natural base for any paranormal exploration of the area.
Rooms 325 and 612 are considered the most active in the hotel, with guests reporting unexplained movement of objects, the smell of the sea in a landlocked building and the apparition of a woman in period clothing seen near the windows. The hotel's common areas have their own reported activity, particularly late at night when the building is quiet.
Salem itself is an extraordinary paranormal destination at any time of year, though October transforms the city into something genuinely spectacular. The combination of the Hawthorne Hotel's own history and its location at the centre of America's most famous paranormal city makes it an essential destination for any serious ghost hunting enthusiast.
Visiting: 18 Washington Square West, Salem, Massachusetts. Book months in advance if you're planning an October visit. The entire city fills up and the Hawthorne is always the first to go.
10. The Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs is known as America's most haunted hotel, a title it wears with considerable pride and considerable justification. Built in 1886 as a luxury resort, the building subsequently served as a girls school, a junior college and most infamously as a cancer hospital run by a fraudulent doctor named Norman Baker in the late 1930s.
Baker had no medical qualifications whatsoever but charged desperate patients enormous sums for treatments consisting largely of watermelon juice and carbolic acid. Patients died in significant numbers and Baker eventually went to prison for mail fraud. The suffering that occurred in the building during this period is considered by many investigators to be the source of the Crescent's extraordinary paranormal activity.
The most frequently reported ghost is Michael, an Irish stonemason who fell to his death during the hotel's construction in 1886 and is seen throughout the building in work clothes carrying his tools. Doctor Baker himself has been reported in the basement, where his makeshift morgue was located. Room 218 is considered the most active room in the hotel and has a waiting list for paranormal enthusiasts that stretches months into the future.
The Crescent offers ghost tours, paranormal investigation packages and a genuinely fascinating museum dedicated to Norman Baker's fraudulent medical operation. It is one of the most extraordinary hotel experiences in America, deeply unsettling and absolutely unmissable.
Visiting: 75 Prospect Avenue, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Ghost tours run nightly and the hotel's restaurant is excellent. The town of Eureka Springs itself is one of America's most charming and most haunted small towns.
Find These Hotels and Hundreds More Haunted Locations on HauntMap
These ten hotels represent just a fraction of America's extraordinary paranormal heritage. HauntMap maps haunted locations across the USA, the UK and beyond, complete with full paranormal histories, ghost stories, visiting information and experiences submitted by real investigators from around the world.
Download the HauntMap app on iPhone or Android and start mapping your paranormal journey today. Just remember to check out on time. Some of the previous guests clearly did not.
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