America’s 10 Most Haunted Hotels Worth Booking a Stay

This article documents widely-reported accounts and historical records of unexplained phenomena. It does not assert supernatural causation.

Across the United States, a handful of historic hotels have accumulated something beyond architectural distinction: decades of eyewitness reports, documented investigations, and reputations that precede them in every travel guide and ghost-hunting forum alike. Whether you arrive as a skeptic, a curious traveler, or a seasoned paranormal investigator, these ten properties offer something the average Marriott cannot — a genuinely strange history, a well-documented case file, and a room that might keep you up for all the wrong reasons. What follows is a ranked survey of America’s most-reported haunted hotels, each selected on the weight of its documented accounts, the caliber of its investigators, and — critically — the quality of the visitor experience waiting for you regardless of what goes bump in the night.

How We Ranked These

Each hotel was evaluated on four criteria: the volume and consistency of reported phenomena across independent sources; the historical record supporting a haunted reputation (deaths, tragedies, documented investigations); the availability of credible published accounts or formal paranormal investigations; and the quality of the guest experience as a travel destination in its own right. A hotel that reports activity but offers a miserable stay did not make the cut. All ten on this list are worth booking on their history alone.

1. The Stanley Hotel — Estes Park, Colorado

Freelan Oscar Stanley, co-inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, opened his grand Colonial Revival hotel in 1909 on a ridge above Estes Park, backed by the wall of Rocky Mountain peaks. It is, by almost any measure, the most famous reportedly haunted hotel in America — largely because Stephen King checked into Room 217 in 1974, had a nightmare, and wrote The Shining. King’s novel aside, the Stanley’s paranormal reputation predates him considerably. Staff and guests have reported piano music emanating from the ballroom when it is locked and empty — the piano reportedly belonging to Flora Stanley, F.O.’s wife and an accomplished musician. Children’s laughter has been described in the fourth-floor hallways, attributed by some accounts to the children of early staff who lived in the hotel. Orbs and apparitions have been reported in Room 217 and Room 418 with sufficient consistency that the property now offers formal ghost tours and a “spirit package” for overnight guests.

Paranormal investigator and author Richard Estep devoted a chapter to the Stanley in his 2017 book The World’s Most Haunted Hospitals and has conducted multiple overnight investigations on the property. The TAPS team from Syfy’s Ghost Hunters filmed an episode there, reporting anomalous audio and equipment interference in the concert hall.

• Key reported phenomena: Disembodied piano music, children’s voices on Floor 4, apparitions and object movement in Room 217
• Room to request: Room 217 (King’s room; most-requested in the hotel) or Room 418 for consistent reports with slightly less tourist traffic
• Booking note: Room 217 books months in advance — reserve early and expect a premium rate; ghost tours run nightly and are open to non-staying guests

2. Crescent Hotel — Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Built in 1886 on the heights of the Ozark Mountains, the Crescent has operated as a resort hotel, a women’s college, and — most infamously — as the “Baker Hospital” under Norman Baker, a fraudulent cancer doctor who operated there from 1937 until his 1940 arrest for mail fraud. Baker’s alleged “cancer cures” brought terminally ill patients to the building; many died there. The hotel’s basement morgue, discovered during renovation, is now open for tours. Reported phenomena include the apparition of a man in Victorian-era work clothes — identified in staff lore as Michael, an Irish stonemason said to have fallen from the roof during construction — appearing in Room 218. A woman in Victorian dress has been reported in the lobby and on the grand staircase. Investigator Marley Harbuck and various regional paranormal teams have conducted documented sessions in the hotel, citing anomalous EMF readings in the basement morgue area.

• Key reported phenomena: Apparition of a construction worker in Room 218, Victorian woman on staircase, activity in basement morgue
• Room to request: Room 218 for the most-cited single-room reports
• Booking note: The hotel runs a formal ghost tour nightly; the “paranormal investigation package” includes equipment access in the basement

3. Hotel del Coronado — Coronado, California

Opened in 1888 on a peninsula across the bay from San Diego, the Hotel del Coronado is one of the largest wooden structures in the United States. Its most enduring reported haunting centers on Kate Morgan, a 24-year-old woman who checked in alone in November 1892, told staff she was waiting for her brother, and was found dead of a gunshot wound on an exterior staircase five days later. The San Diego County coroner ruled the death a suicide. Within years of her death, guests in the room she occupied — now designated Room 3327 — began reporting cold drafts, flickering lights, and an unexplained female presence. Author Alan May documented the Morgan case extensively in his book The Legend of Kate Morgan (1990), which remains the primary published account. Staff reports of strange behavior in Room 3327 have persisted for more than a century.

• Key reported phenomena: Cold spots, flickering lights, and a reported female presence in Room 3327; unexplained footsteps on the beach-facing staircase
• Room to request: Room 3327 — the hotel acknowledges Kate Morgan’s history and the room is bookable by name
• Booking note: The hotel is a luxury property; Room 3327 carries standard rates but fills quickly around the November anniversary of Morgan’s 1892 death

4. Bourbon Orleans Hotel — New Orleans, Louisiana

The building at 717 Orleans Street has served as a ballroom, a convent, a school, and a Civil War hospital before becoming the Bourbon Orleans Hotel. That layered history concentrates a remarkable range of reported phenomena in a single address. The Orleans Ballroom on the second floor was historically the site of the city’s infamous “Quadroon Balls,” formal gatherings with deep ties to the city’s plaçage system. Guests and staff have reported a male apparition on the sixth floor — sometimes attributed to a Confederate soldier — and children’s voices near what were once the convent schoolrooms. A woman in a ballgown has been reported in the ballroom corridor. New Orleans paranormal researcher Kalila Katherina Smith included the Bourbon Orleans in her book Journey Into Darkness: Ghosts and Vampires of New Orleans (1998), citing multiple independent witness accounts.

• Key reported phenomena: Apparitions on Floor 6, children’s voices near former convent rooms, a ballgowned figure in the second-floor corridor
• Room to request: Sixth-floor rooms for the most-cited activity; ask the concierge about room-specific history
• Booking note: Located in the French Quarter — book during shoulder season (late September or early November) to avoid Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest pricing spikes

5. Hotel Monteleone — New Orleans, Louisiana

Two blocks from the Bourbon Orleans at 214 Royal Street, the Hotel Monteleone has been family-owned since Antonio Monteleone purchased the property in 1886. Its Carousel Bar — a slowly rotating circular bar that has been a French Quarter fixture since 1949 — has hosted Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and William Faulkner. The hotel’s reported paranormal activity is heavily concentrated on the fourteenth floor, where multiple guests have independently described a group of children playing in the hallway and then vanishing. Room 1462 generates the most consistent reports, including bed vibrations, unexplained cold, and the sensation of a presence near the foot of the bed. The International Society for Paranormal Research, led by Dr. Larry Montz, conducted a formal investigation of the Monteleone in 2003 and reported anomalous readings and EVP captures on the fourteenth floor, which Montz documented in subsequent lectures.

• Key reported phenomena: Children apparitions on Floor 14, bed movement and cold spots in Room 1462, EVP captures during 2003 ISPR investigation
• Room to request: Room 1462 is the most-cited; alternatively, any fourteenth-floor room
• Booking note: A Literary Landmark designation makes this a draw for readers and writers as well — the hotel’s history supports a full weekend even without paranormal interest

6. Mizpah Hotel — Tonopah, Nevada

Tonopah is a small silver-mining town in the Nevada desert, and the Mizpah Hotel — opened in 1907 — is its most enduring landmark. Closed for decades and reopened in 2011 after a substantial restoration, the Mizpah is regularly cited by paranormal publications as one of the most actively reported haunted hotels in the American West. The primary figure in its haunted lore is “the Lady in Red,” a woman reported to have been murdered on the fifth floor in the early twentieth century. Guests on Floor 5 have described the scent of rose perfume in the hallway, a woman’s figure standing near the window, and jewelry moved or left on pillows overnight. The hotel’s owners have leaned into the history, offering ghost tours and providing in-room cards detailing the Lady in Red’s reported appearances. Its remote desert location — 200 miles from Las Vegas — makes it a destination stay rather than a convenient stopover.

• Key reported phenomena: Rose perfume scent on Floor 5, apparition of a woman in red, jewelry appearing on guest pillows
• Room to request: Room 502 for the highest-concentration reports; the Jack Dempsey Suite (Dempsey trained in Tonopah) offers history without the reported activity
• Booking note: Plan as a road-trip overnight; the hotel is relatively affordable and the remote Nevada setting is striking on its own terms

7. Lemp Mansion — St. Louis, Missouri

The Lemp family built one of the largest brewing empires in pre-Prohibition America and lived in a thirty-three-room mansion on Cherokee Street in St. Louis. Between 1904 and 1949, four members of the Lemp family died by suicide inside the mansion — William Lemp Sr. in 1904, his son William Jr. in 1922, daughter Elsa in 1920, and son Charles in 1949. That accumulation of tragedy on a single property gives the Lemp Mansion a documented human history unlike almost any other haunted location in the country. Now operating as a restaurant, inn, and murder-mystery dinner theater, it has been the subject of multiple formal investigations. Life magazine named it one of the most haunted houses in America in 1980. Reported phenomena include a male apparition on the staircase, unexplained piano music from the sealed basement, and doors that lock and unlock without guests touching them. Paranormal investigator and author Troy Taylor documented the Lemp case in his book Haunted St. Louis (2002).

• Key reported phenomena: Apparitions on staircase, piano music from sealed basement, self-locking doors
• Room to request: The Lavender Suite — William Lemp Jr.’s former bedroom — generates the most consistent guest reports
• Booking note: Overnight stays include dinner theater packages; book the inn portion separately if you want the experience without the murder-mystery format

8. Marshall House — Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is routinely ranked among the most haunted cities in the United States, and the Marshall House at 123 East Broughton Street stands as one of its most-reported properties. Built in 1851 and serving as a Union Army hospital during the Civil War — and again during yellow fever epidemics in 1854 and 1876 — the hotel’s operating history includes documented on-site amputations and a significant number of deaths within its walls. During the 1999 renovation, workers reportedly discovered human bones beneath the floorboards, a discovery that received local press coverage at the time. Guests have reported apparitions in Civil War–era clothing, disembodied footsteps on upper floors, and faucets that turn on by themselves in the night. Room 214 and the third-floor hallway generate the most-cited reports. Author and Savannah historian James Caskey has documented the Marshall House in his work on the city’s haunted history.

• Key reported phenomena: Civil War–era apparitions, unexplained footsteps on upper floors, self-activating faucets
• Room to request: Room 214 for the most-cited single-room activity; third-floor rooms generally for hallway reports
• Booking note: The hotel is in the heart of Savannah’s historic district — walking distance from dozens of other reportedly haunted sites; pair with a city ghost tour for full context

9. Driskill Hotel — Austin, Texas

Colonel Jesse Driskill, a cattle baron, opened his grand Romanesque Revival hotel on Sixth Street in Austin in 1886. It has hosted every Texas governor since statehood and served as Lyndon B. Johnson’s preferred Austin base during his Senate years. Two reported hauntings recur most frequently in staff and guest accounts: the ghost of Colonel Driskill himself, reportedly seen in the mezzanine and lobby areas, and the apparition of a young girl chasing a ball down the fourth-floor hallway — a figure attributed in hotel lore to the daughter of a senator who drowned in a bathtub in the early twentieth century. Brides have reported particularly strange experiences: two separate women, according to accounts published in the Austin American-Statesman, checked into the Driskill for their honeymoons in the 1990s and died by suicide in the hotel within months of each other. Room 525 is the most frequently cited location.

• Key reported phenomena: Apparition of Colonel Driskill in lobby/mezzanine, child apparition on Floor 4, unusual events associated with Room 525
• Room to request: Room 525 for documented reports; the fourth-floor rooms for the most-cited hallway activity
• Booking note: The Driskill Bar is one of Austin’s finest — the hotel is a fully worthwhile stay on its historic architecture and location alone

10. Captain Grant’s Inn — Preston, Connecticut

Captain Grant’s Inn is the smallest and least-famous property on this list — and, by many accounts of those who have investigated it, among the most intensely reported. The 1754 Colonial farmhouse in Preston, Connecticut served as home to sea captain Phineas Grant and has operated as a bed-and-breakfast since the 1990s. The reported activity centers on two figures: Adelaide, a woman who lived in the house in the nineteenth century and is reportedly seen in the Adelaide Room, and a group of children who appear in the hallway outside what was once a nursery. Owner Carol Matsumoto has documented guest reports for years and welcomes paranormal investigators by arrangement. Richard Southall, author of How to be a Ghost Hunter (2003), cited Captain Grant’s as a model location for structured investigation due to the consistency and detail of its witness reports over time. Its intimate scale — just ten rooms — means investigators and guests share close quarters with whatever the house holds.

• Key reported phenomena: Female apparition in the Adelaide Room, children in the hallway near the former nursery, unexplained sounds throughout the house
• Room to request: The Adelaide Room for the most-cited single-room reports
• Booking note: A true B&B experience — small, personal, and responsive to paranormal interest; contact the inn directly to arrange an investigation stay

Further Reading

If you want to go deeper before booking, two books provide solid overviews of America’s haunted hotel landscape. Therese Schwegel’s and others’ contributions to the broader genre of travel-focused paranormal guides are useful for planning itineraries, but the most consistently cited reference for American haunted hotels remains haunted hotel travel guides on Amazon — several editions exist covering regional and national properties, with historical context for each location. For investigators specifically, paranormal investigation guidebooks that address how to document and interpret reported phenomena are worth having before you arrive with equipment.

Final Thoughts

What distinguishes the hotels on this list from simple novelty haunts is the weight of their documented histories. Each sits inside a real building that witnessed real human events — deaths, illnesses, tragedies, and decades of people moving through rooms that absorbed all of it. Whether or not you encounter anything that defies easy explanation, you will be sleeping inside American history. That alone is worth the reservation. The rest, as witnesses across more than a century have suggested, may take care of itself.

Related case files

• America’s 12 Most Haunted Lighthouses Worth Visiting
• The Stanley Hotel: Inside Colorado’s Most Haunted Inn (and the Inspiration for The Shining)
• Eastern State Penitentiary: A Visitor’s Guide to America’s Most Haunted Prison
• The Winchester Mystery House: Sarah Winchester’s 38-Year Construction
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium: A Tuberculosis Hospital’s Dark Legacy
• The Whaley House: San Diego’s ‘Most Haunted House in America’