33 hotels and inns, and an ocean liner, in 11 states, each with the story of what happened there and a way to book a room.
Spookt counts a hotel as haunted when someone puts their name to its ghost story: the hotel itself, a guide who tells it on tour, or a newspaper that printed it. A rumor with no teller doesn’t make the list. Every stay here has its own researched page, and where the story points to one room, the stay’s card names it.
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The Ones People Ask About
Ship · Long Beach, California
The Queen Mary carried troops through World War II as the "Grey Ghost." Now a hotel in Long Beach, she rents out Stateroom B340, where the ship says guests have reported knocks on the door in the middle of the night.
Ask for Stateroom B340, where the ship says guests have reported knocks on the door in the middle of the night.
Hotel · Estes Park
Ask for Room 217, where the hotel says the ghost of a former head housekeeper unpacks guests' bags.
Hotel · Eureka Springs
Ask for Room 218, where the hotel says Michael, an Irish stonemason who fell to his death while building it, haunts.
Hotel · Coronado, California
Ask for Room 3327, where the hotel says Kate Morgan turns up most often.
33 stays · 11 states
Inn · Fall River, Massachusetts
On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were hacked to death inside this house in Fall River, Massachusetts. It's a bed and breakfast now, and its guides have long said the room where Abby died is the one guests ask for most.
Hotel · Salem, Massachusetts
Opened in 1925 on Washington Square, the Hawthorne Hotel made TripAdvisor's 2019 list of the country's scariest hotels, with one guest's review telling of crying and knocking outside the door at 3 a.m.
Hotel · Salem, Massachusetts
The Merchant hotel fills the Joshua Ward House, built on the foundation of witch-trial sheriff George Corwin's house. Popular tradition blames Corwin for making it Salem's most haunted, though the Salem Witch Museum counts that among the 'numerous myths' about him.
Inn · Salem, Massachusetts
Privateer captain Nathaniel West built the house that holds the Salem Inn's Room 17, which the inn calls its 'famous Haunted Room.' Guides say the staff swear to three ghosts: Katherine, a small child, and a black cat in the parlor.
Ask for Room 17, because the inn itself calls it its famous Haunted Room.
Hotel · Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
Joseph Stickney died a year after his Mount Washington Hotel opened in 1902. His widow, who later married a French prince, is said to sit on the edge of her four-poster bed in Room 314.
Hotel · Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Because of the tragic and gruesome events that occurred at the Welty House and on the property surrounding it, visitors claim to hear phantom gunshots, see apparitions of soldiers in full uniform, feel cold spots, and have eerie sensations while there.
Inn · Savannah, Georgia
The oldest part of 17Hundred90 was built as a duplex between 1821 and 1823. Owner Patrick Godley tells of Anna, a servant said to have jumped from a top-floor window after a sailor left her, who "haunts the upstairs waiting for her lover to return."
Ask for Room 204, where the owner says guests have felt a presence tugging at the sheets.
Inn · Savannah, Georgia
Owen and Honoria Foley built this house where the Great Savannah Fire of 1889 had destroyed another, and she ran it as an inn herself. Lodging Magazine reported in 2015 that when things break in empty rooms, the staff often credit Mrs. Foley.
Ask for Room 301, where AARP says the widow Foley still tucks guests in.
Inn · Savannah, Georgia
Samuel Pugh Hamilton, a businessman and city alderman, built this house on Lafayette Square in 1873. Innkeeper Susie Ridder told South Magazine of a guest who heard children knocking at a door in the night, saying "Daddy let us in," when no children were staying.
Ask for Room 402, because the inn says guests often ask about it for its reported stories.
Inn · Savannah, Georgia
For most of the 20th century, the Kehoe House was a funeral home. It's an inn now, and Visit Savannah, the city's tourism bureau, says many guests report meeting ghost children during their stays.
Inn · Savannah, Georgia
Mary Marshall founded this hotel on Broughton Street in 1851. Fox News reported in 2015 that guests have felt pressure on their wrists in bed, "as if someone is trying to take their pulse."
Ask for Room 414, where Islands magazine says bootsteps have been heard circling the bed.
Hotel · New Orleans, Louisiana
The Bourbon Orleans dates its Orleans Ballroom to 1817, and from 1881, the building was a convent of the Sisters of the Holy Family. Its own stories tell of a lone dancer in the ballroom and a little girl rolling her ball down the sixth-floor halls.
Ask for Room 644, because a local paper reported it is believed to be the hotel's most haunted room.
Hotel · New Orleans, Louisiana
Sicilian cobbler Antonio Monteleone bought a hotel on Royal Street in 1886, and his family still runs it. The hotel says guests have seen a toddler named Maurice Begere near the room where he died.
Inn · St Francisville, Louisiana
The Myrtles' best-known ghost is Chloe, an enslaved woman its guides long said poisoned her owner's family with an oleander cake. Researchers who searched the records found no Chloe, and the deaths she was blamed for came from yellow fever.
Ask for the Judge Clarke Woodruff Suite, because its private sitting area is near the staircase of the 17th-step story.
Hotel · Chicago, Illinois
Often called Chicago's most haunted hotel, the Congress opened in 1893. Its guards tell of a little boy on the 12th floor who grins and slowly fades away.
Ask for Room 441, where a ghost tour guide says guests report a woman standing or hovering over the bed.
Hotel · Chicago, Illinois
The Drake opened on New Year's Eve 1920, and Chicago's ghost guides place two women in it: the Lady in Red on the 10th floor and the Lady in Black on the eighth. She is said to be the never-identified killer in a 1944 murder, whom the New York Times described at the time as "a woman in a fur coat."
Ask for the 10th floor, where Choose Chicago says the Lady in Red is seen most often.
Hotel · Marquette, Michigan
The Landmark Inn is not only known for its historical significance but also for the tales of ghostly encounters that have been associated with the building.
Hotel · San Francisco, California
The Beacon Grand opened in 1928 as the Sir Francis Drake, and an actor fell to his death from an eighth-floor window in 1965. Ghost tours say its most-reported ghost is a woman in a white evening gown.
Ask for a room on floors 12 to 15, where Ghost City Tours' founder says a man in a 1930s business suit is seen most often.
Hotel · San Francisco, California
The Fairmont was set to open on April 18, 1906, the morning the earthquake struck, and one of the two sisters who built it is said to return to check on her hotel.
Ask for the seventh floor, where The Haunt Ghost Tours says to look for World War II soldiers after dark.
Hotel · Coronado, California
Kate Morgan checked into the Del under a false name on Thanksgiving Day, 1892, and was found shot dead on its steps to the beach five days later. The hotel says she never checked out.
Ask for Room 3327, where the hotel says Kate Morgan turns up most often.
Ship · Long Beach, California
The Queen Mary carried troops through World War II as the "Grey Ghost." Now a hotel in Long Beach, she rents out Stateroom B340, where the ship says guests have reported knocks on the door in the middle of the night.
Ask for Stateroom B340, where the ship says guests have reported knocks on the door in the middle of the night.
Hotel · San Francisco, California
Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini paid for this North Beach hotel in 1906 to shelter earthquake victims, and guides say a brothel madam called the Painted Lady still haunts Room 33.
Ask for Room 33, where guides say a brothel madam called the Painted Lady still haunts.
Hotel · San Francisco, California
Actress Virginia Rappe fell fatally ill at silent-film star Fatty Arbuckle's 1921 party in rooms 1219 to 1221, and Al Jolson died in the same suite in 1950. Ghost tours say the 12th floor holds three ghosts.
Ask for Room 1219, because it is said to be the most haunted room in the hotel.
Hotel · San Francisco, California
The Queen Anne opened in 1890 as Miss Lake's School for Young Ladies, and its headmistress, Mary Lake, is said to haunt Room 410, her former office.
Ask for Room 410, where the headmistress Mary Lake is said to haunt her former office.
Hotel · Seattle, Washington
Congressman Marion Zioncheck died in a fall from his fifth-floor office window here in 1936. A Seattle police captain was later told the elevator stops on that floor by itself because of "the Zioncheck ghost."
Ask for Room 517, where the Seattle Times' entertainment guide reports sounds of pacing and a freezing breeze.
Hotel · Eureka Springs
Norman Baker, a radio showman with no medical training, ran a cancer "hospital" in this hotel until his mail fraud conviction in 1940. The hotel says Room 218 is haunted by Michael, an Irish stonemason who fell to his death while building it.
Ask for Room 218, where the hotel says Michael, an Irish stonemason who fell to his death while building it, haunts.
Hotel · Estes Park
Stephen King spent a night in Room 217 here in 1974 and woke from a nightmare with the idea for The Shining. The hotel says the ghost of a former head housekeeper still unpacks guests' bags in that room.
Ask for Room 217, where the hotel says the ghost of a former head housekeeper unpacks guests' bags.
Haunted hotels by city guide: San Francisco, Savannah, New Orleans, Salem, Chicago, Austin, Seattle
The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, bills itself as America’s Most Haunted Hotel, and it runs its own ghost tours every night. The Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana makes a smaller claim: it bills itself as one of America’s most haunted homes.
Some hotels sell their haunted rooms by name: the Stanley Hotel books Room 217 as the 217 Spirited Grand King, and the Crescent lists Michael’s Room, Room 218, on its guest rooms page. The Queen Mary sells Stateroom B340 on her own website as the B340 Suite. At the Driskill there’s no promise: the hotel doesn’t sell Room 525, where the legend of its two jilted brides is set, as a haunted room.
Yes. At the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, Room 644 was “believed to be the most haunted room in the hotel,” The Advocate, a Baton Rouge daily, reported in 2014. The Hotel Monteleone’s own website names one ghost, a toddler called Maurice Begere, and says guests report seeing him near the room where he died.
Yes. The Driskill, in Austin, topped the list of the 20 most haunted places in Texas that Yelp drew up in 2021 by searching visitors’ reviews for words like “haunted,” “spooky,” and “ghosts.” The Omni Austin Hotel Downtown has a ghost story of its own, about a guest known only as Jack, and the details change with the teller.
In Long Beach, the Queen Mary rents out staterooms themed to her ghosts, and her general manager said in 2018 that “the stateroom with the most infamous reputation is room B340.” The Hotel del Coronado says Kate Morgan, a guest found shot dead on its steps to the beach in 1892, turns up mostly in her old third-floor room. In San Francisco, Room 1219 at the Westin St. Francis is said to be the most haunted room in the hotel.
Yes. Tony Szabelski, a guide with the ghost tour company Chicago Hauntings, tells every tour group that if any place in Chicago is haunted, it’s the Congress Plaza Hotel. Choose Chicago, the group that markets the city to visitors, ranks the Drake a “strong second,” with a Lady in Red said to haunt its 10th floor.
