Some hotels don’t just have history. They have residents who never checked out. If you’re hunting for haunted hotels in the united states that deliver more than a spooky marketing gimmick, you’ve landed in the right spot. These are the properties with documented sightings, decades of guest reports, and enough unexplained activity to keep investigators coming back with full gear bags.
Below you’ll find 13 of the most haunted hotels in the country, where each one is located, and the specific stories tied to it, from a phantom bride in a wedding dress to cold spots that show up on thermal cameras every single time. This isn’t a generic travel roundup. It’s built for people who actually want to stay overnight and document something.
We pulled these locations from guest accounts, staff interviews, and investigator write-ups, so you know what to expect before you book. And if you’re planning to bring an EMF meter or night vision camera along, we’ll flag which rooms and hallways give investigators the most consistent readings, so you’re not wasting a trip, and it helps to know how to detect unexplained activity with an EMF meter before you arrive.
1. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado
No list of haunted hotels in the united states starts anywhere else. The Stanley Hotel sits at the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park and inspired Stephen King to write The Shining after a single overnight stay in 1974. That connection alone would draw crowds, but the hotel’s reputation for genuine paranormal activity predates the book by decades and keeps investigators booking rooms year-round.
Haunted history
F.O. Stanley built the hotel in 1909 as a health retreat, and both he and his wife Flora are said to have never left. A 1911 boiler explosion tore through Room 217, injuring a chambermaid named Elizabeth Wilson, and staff say her presence still lingers there. The Colorado mountain hotel has weathered fires, floods, and a century of guest turnover, and each event seems to have added another layer to its paranormal reputation rather than erasing it, which is why it anchors so many guides to haunted locations across Colorado.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests report unpacked suitcases repacked overnight, phantom piano music drifting from the empty Music Room, and children’s laughter echoing down the fourth-floor hallway when no kids are registered on the floor. Elizabeth Wilson’s spirit is credited with turning lights on and off in Room 217 and occasionally tidying up after guests. Stanley himself reportedly appears in the billiards room and lobby, dressed in period clothing, still keeping watch over the property he built.
The Stanley isn’t haunted by rumor. It’s haunted by a documented explosion, a named ghost, and a hundred years of matching guest reports.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
Room 217 remains the top request for anyone serious about documentation, and it’s usually booked months in advance. The fourth floor as a whole produces the most consistent EVP recordings and unexplained footsteps, according to staff-led tours, so it helps to understand what an EVP recorder does and how to run one before you go up. If you’re bringing a full kit, prioritize these spots:
- Room 217: cold spots, EMF spikes, and reports of movement near the closet
- Fourth-floor hallway: recorded children’s voices and temperature drops
- Music Room: unexplained piano notes, often caught on audio recorders
- Concert Hall: reported apparitions near the stage during off-hours
A reliable EMF, temperature and REM field detector paired with a decent audio recorder covers most of what these spots are known for producing, so pack accordingly before you check in.
Visiting information
The Stanley Hotel operates as a working hotel at 333 Wonderview Ave, Estes Park, CO, with nightly rates typically running $200 to $400 depending on season and room. The hotel runs its own ghost tours nightly, separate from overnight stays, and you can book either through their front desk or website well ahead of Halloween, when rooms sell out fastest. Reservations for Room 217 specifically often require calling directly rather than booking online, since demand from investigators and King fans alike keeps it in near-constant rotation.
2. Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California
The Hotel del Coronado has been a beachfront landmark since 1888, and it’s earned its spot among haunted hotels in the united states through one tragic guest who never made it home. Known locally as "the Del," this Victorian beach resort draws thousands of vacationers every year who have no idea they’re sharing hallways with one of California’s most documented hotel ghosts.
Haunted history
Kate Morgan checked into the Del alone in November 1892, telling staff she was waiting for her husband. Five days later, staff found her dead on an exterior staircase from a gunshot wound, ruled a suicide though details of her stay never quite added up. She’d used a fake name, and records later suggested she might have been abandoned by a husband running a con. That unresolved grief is the thread investigators point to when explaining why her presence has stuck around the San Diego beach resort for over a century.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests staying in Kate’s old room, now numbered 3327, report flickering lights, television sets turning on by themselves, and a persistent sense of being watched. Some describe seeing a woman in period dress standing near the closet or reflected briefly in the bathroom mirror. Staff have logged enough repeat complaints about the room’s electronics that maintenance treats it as a running joke, though few of them dismiss the pattern entirely.
Kate Morgan never got her answers, and the Del’s staff will tell you she’s still looking for them.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Room 3327: EMF spikes and electronics acting up unprompted
- Fourth-floor hallway: cold spots reported near her former room
- Original staircase area: site of her death, frequent apparition reports
Visiting information
The hotel sits at 1500 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA, with rates from $300 to $600 nightly depending on season. Room 3327 can be requested directly through reservations, though it books out fast around Halloween and summer weekends.
3. The Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Texas
The Menger Hotel opened in 1859 right next to the Alamo, and its guest list alone reads like a haunted house tour: Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders in its bar, and the hotel has quietly built a reputation as one of the more consistently active haunted hotels in the united states in the decades since. With roughly 32 reported ghosts tied to the property, it’s less a single ghost story and more a whole roster, and the Menger Hotel ghost stories from San Antonio are worth reading in full.
Haunted history
Built on ground adjacent to the Alamo battlefield, the Menger absorbed more than a century of Texas history, wars, and guest deaths within its walls. Sallie White, a chambermaid murdered by her husband in 1876, is the hotel’s most cited spirit, and staff still point visitors toward the stairwell where she was killed. The Texas Alamo hotel also carries reports tied to Civil War soldiers and Alamo defenders, whose presence locals say never fully left the grounds surrounding the building.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests describe Sallie’s apparition dusting furniture or walking the halls in her maid’s uniform, still going about chores decades after her death. Others report a Confederate soldier pacing near the old lobby and unexplained cold drafts in the original 1859 wing, where the building’s oldest brickwork still stands.
Thirty-two ghosts isn’t folklore exaggeration at the Menger. It’s just what happens when a hotel sits on top of a battlefield for over 150 years.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Room 355: recurring reports of a shadowy figure and unexplained sounds
- Staircase near the original lobby: tied directly to Sallie White’s death
- 1859 wing hallways: consistent cold spots and EMF fluctuations
Visiting information
The Menger sits at 204 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX, steps from the Alamo itself, with nightly rates running $150 to $300. Staff offer informal ghost history at the front desk, and requesting the older wing gives you the best shot at documenting something during an overnight stay.
4. Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, Louisiana
Hotel Monteleone has anchored the French Quarter since 1886, and it’s the only hotel on this list officially recognized as a literary landmark. That prestige hasn’t stopped it from becoming one of the more talked-about haunted hotels in the united states, thanks to a rotating cast of spirits that guests report with striking consistency across generations of stays.
Haunted history
The Monteleone family built and expanded the hotel over more than a century, and that constant construction, combined with deaths on the property, seems to have left a mark. A young boy named Maurice Begere, who died of yellow fever after staying there with his family in the early 1900s, is the hotel’s best-known resident spirit. The New Orleans literary hotel also hosted writers like Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote, whose lingering influence some staff jokingly credit for the building’s creative, restless energy.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests on the fourteenth floor report a small boy’s laughter and the feeling of tiny hands tugging at their sheets at night. Others describe a well-dressed man in old-fashioned attire riding the elevators, sometimes vanishing before the doors open. Housekeeping staff have logged repeated reports of room service carts moving on their own in the hallways outside occupied rooms.
Maurice Begere never grew up, and staff at the Monteleone say his laughter is proof he never really left either.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Fourteenth floor: most consistent reports of a child’s voice and cold spots
- Elevators: sightings of a formally dressed male apparition
- Carousel Bar area: unexplained shadows reported after closing
Visiting information
The hotel sits at 214 Royal St, New Orleans, LA, with rates typically between $200 and $400 a night depending on season. Front desk staff can point you toward the fourteenth floor on request, and the hotel’s famous revolving Carousel Bar downstairs makes for a solid nightcap before you start listening for footsteps.
5. 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Built into the Ozark Mountains, the Crescent Hotel has earned its nickname, "America’s Most Haunted Hotel," through a history that swings from Gilded Age luxury to outright medical fraud. Among haunted hotels in the united states, few carry a backstory this dark, and that darkness is exactly why investigators keep the property near the top of their travel lists alongside Arkansas’s other ghostly sites.
Haunted history
Opened in 1886 as a resort for wealthy travelers, the building later became Baker’s Cancer Curatorium, a fake hospital run by con man Norman Baker in the 1930s. Baker promised cancer cures he never delivered, and patients reportedly died in the basement, which staff still call the morgue today. That grim chapter turned the Ozark mountain hotel from a simple vacation spot into a site with a documented body count, and it’s the reason so much of the paranormal activity here traces back to suffering rather than folklore.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests report a nurse pushing a gurney down third-floor hallways late at night, along with a stonemason named Michael, who fell to his death during construction and reportedly still walks the halls in overalls. The basement morgue produces the most consistent reports of cold spots and disembodied voices, tied directly to Baker’s victims.
The Crescent’s ghosts aren’t vague legends. They’re the documented dead of a medical scam that ran for years.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Room 218: Michael the stonemason’s reported haunt, frequent knocking sounds
- Basement morgue: cold spots, EVP activity, and equipment drain reports
- Third-floor hallway: nurse sightings and unexplained footsteps
Visiting information
The hotel sits at 75 Prospect Ave, Eureka Springs, AR, with nightly rates from $150 to $300. The Crescent runs its own nightly ghost tours through the basement, and booking a stay plus a tour together gives you the fullest picture of the property’s history before you start your own overnight investigation.
6. Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem doesn’t need extra ghost stories, but the Hawthorne Hotel supplies plenty anyway. Built in 1925 on land tied directly to the witch trials, it’s one of the few haunted hotels in the united states where the surrounding town’s history feeds directly into the hotel’s own paranormal reputation. Named for Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose family connections to the trials are well documented, the hotel leans into its setting rather than away from it.
Haunted history
The hotel sits on ground once used by Bridget Bishop, one of the first women executed during the 1692 witch trials, and staff say that history never fully settled. Beyond Bishop, the building has hosted a century of guests, staff, and at least one reported death on the property, all of which locals point to when explaining the Salem witch trial hotel‘s steady stream of reports.
Ghost sightings and stories
Room 612 draws the most attention, with guests describing a woman’s perfume appearing out of nowhere and unexplained pressure on the bed at night. Staff also report a man in a captain’s uniform wandering the sixth floor, tied to the hotel’s maritime-era past, along with elevator doors opening on their own to empty floors.
Salem’s history walks its streets every day. At the Hawthorne, staff say it walks the hallways too.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Room 612: reported scent phenomena and bed pressure
- Sixth-floor hallway: sightings of a uniformed male apparition
- Elevators: doors opening without call buttons pressed
Visiting information
The Hawthorne Hotel sits at 18 Washington Square West, Salem, MA, with nightly rates from $150 to $280 depending on season, and October books out fastest given Salem’s Halloween crowds. Front desk staff will discuss the hotel’s history if asked directly, and pairing your stay with one of Salem’s witch trial walking tours gives useful context before you start recording anything overnight.
7. The Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Built in 1930 near Rock Creek Park, the Omni Shoreham has hosted eight presidential inaugural balls and its share of political scandal, which is exactly the kind of pedigree that lands a property on lists of haunted hotels in the united states. Beneath the ballrooms and diplomatic history sits a stubborn mystery that staff still won’t fully explain.
Haunted history
Developer Harry Wardman built the hotel during Prohibition, and legend holds that a young woman was murdered in Room 870 sometime in the 1940s, her body discovered under circumstances hotel records never fully clarified. Renovations have replaced the carpet in that room more than once, yet housekeeping staff describe a bloodstain pattern returning within weeks each time, which is the detail that keeps this Washington DC political hotel firmly in paranormal circles rather than just history buff ones.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests in and around Room 870 report sudden temperature drops, a woman’s crying audible through the walls, and bathroom faucets turning on with no one nearby. Staff also describe a phantom child near the old pool area, tied to an unconfirmed drowning decades ago, along with unexplained footsteps in the eighth-floor corridor after midnight.
A carpet that keeps staining itself is the kind of detail no marketing team invents, and it’s why investigators keep asking for Room 870 by name.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Room 870: recurring stain reports, cold spots, and crying sounds
- Eighth-floor hallway: unexplained footsteps late at night
- Old pool area: reported child apparition and EMF spikes
Visiting information
The hotel sits at 2500 Calvert St NW, Washington, D.C., with nightly rates from $200 to $450 depending on events downtown. Room 870 isn’t always available for direct booking, so calling reservations ahead and mentioning the room by number gets better results than booking online.
8. La Fonda on the Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe’s oldest hotel sits right on the plaza, and La Fonda has occupied that spot in some form since the 1600s, long before the current 1920s building went up. Among haunted hotels in the united states, it stands out for layering Spanish colonial history, Wild West violence, and Route 66 tourism into a single address that guests still walk through every day.
Haunted history
Earlier structures on this exact ground served as trading posts, inns, and even a jail, and executions reportedly took place on the property during the territorial period. A businessman is said to have been thrown from the bell tower after a card game turned deadly, and his death anchors much of the Santa Fe plaza hotel‘s reputation today. Centuries of transient guests, gunfights, and shifting ownership left plenty of unresolved history behind the current building’s adobe walls.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests and staff describe a man in period clothing pacing near the bell tower late at night, matching descriptions tied to the card game death. Others report a woman in Victorian dress gliding through the lobby corridors, along with cold drafts that move through hallways with no open windows nearby to explain them.
A hotel that’s stood on the same ground since the 1600s doesn’t need embellishment. It just needs guests willing to notice.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Bell tower area: apparition reports tied to the gambling death
- Main lobby corridors: sightings of a Victorian-dressed woman
- Upper-floor hallways: unexplained cold drafts and footsteps
Visiting information
La Fonda sits at 100 E San Francisco St, Santa Fe, NM, with nightly rates from $250 to $450 depending on season. Front desk staff share the hotel’s history on request, and booking an upper floor near the original bell tower structure gives you the best shot at catching something worth recording.
9. The Marshall House in Savannah, Georgia
Savannah calls itself the most haunted city in America, and The Marshall House has the medical history to back up that claim. Open since 1851, it’s one of the oldest continuously operating hotels in Georgia and a regular stop on lists of haunted hotels in the united states, mostly because renovators kept finding things they didn’t expect inside the walls.
Haunted history
The hotel served as a Union hospital during the Civil War and again as a yellow fever ward in the 1870s, and both stints left the building with a body count staff still reference today. During a 1990s renovation, workers pulled amputated limbs from beneath the floorboards, a discovery that confirmed decades of local rumor about wartime surgeries performed on site. That grim find turned this Savannah Civil War hospital hotel from a quiet historic inn into one investigators actively seek out.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests on the third floor report phantom footsteps overhead even when no one occupies the room above, along with children’s voices drifting through hallways at odd hours. Others describe seeing Civil War-era soldiers standing near the windows facing the street, and housekeeping has logged repeated reports of unexplained tapping on walls where the amputated remains were found.
Floorboards don’t hide amputated limbs for over a century by accident, and that’s exactly why The Marshall House keeps landing on investigators’ shortlists.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Third floor: recurring footsteps and children’s voices
- Second-floor hallway: soldier sightings near street-facing windows
- Original flooring sections: tapping sounds tied to the limb discovery
Visiting information
The Marshall House sits at 123 E Broughton St, Savannah, GA, with nightly rates from $150 to $280 depending on season. Front desk staff will point out the exact renovation spots where remains were found, and pairing your stay with one of Savannah’s evening ghost tours adds useful context before you start recording overnight.
10. Hassayampa Inn in Prescott, Arizona
Prescott’s Hassayampa Inn opened in 1927 as a grand stop for travelers moving through Arizona’s territorial capital, and it built its paranormal reputation on a single tragic honeymoon rather than centuries of layered history. Among haunted hotels in the united states, it’s one of the more concentrated stories on this list, and that focus is exactly what makes it a favorite for investigators chasing one specific spirit instead of a whole roster of Arizona ghosts and legends.
Haunted history
A bride named Faye checked in with her new husband in 1927, and by most accounts he abandoned her within days of the wedding. Devastated, she reportedly took her own life in the room they’d shared, and staff at the Arizona territorial hotel say she never checked out. Unlike properties with wartime deaths or medical scandals behind them, the Hassayampa’s haunting traces back to plain heartbreak, which locals argue makes it feel more personal than dramatic.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests describe Faye appearing in her wedding dress near the fourth floor, sometimes standing at the foot of the bed before fading. Others report the scent of her perfume drifting through hallways with no clear source, along with cold spots that settle over specific rooms and don’t move with airflow.
A jilted bride who never left is a simpler story than most haunted hotels tell, and that simplicity is exactly why guests keep believing it.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Fourth-floor rooms: apparition sightings and unexplained cold spots
- Main staircase: reported perfume scent with no identifiable source
- Lobby fireplace area: occasional EMF spikes reported by staff and guests
Visiting information
The Hassayampa Inn sits at 122 E Gurley St, Prescott, AZ, with nightly rates typically running $130 to $220 depending on season. Front desk staff share Faye’s story on request, and requesting a fourth-floor room gives you the best documented shot at an encounter during an overnight stay.
11. The Mills House in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston’s Mills House opened in 1853 and survived fires, earthquakes, and a Civil War siege, yet the building standing today is mostly a 1970s reconstruction built around the original facade. That mix of old bones and new construction hasn’t stopped it from ranking among haunted hotels in the united states, and staff say the ghosts that predate the rebuild never got the memo that the rest of the hotel changed around them.
Haunted history
During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers reportedly took shelter on the roof as fire swept through downtown Charleston in 1861, and several never made it down. Later, the hotel’s proximity to Charleston’s old dueling grounds and its own guest deaths added to the tally. Locals point to this Charleston Civil War hotel‘s layered past, colonial-era foundations, wartime chaos, and decades of guest turnover, as the reason its hauntings feel more atmospheric than any single dramatic event.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests report a soldier in tattered gray wandering the seventh floor, sometimes seen staring out windows toward the harbor as if still watching for an enemy advance. Others describe knocking on doors with no one present and cold drafts moving through the hallway near the old service stairs, areas that predate the 1970s renovation and sit closest to the original structure.
A soldier who never came down from the roof is the kind of ghost story Charleston tells without exaggeration, and the Mills House still gives him a floor to walk.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Seventh floor: soldier sightings and unexplained knocking
- Old service stairwell: cold spots tied to the original 1853 structure
- Rooftop access area: reported apparitions near the 1861 fire site
Visiting information
The Mills House sits at 115 Meeting St, Charleston, SC, with nightly rates from $250 to $450 depending on season. Front desk staff can point you toward the older structural sections, and Charleston’s ghost tour operators often stop outside the hotel to recount the rooftop story before guests head inside for the night.
12. Congress Hall in Cape May, New Jersey
Congress Hall has stood on Cape May’s oceanfront since 1816, making it one of the oldest seaside resorts in the country and a regular fixture on roundups of the most haunted hotels in the United States. Its yellow facade and wraparound porches look more postcard than paranormal, but staff will tell you the building’s age and long guest history left plenty behind that never fully checked out.
Haunted history
The hotel burned down twice, in 1818 and again in 1878, and each rebuild seemed to layer more unexplained activity onto the property rather than clear it out. Congress Hall also served briefly as a summer White House for presidents like Benjamin Harrison, and that presidential traffic mixed with wartime hospital use during a later stretch gave this New Jersey seaside resort decades of guest turnover and at least a few deaths staff still reference informally today.
Ghost sightings and stories
Guests report a woman in old-fashioned dress walking the third-floor hallway late at night, sometimes vanishing near a stairwell that predates the 1878 rebuild. Others describe children’s laughter near the ballroom when no events are scheduled, along with doors that unlatch and swing open on their own in the older wing closest to the ocean-facing rooms.
A hotel that’s burned down twice and still stands is exactly the kind of place where the past refuses to stay buried.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Third-floor hallway: recurring apparition sightings near the older stairwell
- Ballroom: unexplained children’s voices during off-hours
- Ocean-facing wing: doors unlatching without cause, reported by housekeeping
Visiting information
Congress Hall sits at 251 Beach Ave, Cape May, NJ, with nightly rates from $200 to $400 depending on season, and summer weekends book out fastest given Cape May’s tourist crowds. Front desk staff will point newcomers toward the third-floor hallway on request, and pairing your stay with one of Cape May’s evening ghost tours adds useful context before you start listening for anything overnight.
13. The Wort Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming
The Wort Hotel has anchored downtown Jackson since 1941, and it rounds out this list of haunted hotels in the united states with a story built less on tragedy and more on stubborn Western spirit. Famous for its Silver Dollar Bar, inlaid with 2,032 uncirculated silver dollars, the hotel has become a favorite stop for skiers, ranchers, and paranormal investigators who all end up drinking at the same counter.
Haunted history
A devastating fire in 1980 gutted the original building, and the Wort family rebuilt it almost identically rather than start fresh elsewhere. Staff say that decision mattered, because the reconstruction seems to have kept whatever lingered in the old walls right where it was. Guests and longtime bartenders trace most of the activity to that fire and to decades of ranch hands, gamblers, and travelers who passed through this Wyoming mountain town hotel before it burned.
Ghost sightings and stories
Bartenders at the Silver Dollar Bar describe glasses sliding across the counter with no one nearby and a man in a duster coat seen reflected in the back mirror after closing. Upstairs, guests on the third floor report knocking on doors that stops the moment it’s answered, along with the smell of pipe smoke in hallways where smoking has been banned for years.
A hotel rebuilt from ash rarely loses its ghosts, and the Wort’s staff say theirs simply moved back in with the new lumber.
Best rooms and hot spots for investigators
- Silver Dollar Bar: moving glassware and a reflected apparition reported after hours
- Third-floor hallway: phantom knocking and lingering pipe smoke smell
- Original foundation area: cold spots tied to the 1980 fire
Visiting information
The Wort Hotel sits at 50 N Glenwood St, Jackson, WY, with nightly rates from $250 to $500 depending on ski season. Front desk staff will share the fire’s history if you ask, and grabbing a drink at the Silver Dollar Bar before heading up is the easiest way to hear guest stories firsthand.
Planning your own haunted hotel stay
Thirteen properties, thirteen different reasons guests refuse to check out for good. From the Stanley’s Room 217 to the Wort’s smoky hallways, the pattern holds: real deaths, real records, and decades of guests reporting the same details independently. That consistency is what separates these haunted hotels in the united states from roadside gimmicks with a fake portrait and a fog machine.
Booking one of these rooms is only half the job. Showing up with reliable gear is what turns a spooky night into actual documentation. A basic flashlight app won’t cut it when you’re chasing cold spots and EMF spikes across a fourth-floor hallway at 2 a.m. Bring instruments built for fieldwork, log your readings, and compare notes across rooms instead of relying on memory or a shaky phone video.
If your kit needs an upgrade before your next stay, browse the Haunt Gears paranormal research devices and pack something that actually holds up overnight.
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