8 Haunted Hotels You Can Actually Stay In

A white Georgian Revival hotel sitting on a hill above Estes Park, with the Rocky Mountains stacked up behind it. The Stanley looks elegant rather than eerie in daylight. Then you remember which novel was dreamed up in one of its rooms.

The documented history

Freelan Oscar Stanley, co-inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, came to Estes Park in the early 1900s for his health and opened the hotel in 1909 as a resort for wealthy summer visitors.

In 1974 Stephen King and his wife stayed at the Stanley near the end of the season, when the hotel was nearly empty. King has said that night, spent in room 217, gave him the idea that became The Shining, published in 1977.

The haunted story

The Stanley has become associated with stories of a housekeeper said to still tidy room 217, children's footsteps and laughter on the fourth floor, and piano music drifting from the empty Music Room. Some stories tie the presence to Flora Stanley, F.O.'s wife, who played the piano there.

The hotel leans into its reputation with regular ghost tours. According to guests and guides, the fourth floor draws the most reports.

A limestone castle of a hotel crowning a hill above the winding Victorian streets of Eureka Springs, in the Arkansas Ozarks. The Crescent is often promoted as one of America's most haunted hotels, and its real history might be stranger than the stories.

The documented history

The Crescent opened in 1886 as a luxury resort for travelers drawn to the area's spring waters. Over the following decades it also served as a school for young women.

Its darkest chapter came in 1937, when Norman Baker, a radio personality with no medical training, bought the building and turned it into the Baker Hospital. He claimed he could cure cancer without surgery. Baker was convicted of mail fraud in 1940, and the hospital closed.

The haunted story

The Crescent has become associated with stories of Michael, a stonemason said to have fallen during construction, linked by legend to room 218. Guests have also reported a nurse pushing a gurney through the halls, and a woman in Victorian clothing in the lobby.

The hotel runs nightly ghost tours that include the old morgue area from the Baker era.

This one isn't a hotel building at all. It's a 1930s ocean liner moored in Long Beach Harbor, and you can sleep aboard in one of its original staterooms, with Art Deco wood paneling and portholes looking out on the water.

The documented history

The RMS Queen Mary made her maiden voyage in 1936 and became one of the most famous transatlantic liners in the world. During World War II she was painted grey and served as a troopship, earning the nickname 'the Grey Ghost.'

After retiring from service in 1967 she sailed to Long Beach, where she has served as a hotel and attraction ever since.

The haunted story

Over decades, the ship has become associated with stories of a young crew member said to haunt the engine room near a watertight door, and of voices and wet footprints around the old first-class swimming pool. Guests have also reported unexplained knocks in stateroom B340.

The ship offers paranormal-themed tours and events, and Halloween programming often runs through October.

A brick high-rise with a glowing rooftop sign in the middle of downtown Flagstaff, a few blocks from the old Route 66 alignment and the train tracks. The Monte Vista feels like a Western movie set, which fits, because plenty of Western movie stars stayed here.

The documented history

The hotel opened on January 1, 1927, funded largely by local residents who wanted a first-class hotel downtown. It grew up alongside Route 66 and hosted a long list of Hollywood guests during the era when Westerns were filmed across northern Arizona.

The haunted story

One long-running story claims a phantom bellboy knocks on doors and announces room service that never arrives. Other stories told at the hotel involve a woman in a rocking chair in one room, and an old bank robber who reportedly died in the building. Guests have reported strange sounds in rooms whose numbers the hotel names on its own website.

Iron balconies over Broughton Street, in the middle of a city that may tell more ghost stories per block than anywhere else in America. The Marshall House is small, walkable and steeped in the kind of history Savannah is famous for.

The documented history

Mary Marshall opened the building as a hotel in 1851. It's often described as Savannah's oldest hotel. During the Civil War, after Union troops occupied Savannah, it was used as a hospital, and it was also used to care for patients during the city's 19th-century yellow fever epidemics.

The haunted story

Guests have reported children running in the hallways, doorknobs turning on their own, and faucets switching on in the night. The stories are often tied to the building's time as a hospital. Local tellers add that human remains uncovered during renovations helped cement its reputation, a story you'll hear on nearly every Savannah ghost tour.

A Spanish-style landmark facing the Gulf of Mexico across Seawall Boulevard, built as a symbol that Galveston would come back after catastrophe. It's a beach hotel with palm trees, sea breezes and one of Texas's best-known ghost stories.

The documented history

The hotel opened in 1911, just over a decade after the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Nicknamed 'Queen of the Gulf,' it was built behind the city's new seawall as a statement of recovery. It's now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The haunted story

According to local legend, a young woman often called Audrey, or 'the Ghost Bride,' stayed on the fifth floor in the 1950s. When her fiancé's ship was reported lost at sea, she took her own life. The story claims he returned days later. Guests have reported flickering lights and doors that open by themselves near room 501, and the hotel has offered ghost tours built around the story.

A Romanesque Revival grand hotel in downtown Milwaukee, full of marble, painted ceilings and one of the largest Victorian art collections of any hotel. It's also where some of the toughest professional baseball players have admitted they didn't sleep well.

The documented history

Guido Pfister and his son Charles opened the hotel in 1893, and it was considered remarkably modern for its time. It's often said to have been among the first hotels with electricity throughout. The Victorian art collection gathered by the Pfister family is still displayed across the hotel's public spaces.

The haunted story

The Pfister is known for stories told by visiting Major League Baseball players, who stay here when they play the Milwaukee Brewers. Several players have publicly described strange noises, electronics turning on and off, and a reluctance to sleep alone. The hotel has become associated with stories that Charles Pfister himself still keeps an eye on the place.

A brick Federal-style hotel on the edge of Salem Common, in the town that turns October into a month-long Halloween celebration. You can walk out the front door into Haunted Happenings.

The documented history

The Hawthorne opened in 1925, built with money raised from Salem residents and named for Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Salem-born author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables.

Salem's 1692 witch trials, in which innocent people were accused and executed, are documented tragedy, not folklore. The city's memorials and museums tell that story.

The haunted story

Guests have reported unexplained touches and a sense of being watched in certain upper-floor rooms, most often 612 and 325 in retellings. The hotel has become associated with stories of a woman seen in the halls. Its costume ball has long been one of Salem's best-known Halloween events.