7 Of The Most Haunted Hotels in America
Lots of hotels claim to be haunted. Sometimes the ghosts are merely historical and are used as a marketing ploy. Sometimes the ghosts are still active.
It’s hard to separate the marketing from the truth, but, below we have tried to six of the most haunted hotels in America to give you the best chance of having a supernatural encounter when you stay there.
There are other things to take into consideration as well as the spirits themselves. It is possible that when you stay at one of these hotels, no matter how haunted it is, that you won’t see or hear or feel a ghost.
We’ve given a ‘Spooky Rating’ for each of the hotels.
In addition to the ghosts, we need to take into account character and atmosphere. We have tried to give a rating for that for each of the hotels below, while noting that it is a subjective judgement.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison, as they say 😉
The final consideration is luxury. Not all haunted places are luxuries and , of course not all luxurious places are haunted.
We will try give our honest assessment of spookiness, character and luxury for each of the hotels below.
We aren’t trying to give you America’s most haunted hotel, instead we have tried to give a good geographical spread across the USA so that there should be a hotel not too far from where you live.
1. The Don CeSar, Florida
3400 Gulf Blvd, St Pete Beach, FL 33706
Luxury Rating
* 4 Star ,4.4/5 in ratings
Spooky Rating:
Lots of historical sightings and a very romantic tale. But a trawl of the Internet finds no recent spooky experiences.
About the Don CeSar Hotel
The hotel, aptly known as “the Pink Lady,” stands out for her pastel colour and enormous scale, rising above the beach like a Spanish fort complete with turrets and towers.
t was built between 1924 and 1928 by Thomas Rowe.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lou Gehrig and Al Capone all knew the Don CeSar in the 1920s.
The U.S. Army bought the Pink Palace in 1942, and the Don CeSar became a convalescent hospital for WWII pilots. The Don grew dilapidated when the army and government no longer needed it, and the doors and windows were boarded-up.
When the Pink Palace was an abandoned hulk, rumors of lights flashing through shuttered windows and bats flying out of the inside created alarm. Soon, murmurs spread that Al Capone had returned to his beloved winter getaway and was prowling the halls and beaches at midnight.
In 1972, a group of historic enthusiasts saved the Don CeSar from demolition. After a multimillion-dollar restoration, it became the Pink Palace on St. Pete Beach and a historical hotel and resort.
The National Trust for Historic Hotels in America has listed the Don CeSar
With time and new administration, unusual and inexplicable occurrences emerged, and whispers said ghosts haunted the Pink Palace.
The Ghosts of the Don CeSar Hotel
In 1872, Thomas Rowe was born in Massachusetts. He went to university in England and from there visited Spain, where he met Lucinda, a stunning Spanish aristocrat. The young couple were both opera devotees and called themselves by the names of hero and heroine from the opera Maritana. Lucinda was Maritana and Rowe was Don CeSar.
Rowe and Lucinda fell in love in Spain, but Lucinda’s family were high-born and they forbade the marriage
Rowe, devastated, returned to America and bought 80 acres in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1924 and began designing his pink castle in the beach.
Before the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression, Rowe had a premonition and hid a lot of cash in a secret compartment in the seaside resort.
It’s said that Thomas Rowe spent at the Don CeSar, hoping his Spanish love, Lucinda had heard about the fortress-like pink hotel on the beach named Don Cesar de Bazan.
Rowe wandered the sands in his white Panama suit as the sun rose with rosy fingers, his mind filled only with Lucinda.
A letter with an English postmark arrivedr, breaking Thomas Rowe’s heart again. Inside the mail was Lucinda’s death notice. ‘My beloved Don CeSar’ was written on that note.
Thomas Rowe died abruptly in 1940, leaving the Pink Palace to his wife Mary. Mary’s terrible business judgments led to the Don’s decline.
* People claim Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth haunted spring training fields in quest of a lost game.
A new front desk employee was watching the sunset with her spouse. The new employee noticed a strange figure alone on the beach as the sun sank. As the sun set, a man in a Panama tropical suit, cane, and wide-brimmed hat stared. The front desk clerk told her husband, who was enjoying the sunset, about the strange man.
She murmured, “Look at that gentleman.”
“Where?” he asked. As the receptionist turned to point, the man vanished.
A steward was strolling through the old kitchen at midnight when he saw a nurse in 1940s army medical corps uniform eyeing him. Screaming, he rushed away.
On his first night as a late-night dishwasher, one guy begged for a respite from the dirty dishes. After smoking a cigarette, the newcomer returned to the old kitchen to find all the filthy dishes cleaned and stacked. The dishwasher left the kitchen with goosebumps and never returned.
A housekeeper cleaning Thomas Rowe’s old room on the fifth floor heard persistent knocking. After opening the door and finding no one there, she became even freaked out when she discovered that the other housekeepers had left for the day and no one else had been assigned to the fifth floor. The housekeeper still won’t clean fifth-floor rooms.
A desk employee found a guest sleeping in a lobby chair as the sun rose. When the employee approached, the guest woke up and said, “The shower turned on while I was asleep and no one was in the room.” After I turned off the shower and went to bed, it switched back on, but this time the bathroom door opened itself. After that, I got ready and came downstairs; I can’t sleep with a ghost!’
A reservation clerk returned from the kitchen with a tray of cups and a pot of tea to find the swinging doors open. This episode apparently happened multiple times. Perhaps Thomas Rowe was presenting the hotelier and gentleman he was in life and aiding another employee.
2. Mizpah Hotel, Tonopah, Nevada
100 N Main St, Tonopah, NV 89049, United States
https://www.themizpahhotel.com/
Luxury Rating
* 3 Star – 4.5/5 in ratings
Spooky Rating
Again a lovely story and lots of ghosts. A reddit account from 2019 reports people walking in the guest’s room in the middle of the night. People on Reddit report it to be a ‘super-spooky place’.
About the Mitzpah Hotel
This upmarket hotel in the style of the Old West was built in 1907 and is on the main street of the town. The Tonopah Historic Mining Park is a 2-minute walk away, and the Central Nevada Museum is a mile away.
The Mizpah Hotel made its grand debut in 1907 to widespread acclaim. The lavish building had the West’s first electric lift, magnificent rooms, a well-stocked bar, steam heating, all-electric lighting, and ceiling-mounted fans.
Up until 1927, it tied for Nevada’s highest building with the neighbouring Belvada Building.
The hotel, which served as Tonopah’s centre of social life, was named after the Mizpah Mine.
According to the legend, Wyatt Earp ran the bar, Jack Dempsey worked as a bouncer, and Howard Hughes wed Jean Peters at the Mizpah.
The truth is not like that. Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, left Tonopah before the Mizpah was built. Hughes got married there, but not there, and Dempsey said he was never a bouncer.
Even so, the hotel has the Jack Dempsey Room and the Wyatt Earp Bar.
Ghosts of the Mitzpah Hotel
The Mizpah was also a house of ill-repute as was as was typical in many Wild West communities. A favourite lady there had a luxurious fifth floor apartment. She made a good living from eager men, until a jealous ex-lover, probably a previous client, attacked and strangled her.
Her ghost is still felt today, and they call her ‘The Lady in Red.’
Even though history has forgotten who the Lady in Red was and where she came from (several sources say she preferred to be called “Rose”), it is clear that she is still kind, generous, and hospitable.
Even though she died in a horrible way, many men who have been to the Mizpah Hotel have said that they heard a voice whispering in their ears, especially in the fancy elevator that the Lady in Red used to take guests from the lobby to their rooms. Hundreds of visitors have also found a pearl under their pillows. It is thought that the pearl came from her necklace, which broke and fell off during her terrible fight.
She finally made rooms 502, 503, and 504 out of her boudoir. Even though room 504 has been named the Lady in Red room and is decorated with red drapes, a fluttering bed canopy, and antique furniture that matches, more activity reports have been made about room 502.
There’s no doubt that the Lady in Red haunts the Mizpah Hotel, but stories from guests and employees show that she’s not the only ghost in town. Many people have been upset by the sounds of children playing on the third floor, giggling, and running through the hallways as they went to bed at night. But when guests open the door to scold them no one is there. Because it is close to Tonopah’s main mining area, the Mizpah Hotel is built on top of a network of underground tunnels that connect mineshafts and other buildings in the area.
One theory is that the ghosts of two people who died in a cave-in, an underground explosion, or even a murder may have gone into the Mizpah’s basement to escape their fate in the afterlife. Many employees can tell you stories or at least tell you why they won’t go down to the basement, even though the public isn’t allowed to go there.
3. Omni Grove Park Inn: Asheville North Carolina
290 Macon Ave, Asheville, NC 28804, United States
https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park
Luxury Rating
* 4 Star, 4.6/5 stars.
Spooky Rating
Pretty Good! One ex employee says he worked here for four years and didn’t see any ghosts. He claims that other staff did though. Aother member of staff also in 2022, reports the Pink Lady wearing high heels and opening the eleveator for him.
In 2022, a guest on Reddit said she saw a woman behind her as a reflection in the dress case, but when she turned
About the Omni Grove Park Inn
Grove Park Inn is on Sunset Mountain’s western slope. Edwin Wiley Grove and Fred Loring Seely constructed the hotel. Grove was renowned as the “Father of Modern Asheville,” but he also developed southern real estate. Asheville was great for Grove’s health difficulties. His doctor recommended a temperate climate, so he came here.
Grove bought the farm in 1910. He also owned a tuberculosis sanitarium in the neighbourhood. The construction project will demolish these structures.
Construction was completed in a year. Hotel opened July 12, 1913. Fred Loring Seely bought George Washington Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate Industries a few years after construction.
Omni Grove Park is now a golf resort with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Asheville Art Museum is 2.2 miles away, and the University of North Carolina at Asheville is 2.6 miles away.
The Ghosts of the Omni Grove Park Inn
Omni Grove Park Inn is believed to house supernatural forces. The hotel’s best-recognized stories are about the “Pink Lady”.
One celebrity guest is very well-known to Asheville residents. She’s still here. Legend says she was wearing a pink gown when she died, hence the nickname “Pink Lady.” She died from balcony fall injuries. But we don’t know if it was an accident, suicide, or murder.
Guests and staff have told various stories about the Pink Lady’s hauntings over 75 years.
* The ghost has always been gentle and friendly although dozens of inn patrons say he loves playing.
There are stories of lights flickering and going off, doors opening or closing and strange objects moving around have become common – a couple of guests reported feeling their feet being tickled hile sleeping.
Room 545
The Pink Lady may have died in Room 545. She fell off the room’s balcony. Legend says her soul lives when she’s not roaming the property. You might not get room 545 if you stay here.
Room 545 guests have complained cold areas. Others on the same floor have had the same experience. Some have spotted a pink-mist-cloaked woman in the passageways. In the 1950s, when the hotel was closed for maintenance, one worker felt uneasy near room 545. He got goosebumps and left the floor, never to return. He sent others to finish the task for him.
4. 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa: Eureka Springs, Arkansas
75 Prospect Ave, Eureka Springs, AR 72632, United
https://www.crescent-hotel.com/
Luxury Rating
3 Star, 4.5/5 stars
Spooky Rating
Pretty spooky. From 2020, someone reports a strange haze in the bar. A guy on Reddit says he had one encounter at the Crescent but doesn’t give details.
Another Redditor reports a visit when he was 8. He heard footsteps coming from the landing stairs and got terrified. They took pictures of orbs there.
From 2018, a woman reports that she visited and there was a ‘strange smell’ like tea. The phone rang in the middle of the night. and there was no one there. This woman had her blanket tugged off her. She felt someone moving at the bottom of the bed then whatever it was grabbed her ankle. She prayed and the thing left.
About The Crescent Hotel and Spa
Built in 1886 as a getaway for the affluent and renowned, the Crescent Hotel grew increasingly unmanageable and fell into decay.
* This opulent Victorian hotel was constructed in 1886 from local limestone and sits on 15 hilltop acres, one mile from Downtown’s dining and shopping. The lobby is hand-painted.
When Norman G. Baker became the new owner in 1937, he transformed the property into a hospital and health resort. Baker, a radio host and rich entrepreneur, presented himself as a doctor despite having no formal training in medicine. He frequently attacked organised medicine, which he accused of being dishonest and profit-driven, and claimed to have found numerous “cures” for various illnesses, including cancer.
Baker relocated his cancer patients to Arkansas and announced the opening of his new health resort at the Crescent after being expelled from Iowa for practising medicine without a licence. He mostly drank the local spring water as part of his “treatment”.
In 1940, charges were filed against Baker for mail fraud and he was jailed.
In 2016, the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Ghosts of The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa
* The Crescent has been called “America’s most haunted hotel.” It was the home of Dr. Norman Baker’s “Cancer Curing Hospital,” which was run by a mad scientist with horrible methods that didn’t work because the “cured” patients were actually failed experiments.
* Brain tumours were treated by smearing a paste made from ingredients on a brain that had been cut open.
If a patient died at the hands of Dr. Baker, which happened often, they would be quietly taken away at night.
If anyone asked questions, the crazy doctor would say that they had been cured and sent home. At midnight, hotel guests and visitors can take a tour of the morgue.
Today, hospital ghosts haunt the motel. The lobby has seen “Dr. Baker.” He wears a purple shirt and white linen suit like the entrepreneur. “A nurse pushing a gurney” can be heard in Dr. Baker’s former morgue section.
A hotel maintenance man saw all the washers and dryers turn on midnight. Dr. Baker’s old morgue with autopsy table and walk-in freezer is next to the laundry area.
Housekeepers met “Theodora” in Room 419. She presents herself as Dr. Baker’s cancer patient and then disappears.
After the hotel’s skeleton structure was built in the 1880s, an Irish stonemason reportedly fell to his death in room 218. This room has attracted television film crews for decades due to the number and quality of ghost sightings recorded.
Employees of the Victorian hotel have called this entity “Michael” due to the inexplicable behaviour.
Guests have seen hands in the bathroom mirror, a guy descending from the ceiling, and a door opening and slamming shut. The fascination of this behaviour led guests to deliberately select room 218.
Many staff have seen Victorian-dressed spirits in the Crystal Dining Room.
During the holidays, the dining room’s large Christmas tree and packages were moved. The next morning, staff found the tree, presents, and seats rearranged around the Christmas sign.
Another occasion, staff returned to a spotless dining room with scattered menus.
A waitress once observed a man and lady in Victorian attire in the enormous mirror between the dining room and kitchen doors. The groom looked at the waitress, then the couple left. After this, the waitress quit.
*A Victorian man sitting at the windows and saying, “I saw the most beautiful woman here last night and I’m waiting for her to return” is another widely reported paranormal occurrence.
Many have seen apparitions in Victorian ball costume dancing around a dark chamber in the early morning.
5. The Stanley Hotel Estes Park, Colorado
333 E Wonderview Ave, Estes Park, CO 80517, United States
Luxury Rating
* 3 Star, 4.4/5 stars
Spooky Rating
Some. Someone from 2017 says he visits the Stanley every year and every single time has a a paranormal experience. He’s heard children laugh in the empty hallways, chairs move and sway when there’s no wind. He’s taken pictures filled with orbs.
Someone else says that faces appear in the mirrors on the walls of the main staircase.
6. Bourbon Orleans Hotel, New Orleans
717 Orleans St, New Orleans, LA 70116, United States
* https://www.bourbonorleans.com/
Luxury Rating
* 4 Star. 4.4/5 stars
Spooky Rating
Quite Spooky! In 2022, a Redditor records their stay at the Bourbon Olreans hotel where they experienced water taps turning on by themselves and lights flickered on and off.
About the Bourbon Orleans Hotel
The Bourbon Orleans was formerly a theatre. The War of 1812 delayed building of the Theatre d’Orleans from 1806 until 1815. The French-Provincial-style theatre was claimed to rival Europe’s grandiose opera halls. One year later, arson and fire destroyed the Theatre d’Orleans.
John Davis, a Sante Domingue exile, renovated the theatre and opened it as the first of its sort in the U.S.
It burned down again in 1854 during q vaudeville production catering to the French-speaking population of the city.
St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square Park are both within a 2-minute stroll of this historic hotel in the bustling French Quarter.
The Ghosts of the Bourbon Orleans Hotel
One of New Orleans’ most eerie hotels, the Bourbon Orleans, the hotel is supposed to be home to at least 20 ghosts, many of whom are Yellow Fever victims from the time when it was a convent.
There are four kinds of ghost sightings In the Bourbon Orleans, visitors are most likely to run into four prominent apparitions
Children and nuns who died in the deadliest epidemics to hit the city are the ghosts of the Yellow Fever victims. The nuns provided care and prayed for the young patients who fell ill during the outbreak. Even with the nuns’ care, a number of children perished. The structures never lost their spirits. Both visitors and workers have reported seeing apparitions of little children praying and nuns keeping an eye on them. One or two visitors claim to have felt toddlers tugging at their clothing while others have heard children laughing and pitter-pattering in the hallways. On the sixth story, people frequently witness the ghost of a young girl rushing after her ball.
The Bourbon Orleans’ Room 644 is the spookiest one. The Sisters of the Holy Family have not acknowledged nor refuted the story that a nun committed suicide in the chamber. Blood-curdling cries have been heard from the room at night, according to visitors and workers. Some claim that the room’s horrible cries and screams, which reverberate down the hallways, sound like someone is being tortured. Visitors to Room 644 frequently describe being awakened in the middle of the night by a nun standing over their bed.
The ghost of a woman has been seen dancing beneath the chandeliers in the ballroom of the Bourbon Orleans. Although she dances alone, her shape suggests that she has a hidden dancing companion. Additionally, according to the staff, when she’s not dancing, she hides behind the curtains and frequently moves them to elicit a response from the visitors. A pool of blood, thought to be the remains of a duel between two Creole men who argued over a woman, has even been reported to have been seen on the ballroom floor by some witnesses. They still haven’t decided if the woman under the chandelier is the one they fought for.
The Bourbon Orleans’ Haunted Room 644
Children playing isn’t as unsettling as hearing anguished cries from Room 644, the hotel’s most haunted room. Nearly a century ago, rumours spread that a Sister of the Holy Family committed suicide in this room. Nuns have never acknowledged or disputed this, so perhaps their silence is proof. Someone took their life in Room 644, whether a nun or not, based on the screams.
After a day in the French Quarter, guests have reported waking up in the middle of the night. Their gaze land on a habit-clad ghost next to the bed. Although the guest opens their mouth to scream, the nun stares with rapt attention, her countenance thoughtful and sympathetic. Even the Bourbon Orleans personnel believe the nun who committed herself is still alive and praying for herself and the other guests.
Ghost Soldier
There have been reports of a Confederate soldier’s spirit wandering the hotel’s corridors. Although he draws attention to himself with his heavy limp, torn clothes, and open body wounds, he pays little attention to the visitors. The third and sixth floors are where you may usually find him.
A Confederate soldier has been seen staggering through the halls; his uniform is ripped and bloody, as if he has tasted the horrors of war and lost. As you hide under your covers, his hollow, uneven footsteps and blade scrape echo through the night. This wounded soldier may be seeking eternal peace or the spirits of his fallen comrades.
Moonlit Woman
In the hotel’s former Salle d’Orleans, you could see the ghost of a woman dancing with an imaginary partner under the crystal chandeliers. The Orleans Ballroom allegedly saw stranger things. Bloodstains on carpeted flooring are reportedly common. The staff will sigh and scrub the stain. Knowing it will return, they clean it.
That stain is from a fatal duel over a century ago, not a clumsy guest. Two rich Creole guys fell for the same woman and fought at the party. Imagine the partygoers’ fear and delight! Blood was spilt, even though we have no record of who perished that night. Over a century of spilling—hope let’s that’s not a metaphor for his love life.
7. The Hawthorne Hotel, Salem, MA
The Hawthorne in Salem is a 3 Star hotel in the center of historic Salem. It has historic links to the ghosts of the Salem Witches as well as sightings and unexplained happenings observed by recent guests.