The haunted hotels in Salem MA sell out earlier than anywhere else in the country, and it is worth understanding why before you start looking.
Some couples do a spa weekend. Some friends do dinner and a good bottle of wine. You want to sleep in the town that hanged nineteen people for witchcraft in 1692.
Salem is small. About 45,000 people live here, the historic centre is walkable in twenty minutes, and in October roughly a million visitors arrive. There are only a few hundred hotel rooms in the whole town. That combination is why haunted hotels in Salem MA behave unlike anywhere else: the good ones are gone by summer, and the ones with the reputations go first.
Below you’ll find 8 haunted places to stay in Salem, hotels and whole-house rentals, with what each building was and what people report now. If Salem is already full, there is a section at the end on where to go instead.
- Most haunted hotel in Salem: The Hawthorne Hotel – guests ask for rooms 325 and 612 by number, and the front desk knows exactly why
- Best history: The Merchant – built on the property of the sheriff who arrested the accused witches
- Oldest building: Daniels House Inn – built in 1667, so it was already twenty-five years old when the trials began
- Best whole house: The Warlock House – Halloween every day of the year, plus a group seance if you want one
- If you have left it late: Salem Waterfront Hotel – not haunted, but the most rooms in town
A note before you book: the haunted hotels in Salem MA below are all working hotels you can book tonight. The hauntings are what guests and staff report, not claims we can verify. The history is a different matter, and in Salem it is unusually well documented.
Haunted Hotels in Salem MA
All of these haunted hotels in Salem MA are in or beside the historic centre, which means you can walk to the Witch Trials Memorial, the Bewitched statue and every ghost tour in town.
01. The Hawthorne Hotel
The grand hotel in the middle of Witch City, opened in 1925 and named for Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose great-great-grandfather John Hathorne was one of the judges at the 1692 trials.
Rooms 325 and 612 are the ones guests ask for by number. Staff have reported taps running on their own and lights operating without help. The hotel leans into none of it, which somehow makes the stories land harder.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
02. The Merchant
The 1784 Joshua Ward House on Washington Street stands on the former property of Sheriff George Corwin, the man who arrested and interrogated the accused during the witch trials. When he died, his family buried him in the cellar of his own home to stop a mob taking the body.
That is the strongest haunted provenance of any building in Salem. It is now a boutique hotel with eleven rooms and a very good bar, which is a lot of comfort for a house with that history.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
03. The Salem Inn
Three historic houses knocked into one inn, the oldest being the 1834 Captain West House on Summer Street.
Guests report a woman in one of the upper rooms and children heard in corridors when the inn is quiet. Rooms vary a great deal between the three buildings, so it is worth asking which house you are in.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
04. Daniels House Inn
Built in 1667, which makes it older than the witch trials by twenty-five years and one of the oldest buildings in Salem you can sleep in.
The reports here are quiet ones: footsteps on old boards, and doors you are certain you closed found standing open. It is small, it is genuinely ancient, and it is walkable to everything.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
05. Northey Street House
An 1809 Federal house turned bed and breakfast, a short walk from the Salem Witch Trials Memorial and the waterfront.
Less famous for hauntings than the others here, and included because it is the most comfortable small option when the central inns have gone.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
06. Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites
A modern hotel at Pickering Wharf, which is not haunted and does not pretend to be.
It is on the list because it has the most rooms in Salem and therefore holds availability longest in October. If you have left it late, this is the one that may still have something.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
Haunted Places to Stay in Salem: Whole House Rentals
If you are coming as a group, these haunted places to stay in Salem beat a hotel corridor, and Salem has two good ones.
07. The Warlock House
A whole-house rental where it is Halloween every day of the year, which is either exactly what you want or a very good reason to book elsewhere. Three bedrooms, and 9.6 out of 10 from 70 guests.
The hosts will arrange a group psychic reading or seance, which is the fastest way to find out which of your friends is genuinely brave.
08. Salem Haunted Happenings Retreat
The practical rental option. Two bedrooms, minutes from the Witch Trials Memorial, the Bewitched statue and every ghost tour in town.
Rated 9.6 out of 10 by 33 guests, and the whole house is yours, so a group of four can split it for less than two hotel rooms would cost.
Haunted Places to Visit in Salem
Nobody comes to Salem only to sleep. The historic centre is walkable in twenty minutes, so you can fill the day between check-in and the hour when the light goes and the town changes character.
The Salem Witch Trials Memorial is the one to see first, and it is free: twenty stone benches, one for each person executed in 1692, set into a wall beside the Old Burying Point. It is deliberately plain and all the more effective for it. The Old Burying Point Cemetery next door is the second oldest in the country and holds Judge John Hathorne, one of the trial magistrates.
The Witch House on Essex Street is the only building still standing with a direct tie to the trials. It was Hathorne’s home, and the accused were examined in its front rooms. For the wider story, the Peabody Essex Museum holds the original court documents, and Salem Maritime National Historical Park down at the waterfront is free and covers the century after the trials, when Salem got rich.
And you should do a witch tour or ghost tour in Salem. There are more per square mile here than anywhere in the country, and they split into two kinds: the historical walking tours that stick to the 1692 record, and the theatrical evening ones with lanterns and costumes. Both are worth doing, but book ahead in October, when the good guides sell out weeks in advance.
Haunted Hotels in Salem MA: Your Questions Answered
What is the most haunted hotel in Salem MA?
The Hawthorne Hotel on Washington Square, opened in 1925. Rooms 325 and 612 are the ones guests request by number, and staff have reported taps running on their own and lights operating without help. It is also the most central hotel in Salem.
Which Salem hotel has the strongest witch trial connection?
The Merchant, which occupies the 1784 Joshua Ward House. It was built on the former property of Sheriff George Corwin, who arrested and interrogated the accused during the 1692 trials and was buried in his own cellar to prevent a mob taking his body.
When should you book a hotel in Salem for Halloween?
By June. Salem has only a few hundred hotel rooms and receives roughly a million visitors in October. The Hawthorne, The Merchant and the Salem Inn are often full for Halloween weekend before the summer ends.
What if Salem is fully booked for Halloween?
New Orleans, Savannah and San Antonio all have far more rooms and stay bookable much later. San Antonio is the easiest late booking of the three because downtown has the largest supply of hotel rooms. Savannah is the closest to Salem in feel: small, historic and walkable.
Can you rent a whole haunted house in Salem?
Yes. The Warlock House sleeps six and the hosts can arrange a group psychic reading or seance. The Salem Haunted Happenings Retreat sleeps four and is minutes from the Witch Trials Memorial. Both are rated 9.6 out of 10 by guests.
Is Salem worth visiting outside October?
Yes, and it is a completely different town. The Witch Trials Memorial, the Peabody Essex Museum and the historic houses are open year round, and in February you will have most of them to yourself at a fraction of the accommodation cost.
The hauntings here are what guests and staff report. The history is not: the Salem witch trials of 1692 are among the best documented events in early American history, and the whole town is built around them.
So, Which Haunted Hotel in Salem MA Are You Booking?
Pick the one that made you stop scrolling, then book it immediately. Of every city we have written about, haunted hotels in Salem MA are the ones where hesitating actually costs you the room.
More Haunted Hotels and Haunted Places to Stay in the U.S.
If this city is booked out, or you just want to compare the options before you commit, here is the rest of the collection:
- Haunted places to stay in New Orleans – the deepest history and the shortest walk between a hotel bar and a cemetery.
- Haunted places to stay in Savannah – small, walkable and built on top of its own burial grounds.
- Haunted hotels in San Antonio – the easiest one to book late, and the Alamo is across the street.
- Haunted hotels in New York – Manhattan rock-star ghosts, or a colonial inn open since 1766.
- Haunted hotels in Gettysburg – buildings that were field hospitals, with the bullet holes still in them.
- The most haunted hotels in the USA – the full list, city by city.
- Haunted places to stay: 24 rentals and haunted Airbnbs – whole houses, so the ghost is all yours.