The best haunted places to stay in Savannah are, for the most part, extremely good hotels. That is the strange thing about this city.
Some couples come to Savannah for the architecture. Some friends come for the fact that you can legally carry a drink down the street.
You want to sleep somewhere with a history, and maybe among a few ghosts.
Savannah calls itself the most haunted city in the U.S. and, unusually for a tourism slogan, has the paperwork. The city was built on top of its own dead more than once: colonial burial grounds were paved over, yellow fever emptied whole streets in the 1820s and 1850s, and the historic squares you walk through are, in several documented cases, still cemeteries with the headstones moved. The haunted hotels in Savannah are sitting on all of it, and most of them will serve you a decent breakfast in the morning.
Below you’ll find 7 haunted places to stay in Savannah, all in the historic district, with what each building was before it took guests, and what people report now.
- Most haunted hotel in Savannah: The Marshall House – a hospital three times over, and guests report children running the halls
- Best for couples: Kehoe House – rooms 201 and 203, where guests wake to a hand on the cheek
- Best building: Hamilton Turner Inn – the mansion from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
- Best for River Street: Olde Harbour Inn – an 1892 cotton warehouse that smells of cigar smoke nobody lit
- Strangest story: Foley House Inn – a body was found bricked into the wall during renovation
- Best value: East Bay Inn – 1852 warehouse, resident ghost called Charlie, closest to the bars
A note before you book: the haunted places to stay in Savannah below are all working hotels you can book tonight. The hauntings are what guests and staff report, not claims we can verify, and we have said who is doing the reporting throughout.
Most Haunted Hotels in Savannah
These are the two haunted hotels in Savannah named in every ghost tour in the city, and both are genuinely good hotels the rest of the time.
01. The Marshall House, Broughton Street
Opened in 1851 and used as a hospital three times: twice during yellow fever epidemics and again by Union troops during the Civil War. Amputations were performed here, and arms were reportedly buried under the floorboards, which is the sort of detail that survives renovation.
Guests report footsteps in the halls at night, taps running on their own and the sound of children running when there are no children in the building. It is the address named most often in Savannah, and it is a comfortable, central hotel the rest of the time.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
02. Kehoe House, Columbia Square
An 1892 mansion built by William Kehoe, an Irish iron magnate, for his family of ten children. The story goes that twin infants died in the house, and that the building later served as a funeral home.
Rooms 201 and 203 are the ones people ask about: guests report waking to a hand brushing their cheek. It is also one of the most elegant places to stay in the historic district, which does nothing to settle the nerves.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
Haunted Places to Stay in Savannah’s Historic District
The rest of the haunted places to stay in Savannah are all inside the historic district, which means you can walk back from dinner through squares that were once cemeteries.
03. Hamilton Turner Inn, Lafayette Square
An 1873 Second Empire mansion on Lafayette Square, and the house that appears as a character in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was the first building in Savannah with electricity, which made it a local curiosity long before it made it a ghost story.
Staff have reported a Confederate soldier on the roof and children playing billiards on the top floor. The inn is now one of the more refined places to stay in the city.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
04. Olde Harbour Inn, River Street
An 1892 cotton warehouse on the bluff above the Savannah River, converted into suites. The waterfront warehouses are the oldest working part of the city and have the longest memory.
The resident here is called Hank by the staff, and the most common report is the smell of cigar smoke in rooms where nobody has smoked. Guests also report items moved overnight.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
05. Foley House Inn, Chippewa Square
An 1896 townhouse on Chippewa Square, which is the square where the Forrest Gump bench scene was filmed. During a renovation, the story goes, a body was found bricked into a wall.
Guests report a man in a top hat in the garden courtyard. Nobody has ever established who he was, which is either unsatisfying or exactly the point.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
06. Eliza Thompson House, Jones Street
An 1847 house on Jones Street, widely held to be the prettiest street in the city, built for a widow who raised seven children there.
The reports here are gentle by Savannah standards: a woman seen in the courtyard, and the sound of children on the stairs. Wine and cheese in the garden every evening, which helps.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
07. East Bay Inn, East Bay Street
An 1852 cotton warehouse a block from River Street, with the original heart pine floors and exposed brick still in place.
Staff call their resident Charlie and describe him as harmless. It is the most affordable of the historic inns here and the closest to the riverfront bars.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
The Most Haunted Hotel in Savannah You Cannot Book Online
17Hundred90 Inn is the inn most often called the most haunted hotel in Savannah, and the room everyone asks for is 204, where a young woman named Anna is said to have fallen from the window. It is not listed on Booking.com or Expedia, so you will need to book it direct through the inn.
Where to Stay in Savannah for Halloween
Haunted places to stay in Savannah get busy in late October, but not impossibly so, which makes the city a better Halloween choice than Salem. The historic district inns are small, most under twenty rooms, so they fill first: the Kehoe House, Foley House and Eliza Thompson all sell out earlier than the larger hotels.
If you are booking late, the two largest haunted hotels in Savannah, the Marshall House and East Bay Inn, hold availability longest because they have more rooms. Book by August for the last weekend of October.
Haunted Places to Visit in Savannah
Nobody comes to Savannah only to sleep. The historic district is a grid of twenty-two squares and you can cross the whole thing on foot in half an hour.
Bonaventure Cemetery is the one everybody photographs: Spanish moss, live oaks and Victorian statuary on a bluff over the river, three miles east of downtown. Colonial Park Cemetery is in the centre of town and holds around 9,000 burials in a space that looks far too small for them, which is exactly the point. Several of its headstones were moved during the Union occupation and never put back where they belonged.
The Owens-Thomas House on Oglethorpe Square has one of the best preserved urban slave quarters in the country, and the tour does not soften it. Wormsloe, half an hour south, is the oak avenue you have seen in photographs without knowing where it was.
And you should do a ghost tour in Savannah. There are more here than in almost any city in the country, and they run every evening from the squares. Haunted house tours in Savannah are the indoor alternative, taking you inside the historic homes rather than past them, which is the better choice if it is raining or if you would rather sit down.
Haunted Places to Stay in Savannah: Your Questions Answered
What is the most haunted hotel in Savannah?
The Marshall House on Broughton Street is the most frequently named. It opened in 1851 and served as a hospital three times, twice during yellow fever epidemics and again for Union troops during the Civil War. Guests report footsteps, taps running on their own and the sound of children in the halls.
Why is Savannah considered the most haunted city in the U.S.?
The city was built over its own burial grounds. Colonial cemeteries were paved over as Savannah expanded, several of the historic squares are former burial sites with the headstones relocated rather than the bodies, and yellow fever epidemics in the 1820s and 1850s killed thousands in a small area.
Which Savannah hotel had a body found in the wall?
The Foley House Inn on Chippewa Square. The story goes that during a renovation a body was discovered bricked into a wall, and guests since report a man in a top hat in the garden courtyard.
Can you stay in a haunted hotel in Savannah’s historic district?
Yes. The Marshall House, Kehoe House, Hamilton Turner Inn, Foley House Inn, Eliza Thompson House, East Bay Inn and Olde Harbour Inn are all inside the historic district and you can book any of them tonight.
Which haunted hotel in Savannah is best for couples?
Kehoe House on Columbia Square. It is an 1892 mansion, adults only, and rooms 201 and 203 are the ones guests request, though those are also the rooms where people report waking to a hand brushing their cheek.
When should you book a haunted hotel in Savannah for Halloween?
By August for the last weekend of October. Savannah’s historic inns are small, often under twenty rooms, so the Kehoe House, Foley House Inn and Eliza Thompson House fill first. The Marshall House and East Bay Inn hold availability longer.
The hauntings here are what guests and staff report. The history is a matter of record: the Savannah, Georgia covers the squares, the fires and the fever years these stories grew out of.
So, Which Haunted Hotel in Savannah Are You Booking?
Pick the one that made you stop scrolling, and book it before August if you are going anywhere near Halloween. Savannah has more haunted places to stay per square mile than anywhere else in the country, so the only real mistake is leaving it too late.
Savannah is only the start. Want the rest of the country? We have rounded up the most haunted hotels in the USA and haunted places to stay in New Orleans. Prefer a whole house? Try haunted Airbnbs and rentals.
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 hotels in San Antonio – the easiest one to book late, and the Alamo is across the street.
- Haunted hotels in Salem MA – the October capital, and the one you have to book by June.
- 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.