Some couples book a spa weekend. Some friends book dinner and a good bottle of wine.
You want to sleep somewhere with a body count.
Good news: the most haunted hotels in the U.S. are, for the most part, extremely nice hotels. Marble lobbies, decent breakfast, a bar worth sitting in. The ghost is included at no extra charge.
Below you’ll find 14 haunted hotels across the U.S., grouped by city so you can find one where you’re actually going. For each we’ve said what the building was before it was a hotel, and what guests and staff report now.
- Most haunted hotel in the USA: The Congress Plaza Hotel, Chicago – open since 1893, and nobody will discuss Room 441
- Best in San Antonio: The Menger Hotel – 1859, and next door to the Alamo
- Best for Salem: The Hawthorne Hotel – the grand hotel in the middle of Witch City
- Best in Savannah: The Marshall House – 1851, and a hospital three times over
- Best for history: Farnsworth House Inn, Gettysburg – bullet holes still in the wall
- Best ghost town: Ghost City Inn, Jerome AZ – the town is the attraction
A note before you book: every hotel here is a working, licensed hotel. The stories are what guests and staff report, not claims we can verify. We have said who is doing the reporting throughout.
Most Haunted Hotels in the USA
These are the ones that come up in every conversation about haunted hotels in the USA, and all three are bookable tonight.
01. The Congress Plaza Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
Opened for the 1893 World’s Fair and it has been collecting stories ever since. The one everyone asks about is Room 441, which staff have been fielding questions about for decades.
The hotel has never fully sealed the rumoured bricked-up room, which tells you how much the legend is worth to them.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
02. The Omni Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina
A vast 1913 stone lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and home to the Pink Lady, a guest said to have fallen from the fifth floor in the 1920s. Staff have reported cold spots and lights behaving oddly in that wing for generations.
It is also, inconveniently for the mood, a genuinely lovely spa hotel.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
Haunted Hotels in San Antonio
San Antonio has more haunted hotels per square mile than anywhere in Texas, because the modern downtown is built on the Alamo battlefield. The Menger Hotel opened in 1859 next door to the Alamo and claims dozens of resident spirits.
There are enough of them downtown to need their own page, so we gave them one.
Read: 6 haunted hotels in San Antonio →
Haunted Hotels in Jerome, Arizona
Jerome is a former copper town on a mountainside that was nearly abandoned in the 1950s. It calls itself a ghost town and means it fairly literally.
03. Ghost City Inn, Jerome, Arizona
Jerome is a former copper-mining town clinging to a mountainside, largely abandoned in the 1950s and now marketed, accurately, as a ghost town. The Ghost City Inn is an 1898 bed and breakfast with valley views and a name that sets expectations.
Small, and it books out fast in October.
See dates & prices on Expedia →
04. Connor Hotel, Jerome, Arizona
Built in 1898, burned twice, rebuilt twice. Rooms 1 and 2 are the ones guests ask for, and the hotel keeps a log of what people report rather than pretending it doesn’t happen.
There’s a saloon downstairs with live music, so the atmosphere is less funeral, more Wild West.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
Haunted Hotels in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem hanged nineteen people for witchcraft in 1692 and has been living with it ever since. The Hawthorne Hotel is the grand hotel in the middle of it, and guests ask for rooms 325 and 612 by number.
Salem has only a few hundred hotel rooms and around a million October visitors, so it needs its own page.
Read: 8 haunted places to stay in Salem MA →
Haunted Hotels in Savannah
Savannah calls itself the most haunted city in the U.S. and has the paperwork to back it: colonial burial grounds were paved over as the city grew, and several of the historic squares are former cemeteries with the headstones moved rather than the bodies. The Marshall House is the address named most often: it opened in 1851 and served as a hospital three times.
There are enough haunted inns in the historic district to need their own page, so we gave them one.
Read: 7 haunted places to stay in Savannah →
Haunted Hotels in New Orleans
New Orleans has more haunted hotels per block than anywhere else on this list, which is what happens when a city burns twice, floods repeatedly and loses tens of thousands to yellow fever without moving anyone very far. The Hotel Monteleone is the name that comes up first: open since 1886, with a lift that skips the thirteenth floor.
There are enough of them in the French Quarter alone to need their own page, so we gave them one.
Read: 8 haunted places to stay in New Orleans →
Gettysburg Haunted Hotels
Roughly 50,000 men were killed, wounded or went missing over three days in July 1863, in a town of 2,400 people. Every church and parlour became a hospital. The Farnsworth House Inn still has more than a hundred bullet holes in its south wall.
Gettysburg does not need to invent anything, so we gave it its own page.
Read: 5 haunted hotels in Gettysburg →
Haunted Hotels in New York
New York splits in two. Manhattan gives you buildings where famous people died recently and badly, like the Hotel Chelsea. Upstate gives you colonial inns, including one open since 1766.
Both are covered on their own page.
Read: 6 haunted places in NYC and upstate →
More Haunted Hotels Across the U.S.
Worth a detour, a road trip, or a night on the way to somewhere else.
05. Copper Queen Hotel, Bisbee, Arizona
An 1902 mining-boom hotel that keeps a written log of guest sightings at reception. Ask to see it.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
06. The Hollywood Roosevelt, Los Angeles, California
Hosted the first Academy Awards in 1929. Marilyn Monroe lived here for two years, and the stories have never stopped.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
07. Biltmore Hotel Miami Coral Gables, Miami, Florida
A 1926 landmark that served as a military hospital in the war. The thirteenth floor has the reputation.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
08. The Driskill, Austin, Texas
Opened 1886. The recurring stories involve a bride who never checked out and a small girl on the grand staircase.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
09. The Omni Homestead Resort, Hot Springs, Virginia
Resort springs used since the 1760s, so there has been a very long time for stories to accumulate.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
10. The Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC
Open since 1925 and thick with political history, some of which guests feel has stayed on.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
11. The Hay-Adams, Washington, DC
Built on the former home of Marian Adams, who died in 1885. Staff have reported her presence on the fourth floor.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
12. Omni Mount Washington Resort, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
A 1902 grand hotel in the White Mountains. Room 314 belonged to the original owner’s wife, and is still made up for her.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
13. Malaga Inn, Mobile, Alabama
Two 1862 townhouses joined into one hotel. Room 007 is the one guests ask for, and staff have stories about the theatre next door.
See dates & prices on Booking.com →
14. The one you cannot book online: Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts
The most famous haunted address in the U.S., and the least subtle. In 1892 Andrew and Abby Borden were killed here with an axe; Lizzie was tried and acquitted, and nobody was ever convicted. The house now runs as a bed and breakfast and you can book the actual bedrooms.
Guests report doors that won’t stay shut and footsteps on the stairs. The house does not oversell it. It doesn’t need to.
Note: the Lizzie Borden House is not bookable through Booking.com or Expedia. Book it direct through the house’s own site.
Ghost Tours and Haunted Places to Visit
Almost nobody books a haunted hotel and then stays in it all evening. Every city on this list runs ghost tours, and they are the cheapest way to get the history you will not find on a plaque.
The pattern is much the same everywhere. Historical walking tours stick to the documented record and are usually led by guides who know the archives. Theatrical evening tours come with lanterns, costumes and a good deal more screaming. Both have their place, and in most cities you can do one of each in a weekend.
A few worth building a day around: the battlefield at Gettysburg, free to walk and open until dark. The above-ground cemeteries of New Orleans, which have to be seen to make sense. Savannah’s squares, several of which are former burial grounds with the headstones moved and the bodies left. The Alamo in San Antonio, in the middle of the modern downtown. And Salem, where the whole town is the attraction for one month a year.
Book ghost tours ahead for late October. In the smaller towns the good guides sell out weeks before Halloween, and they are the ones worth waiting for.
Haunted Hotels: Your Questions Answered
What is the most haunted hotel in the USA?
The Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, Massachusetts is the most frequently named. Andrew and Abby Borden were killed there with an axe in 1892, Lizzie was tried and acquitted, and the case was never solved. The house operates as a bed and breakfast and you can book the bedrooms where it happened.
Which city has the most haunted hotels in the USA?
Savannah, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana are the two most often cited, with San Antonio close behind because the Alamo battlefield sits in the middle of the modern city. Salem, Massachusetts has the strongest single-month demand, since almost everyone wants to be there in October.
Can you actually book a room in a haunted hotel in the USA?
Yes. Every hotel on this list is one you can book tonight. Some, like the Connor Hotel in Jerome, Arizona, keep a guest log of reported sightings, and several run their own ghost tours.
Are haunted hotels in the USA expensive?
They span the full range. The Lizzie Borden House and Ghost City Inn in Jerome are small and modest; the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville and the Hay-Adams in Washington DC are full luxury hotels. The haunting is not what you are paying for.
When should you book a haunted hotel in the USA for Halloween?
For October, book by August. Salem and Savannah in particular sell out months ahead, and the rooms with the reputations, such as Room 441 at the Congress Plaza or Room 314 at the Omni Mount Washington, go first.
What is the most haunted hotel in Texas?
The Menger Hotel in San Antonio. It opened in 1859 beside the Alamo, claims dozens of resident spirits, and the most repeated story concerns a chambermaid killed by her husband in the 1870s.
The hauntings here are what guests, staff and the hotels themselves report. The history is a matter of record: the Hotel Monteleone is a good place to start if you want the documented version rather than the ghost tour one.
So, Which Haunted Hotel in the USA Are You Booking?
Pick the one that made you stop scrolling, then book it early. Haunted hotels in October are a seller’s market and the good rooms go to people who plan in September.
Want a whole house to yourselves rather than a hotel corridor? We’ve rounded up 24 haunted places to stay including haunted Airbnbs and rentals. Prefer your history romantic rather than restless? Try the most romantic Airbnbs and VRBOs in the U.S.