The average traveler looking for a hotel may hope for a room with a view, but come the spooky season, maybe you would prefer a room with a boo.
Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, recently released its 2024 Most Haunted Hotels of America list. On it are places where “generations of staff and guests pass along the tales of spectral Revolutionary War soldiers, the smoky silhouettes of U.S. presidents, the melancholy spirits of tragic would-be brides, unexplained footsteps, as well as friendly phantom bellhops and engineers.”
“For some historic hotels, the past is not only present in their historic architecture and authentic character, but also — according to legends — in the ghostly spirits attracted to the historic hotel,” a spokesperson for the program noted in a press release revealing the list.
The oldest on the list is Concord’s Colonial Inn in Concord, Massachusetts, which has been serving guests since 1716. Part of the hotel served as a hospital during the Revolutionary War, and it is rumored some of those 18th-century patients never left the inn.
The nearby Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts also made the list. The hotel is often considered one of the most haunted in the country, according to Historic Hotels of America. Guests have reportedly seen a ghostly woman, as well as furniture moving on its own. They’ve also claimed to hear noises, or experienced faucets and lights being turned on and off. Some say they smelled fresh-cut flowers when none were around.
The hotel has seemingly embraced its haunted history, appearing in the Salem saga of the television show “Bewitched” in 1970. The operators have also hosted several spooky events, including: an unsuccessful séance to communicate with Harry Houdini in 1990; an investigational visit from the “Ghost Hunters” in 2007; and an annual haunted Halloween Party.
Also ranked among the most haunted hotels in the country is Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.
While highlighting Hotel del Coronado, Historic Hotels of America noted, “Over a century of unexplained phenomena have occurred throughout the resort, where there have been sightings of a small Victorian-era girl, a man in period clothing, and a woman in white. Pots and pans rattle in the kitchen, and objects move in the historic gift shop.”
The most widely known ghost at the hotel is a woman named Kate Morgan, who reportedly died at the hotel in 1892 and is rumored to have never left. The hotel says her room, Room 3327, is the most requested at the resort. Another supposedly haunted room, Room 3519, was assessed by parapsychologist Christopher Chacon back in 1992. He reportedly spent 12 months documenting hundreds of instances of “anomalous phenomena” in that room.
Below are the other 22 haunted hotels that made Historic Hotels of America’s list this year. You can view the full list, as well as an overview of how each hotel earned its spot, here.
- Hassayampa Inn in Prescott, ArizonaTubac Golf Resort and Spa in Tubac, Arizona
- 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in Eureka Springs, Arkansas
- Claremont Club & Spa, A Fairmont Hotel in Berkeley, California
- The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma, California
- Casa Monica Resort & Spa in St. Augustine, Florida
- Jekyll Island Club Resort in Jekyll Island, Georgia
- Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, Louisiana
- Historic Inns of Annapolis in Annapolis, Maryland
- Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland
- The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
- La Posada de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico
- La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Hotel Saranac, Curio Collection by Hilton in Saranac Lake, New York
- The Sayre Mansion in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
- The George Washington Hotel in Washington, Pennsylvania
- The Hotel Viking in Newport, Rhode Island
- The Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Texas
- The Emily Morgan San Antonio – a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in San Antonio, Texas
- Airlie in Warrenton, Virginia
- Colonial Williamsburg Resorts in Williamsburg, Virginia
- The Wort Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming
Of course, not every reportedly haunted hotel could make the list. Notably missing are Timberline Lodge, the historic Oregon hotel featured in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” and Milwaukee’s Pfister Hotel, a property so spooky even professional athletes like Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts decline to stay in it when their teams come to town.
