America’s Most Haunted Hotels

Slamming doors, cold gusts of wind, strange noises and flickering lights are all signs that you might not be alone in your hotel room. If you’ve ever been to any of these haunted hotels, you’ll know what I mean.

The Stanley Hotel-Estes Park, CO

The Stanley Hotel may be best known as the inspiration for the “Overlook Hotel” in Stephen King’s famous novel The Shining. Built by Freelan Stanley (of the Stanley Steamer), the Stanley Hotel has several permanent guests.

Freelan Stanley has been spotted in the lobby and the Billiard Room, his favorite room when he was alive. He has also been seen strolling through the bar, disappearing when the bartender tries to cut him off at the kitchen.

His wife, Flora, can still be heard playing the piano in the hotel’s music room and the piano keys can be seen moving. However, as soon as someone steps into the room to check it out, the keys stop moving and the room goes quiet.

Guests of room 418 might be a little taken aback by the strange noises that emanate from it, and the impressions left on the bed when no one has been in the room.

There have been reports of children playing in the hallway at night when no children are checked into the hotel, and some have claimed to have seen a red ball moving up and down the hallway like it was being passed between two kids.

Stephen King supposedly even witnessed the apparition of a child calling out to his nanny on the second floor. He stayed in room 217, which is a popular request of guests who stay at the hotel.

Check out some of the reviews on the Stanley Hotel.

Below is footage from the Ghost Hunters shows:

Part 1:

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Crescent Hotel- Eureka Springs, AR

The strange story of the Crescent Hotel began when it was purchased by a millionaire named Norman Baker, who turned it into a cancer hospital and health resort. Baker claimed that he had developed a cure for cancer, and patients would come from all over to receive the miracle treatment.

But Baker was a quack, claiming that cancer could be cured by drinking the town’s natural spring water. As local legend has it, Baker performed experiments on his patients, both living and dead.

During remodeling of the hotel, dozens of skeletons and jars of preserved body parts left over from Baker’s sick experiments were discovered.

Baker’s “miracle cure” for brain tumors consisted of peeling open the patient’s scalp and dousing their brain with a mixture of spring water and ground watermelon seeds.

To keep the press from finding out that he wasn’t actually curing cancer, Baker would keep the patients with advanced cases locked inside an “asylum,” where they would die very painful deaths.

After they inevitably died, Baker hid the bodies for weeks until they could be burned in the incinerator. Baker ended up going to jail, and the place shut down until 1946, when new investors began to restore it.

With so many people killed wrongfully, it’s no wonder the place is haunted. Guests have reported banging on the walls and the television and lights turning on and off in room 218, and the appearance of a distinguished man with a beard and moustache, dressed in old-fashioned formal clothing, hanging around the lobby and the bar. The ghost of Baker himself has been seen near the hotel’s recreation room.

Ghost tours are available through Eureka Springs Ghost Tours

Check out some reviews on the Cresent Hotel.

There is a full story of Norman Baker on the Crescent Hotel’s web site.

Video from the Morgue of Crescent Hotel featured in Ghost Hunters:

Additional resources: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

Hotel Del Coronado-San Diego, CA

On Thanksgiving Day in 1892, Kate Morgan checked into the Hotel Del Coronado—and never checked out. Her lifeless body was found on an exterior staircase a few days later. To this day, no one knows for sure if her death was suicide or murder.

Shrouded in mystery, the story of Kate Morgan haunts the Hotel Del Coronado to this day. As the story goes, Kate traveled under the alias “Lottie Bernard” with her husband, Thomas Morgan. They were professional swindlers, conning people with poker.

On a train ride from Los Angeles to San Diego, Kate broke the news to Tom that she was pregnant. Fighting ensued, and Tom got off the train, while Kate carried on to San Diego alone.

When she arrived, she checked into room 302 of the Hotel Del Coronado to wait for her husband. While she was there, she took large amounts of quinine in an attempt at abortion, and purchased a .44 caliber pistol and some shells.

She was later found dead on the steps that led to the beach with a bullet wound to her right temple. The bullet found in her head did not match the bullets in the gun.

Kate’s ghost haunts the hotel to this day. Her room is the most requested room in the hotel and very difficult to get a reservation in.

More resources: Link 1 | Link 2

Queen Mary Hotel – Long Beach, CA

Every year, thousands of people stay at the permanently-docked Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. Bigger, faster and more powerful than the Titanic, the 1,000-foot-long ship made her maiden voyage of May 27th, 1936.

The Queen Mary has a long and interesting history. The ship was originally for luxury travel, and hosted many famous guests like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, George and Ira Gershwin, and Sir Winston Churchill.

When WWII broke out in 1939, luxury travel was put on hold and the Queen Mary was transformed into a troop ship that became known as “The Grey Ghost,” set a record for carrying the most people ever on a floating vessel and even was part of the D-Day invasion.

In July of 1947, the Queen Mary was restored and refurbished and returned to her original purpose of being used as a cruise ship. In 1967 she was withdrawn from service and sold to the city of Long Beach, California, to be used as a museum and hotel.

With all the activity that the Queen Mary has seen, the claims that there are as many as 150 spirits inhabiting the ship is not surprising. There have been at least 49 reported deaths on the ship. “Door 13” of the Queen Mary’s engine room is said to have crushed two men to death. One was an 18-year-old crew member whose ghost has been spotted walking the length of Shaft Alley and then disappearing behind door #13.

Ghosts have also been spotted in the ship’s first and second class swimming pools even though neither is used today. Women in 1930s style swimsuits have been seen roaming the decks there and splashes have been heard in the water along with wet footprints leading from the deck to the changing rooms. Some guests have seen a little girl clutching a teddy bear.

The voice and laughter of a little girl named Jackie can be heard in the second class poolroom- she drowned in the pool. A woman in a white evening gown has been seen dancing alone in the Queen’s Salon, which used to be the ship’s first-class lounge.

There are lots of sounds like knocks, doors slamming, high-pitched squeals, drastic temperature changes, and “aromas of smells long past.”

Unsolved Mysteries has some great coverage of the Queen Mary’s ghost stories: