Want a hotel stay you'll still be talking about in ten years? Skip the infinity pool and book a room where previous guests never technically checked out. A new roundup of the world's best haunted hotels spans three continents and comes with actual prices, ghost tour options, and plenty of practical detail for anyone planning an October getaway.
The list covers some serious icons of the spooky-stay genre. In Savannah, Georgia, the 1851 Marshall House — once a hospital during yellow fever epidemics and the Civil War — sees nightly reports of phantom children running down corridors and faucets turning themselves on, and it runs a nightly social hour where you can drink spirits among the spirits (doubles from about $221).
Arkansas's 1886 Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs might be the darkest of the lot: a stonemason died there during construction, and the building later served as the hospital of quack doctor Norman Baker. Daily ghost tours include a look at his basement autopsy table, plus midnight ESP investigations for the fearless. Rooms start around $170 plus a $21.72 nightly resort fee.
Across the Atlantic, the Drovers Inn on Loch Lomond in Scotland hosts a family who froze to death seeking shelter (they now occupy room two), a drowned little girl in room six, and a murdered cattle drover named Angus. Doubles from roughly £90 including breakfast, dogs welcome.
In Rye, England, the Mermaid Inn has 600-plus years of history, 12th-century cellars, and secret tunnels once used by smugglers — around £215 a night with breakfast.
For something stranger still, Tonopah, Nevada offers a two-for-one: the Clown Motel (about $85), which sits directly beside a cemetery and offers paranormal investigations, and the Mizpah Hotel ($135), with ghost tours and a guided cemetery walk a short stroll away.
Other highlights include Colorado's Stanley Hotel in Estes Park — the Shining inspiration, with dedicated Shining and even Frozen Dead Guy tours, haunted rooms from about $359; the Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City, South Dakota, where Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant stayed while filming North by Northwest and a bride in white haunts the eighth floor; the Lodge at Hot Lake Springs in Oregon, with 24-hour geothermal soaking pools (books via Airbnb, guests 12+); Peru's faded grand dame Gran Hotel Bolivar in Lima, whose closed fifth and sixth floors are rumoured to be haunted rather than merely broke; the Wild West St. James Hotel in Cimarron, New Mexico, where outlaws like Jesse James and Billy the Kid once drank and room 18 remains permanently locked; and the beachfront Hotel del Coronado in California, a National Historic Landmark from about $350 a night.
Worth knowing before you book: rates were verified as of September 2026 and October is by far the priciest month at every property on the list. Some historic rooms lack air conditioning and TVs, and a few properties charge nightly resort or destination fees on top of the headline rate.
This one's for travellers who want a story rather than a spa — from casual spooky-curious couples to serious ghost hunters booking the Alex Johnson's detector-equipped package. Book via Atlas Obscura.
