Scary stories from the world’s most haunted hotels

When the sun goes down while on holiday, it’s easy to feel a little uneasy — especially if you’re visiting somewhere you’ve never been before — but these people were absolutely terrified when they encountered ghouls, ghosts and ghastly occurrences at haunted hotels around the world.

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1. Ghastly housekeeping

“I worked housekeeping in a chain hotel. There was one room at the end of the hall where things would happen while you were working on it. Sometimes the faucet would start running. I’d be in the other room and suddenly hear water gurgling down the drain. Whoever/whatever would also turn on the TV. I’ll never forget being warned on my first day that things would happen in the room, and then while making a bed and rustling the sheets noisily–suddenly aware I was hearing muffled voices and seeing the tv was on. I’m getting chills thinking back on those moments. Whatever part of the room your back was to, it felt like someone was there. I got the feeling they didn’t want to be in the way, but they wanted to be there with you.”

– backwardsinheels, Reddit 

2. Sleepless nights

“Not me but a friend who is a pilot, she stayed at an older hotel in downtown Chicago and was studying for her recurrent class which was in a few weeks. While at the desk, deep in thought, she heard people talking and laughing. When she looked up, it got quiet. She said it sounded like it was in the room with her and went back to studying. The noise started off softly and then again sounded like a party was going on in her room. She got up and looked around and there was silence. That night around 2am, she was in bed and felt someone brush strands of hair from her forehead and tuck it behind her ear. She jumped up and turned on the light and there was no one there. She didn’t get back to sleep.”

– Sandbargirl, Reddit

3. Weapons of war

“A friend’s grandfather either worked in or owned a hotel at some point. The building was hundreds of years old, dating back to the English Civil War. The story goes that he was cleaning up in the dining room and he saw three men in armour charging at him with weapons. Being “ghosts” they just ran through him, but apparently he was left feeling physically ill afterwards having come into contact with the apparition. If I remember correctly, they found through later research that there had been some murder committed by three soldiers in the building during the civil war.”

– SJB95, Reddit

4. Lady in red

“I worked in a hotel that was supposedly haunted by ‘The Red Lady’ who was an actress that committed suicide in our building back in the day. We had a security guard quit one day one after he allegedly saw her. My first month in the job, we were short staffed so I was delivering guest folios and using the access stairwell. A lady in a red dress and red heels with movie star hair and classic good looks walked into the access stairwell one flight down from me and didn’t even glance my way, just kept walking down. She didn’t acknowledge me at all until she made it down about three flights and looked up at me. Dead in the f***ing eyes. She said, ‘Where are the vending machines?'”

– MikeOxbigg, Reddit

5. A pink mist

There’s a hotel in Asheville, NC [and] a friendly ghost called The Pink Lady supposedly haunts it. She’s said to be a debutante who either jumped or slipped and fell off a balcony one night and died. She usually manifests as a pink mist or a woman in a pink ball gown and apparently likes to play little harmless pranks on the guests and staff. She [also] likes kids because there are stories about her nursing children who’ve gotten sick while at the hotel.

– Fencingfemmefatale, Reddit

6. The helpful ghost

“I stayed at the Driskill in Austin, not knowing it was haunted until we got there. Apparently it is a big deal to ghost hunters though. As we were leaving our room to check out, all the lights flickered in the hallway then went out. My boyfriend then remembered he’d forgotten one bag of luggage in the room. That was it. No spooky ghosts, just ghosts reminding us to grab our carry on.”

– Smittenkitten97, Reddit

7. Ghostly girlfriend

“When my family was staying in the Silver Queen Hotel in Virginia City, there were a lot of stories told about this ghost harlot who couldn’t find true love in her life, so she kept searching after death. I was sharing a room with my older brother, who’s always the first to sleep and last to wake up, so I know he wasn’t able to be tricking me. Nobody else had a room key, so I know it wasn’t any of my other siblings doing anything. The room we were staying in had one bed, so he slept on a travel cot. He didn’t have a blanket since the bed only had one, but it was warm so he didn’t mind. He woke up not too long after I did one morning and started freaking out. His jacket was over him like a blanket and he was fully tucked in, and it looked like whoever did it did it with care. To this day we joke around about his ghost girlfriend.”

– Theseus12347, Reddit

8. Church deweller

“I work in an old church which has been repurposed as a hotel/bar. I live in one of the oldest towns in Australia and the church has been around since colonisation. Packing up at the end of the night, most staff have experienced the feeling of being watched, however it doesn’t feel like a scary presence. Loads of unexplained things happen… plates flying off the bench in the middle of service, slamming doors, TVs changing channel, radio going from being off to making static noise, hearing voices, etc. We named the ghost Cecil.”

– ChefGoldblum12, Reddit